Downtown Vancouver Updates

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by officedweller

So the newspaper article on the weekend said that the countertops in the building won't be high end granite but the less expensive Corian. Ummm, since when is Corian cheap??

Poor non-market souls, having to settle for Corian. How will they cope?

[golog]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Poor non-market souls, having to settle for Corian. How will they cope?

who wants a radioactive granite countertop anyways? there's lots of options that have advantages in terms of scratching, repairing cracks, anti-bacterial surface, cost, ...
when everyone has granite, there's an advantage to just being different imo

[SpongeG]

watching HGTV type shows people are actually saying they don't want grantie cause they heard of the gas issue with it - it never used to be that way though its a recent thing where people don't want granite

[jlousa]

Looks like Amacon has a new project on the table, wasn't expecting this one at this time. Guess with the project across the street it's not a bad time to proceed.

Project: Mixed-Use Development
Community Area: Downtown
Status: Proposed
Location: 1305 BURRARD ST, 1305-1335 Burrard St
Project Type: Rezoning
Department: Planning Department
Application Date: 2010/11/15
Applicant Contact: Amacon

Description:

To construct a new 17 storey, 153.5' (46.79M) high, 121 unit residential tower with 665 sm of ground floor retail.
The gross floor area of 9947 sm, FSR area of 8822 sm and a density of 7.32 FSR. The development will contain 1 Class B loading space, 6 commercial parking spaces and 121 residential parking spaces.
FSR density will be calculated by subtracting FSR exclusion areas such as storage, enclosed balcony, limited mechanical and rainscreen wall envelope exclusions from gross floor area.

[hollywoodnorth]

http://60wcordova.com/
the signage on the site on cordova street says FULLY SUBSCRIBED ...... I take it they mean sold out?

[SFUVancouver]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Looks like Amacon has a new project on the table, wasn't expecting this one at this time. Guess with the project across the street it's not a bad time to proceed.

That's the Commercial Electronics site, if I am not mistaken.

[LeftCoaster]

Yeah it is, I was wondering how many more days that lot had on it, very underbuilt currently.

I'm surprised at the size of the building for such a small lot surrounded by other towers, seems like it might be infringing on the 20m tower seperation. I figured the site would eventually be built out with a 5 or 6 story infill lot with lots of denisty in a shorter package.

[dleung]

Any photo updates on our favorite projects?

-I sort of lost interest in the Georgia as it seems like I'll never see the tower glass go up in this lifetime
-Jameson is dead to me until they begin covering up the concrete
-Three harbour green is the one to watch, personally

[whatnext]

I notice the cover story in the Sun's business section today says Coast Hotels is "refurbishing the 269-room Coast Plaza Hotel & Suites in Vancouver". Does that mean they're definitely not converting it to apartments?

[jlousa]

Not nearly as contervisal as the original proposal. This one will be hard to stop. It's going to be bulkier then the taller tower would've though. Interestingly the application is from the future. Too bad when I checked for this week's lottery numbers my computer wouldn't show them.

Project: Residential
Community Area: West End
Status: Proposed
Location: 1600 Beach Ave & 1651 Harwood St
Project Type: Rezoning
Department: Planning Department
Application Date: 2010/11/29
Applicant Contact: IBI/HB Architects

Description:

One 8 storey building at the corner of Harwood & Cardero Street (22m), one 5 storey building alone Beach Avenue (14m), & one 1 storey amenity building at the corner of Harwood and Beach Avenue (3m). Total FSR density of 109,087 sq.ft. (10,134.5 sq.m). 121 new parking stall proposed.

[entheosfog]

Originally Posted by dleung

Any photo updates on our favorite projects?

-I sort of lost interest in the Georgia as it seems like I'll never see the tower glass go up in this lifetime
-Jameson is dead to me until they begin covering up the concrete
-Three harbour green is the one to watch, personally

Here's a recent shot of the Georgia for you! Taken last weekend, it doesn't really show much but it's all I got...

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by dleung

I sort of lost interest in the Georgia as it seems like I'll never see the tower glass go up in this lifetime

I just heard that Georgia has decided not to install glass. Instead, they are going with a new, state-of-the-art windowless system which uses a sophisticated air curtain.

[rbostyle]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

I just heard that Georgia has decided to go with a new, state-of-the-art glasses system which uses a sophisticated air curtain.

Well, they wanted breathtaking views....

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by whatnext

I notice the cover story in the Sun's business section today says Coast Hotels is "refurbishing the 269-room Coast Plaza Hotel & Suites in Vancouver". Does that mean they're definitely not converting it to apartments?

refurbishing it can mean refurbishing it to apartments

i can't find any articles on the sun paper site currently

i've heard hotel room bookings are way down and expected to stay down - they would be crazy to hold onto it as a hotel

there is another hotel somewhere in the city being converted to apartments as well i don't know which one but i think its on robson

[phesto]

Coast is doing some minor upgrades, nothing significant. They have a lease on the hotel until 2017, so it will operate as a Coast hotel until then at least.

At that time it could be converted to apartments, or it could still stay as a hotel.

[whatnext]

Breaking news on the Sun: fire at construction site on Hamilton St. Anybody near there?

[golog]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Breaking news on the Sun: fire at construction site on Hamilton St. Anybody near there?

Apparently the fire is at the Christmas village next to QE Theatre. A propane tank is to blame. There's supposed to be a big plume of black smoke, but it's not so tall that you can see it on the bc place webcam. Might be the notorious Sausage brothers trying to control the Gingerbread trade.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by golog

Apparently the fire is at the Christmas village next to QE Theatre. A propane tank is to blame. There's supposed to be a big plume of black smoke, but it's not so tall that you can see it on the bc place webcam. Might be the notorious Sausage brothers trying to control the Gingerbread trade.

That sucks, especially just before it was supposed to open. Luckily nobody was hurt:
http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/148061--explosion-at-vancouver-christmas-market

[dleung]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

I just heard that Georgia has decided to go with a new, state-of-the-art glasses system which uses a sophisticated air curtain.

I was like "what?" until I saw your clarification...

Originally Posted by Prometheus

I just heard that Georgia has decided not to install glass. Instead, they are going with a new, state-of-the-art windowless system which uses a sophisticated air curtain.

:

[officedweller]

You guys are probably too young to remember the entrance to Eaton's in the Rotunda. No doors during business hours - just jets of air from the floor or ceiling to separate the inside from the outside. The had either sliding glass doors or roller gates when closed.
The present doors were installed in the 1980s when street kids started hanging out in the alcove at the entrance.