Olympic Village & Southeast False Creek Updates Discussion

[agrant]

Originally Posted by officedweller

I don't mind having a few buildigs much taller than those around it - it adds variety.
I think that CityGate in uniformly placing all of its tall towers on the water side of the complexes messes up the look of the area more than an oddball tall tower will.

I couldn't agree more.

[SFUVancouver]

A good example of a tower standing among shorter medium rise buildings is the Portico development on Granville Street between 5th, Hemlock and 7th. The tower is about twice the height of anything around it but it works.

[SEFC]

Mostly shots of the NEU. Plus some captures of PDFs from the city website.

http://s1134.photobucket.com/albums/m604/Hammard2011/SEFC/

[ablefire]

Very nice. Thank you.

[madmigs]

Millennium Properties has crashed and burned again on another property...

The high-end West Vancouver development linked to the troubled Olympic Village has gone into receivership.
Millennium Properties' Evelyn Drive project had seen a number of delays, before they eventually defaulted on the mortgage.
Vancouver-based Bowra Group has been appointed as receiver, with their mission to sell the property.

West Vancouver Mayor Pamela Goldsmith-Jones says the project is an important one to her community, "Council and the community have worked very hard for seven years to provide this new neighbourhood opportunity and we wish for it to come to fruition, and see it built. We're now hopeful that that's going to happen, and I think it's good that this is public now so that we can continue."
Millennium had already pre-sold 31 of the 109 units.
This news follows last year's appointment of a receiver for their Olympic Village site.

http://www.cknw.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx?ID=1385778

[whatnext]

Class action suit launched by several OV buyers, alleging amongst other things, shoddy workmanship:

...In some cases, doors will slam into each other if they're opened at the same time. In others, residents aren't able to open their closet doors if anything larger than a double bed is placed in the master bedroom.

"Not being able to fit a queen-sized bed in a master bedroom is a major design flaw," McMillan said.

Other residents have had problems with persistent leaky ceilings and faulty heating. A video released by the owners shows water dripping from light fixtures and smoke alarms.

"One guy's had his entire ceiling ripped out because they can't figure out why his heating system doesn't work," McMillan said....
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local..._110316/20110316?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

[madmigs]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Class action suit launched by several OV buyers, alleging amongst other things, shoddy workmanship:

...In some cases, doors will slam into each other if they're opened at the same time. In others, residents aren't able to open their closet doors if anything larger than a double bed is placed in the master bedroom.

"Not being able to fit a queen-sized bed in a master bedroom is a major design flaw," McMillan said.

Other residents have had problems with persistent leaky ceilings and faulty heating. A video released by the owners shows water dripping from light fixtures and smoke alarms.

"One guy's had his entire ceiling ripped out because they can't figure out why his heating system doesn't work," McMillan said....
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local..._110316/20110316?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

It's sounding more and more like the design and workmanship in the OV really isn't anywhere need the level it should be, even for the regular stuff that every condo has. Which leads me to think that all the equipment and things to improve efficiency, etc were also installed with the same lack of quality workmanship. And that is really unfortunate, as its giving really bad impressions about where we are at with current technology and that its just not worth it to try and be more "green". It's essentially giving the perfect scenario to those that try to say that in order to be green, we have to sacrifice our quality of life.

[240glt]

Who was the GC on the project ? This suit & issues with the buildings made the news here in Edmonton this morning

I wonder if it's something relatedto timelines or the bidding process for these types of buildings. Calgary's Olympic village is practically a tear down at this point as they were built extremely poorly then not kept up.

[Prometheus]

Looks bad:

• Video Link

[agrant]

Shocking stuff. Do these people bother to hire a building inspector, or even look at the place before they buy??? I'm sure the timelines had at least a part to play in this matter.

"...In some cases, doors will slam into each other if they're opened at the same time. In others, residents aren't able to open their closet doors if anything larger than a double bed is placed in the master bedroom."
<<< This to me sounds like an architectural f-up.

[240glt]

A lot of times inspectors don't catch the issues that crop up until all the equipment is operating. Sounds like some architectural screwups, lots of low bid awards to inferior contractors coupled with accelerated timelines, cashflow problems and probably some municipal gerrymandering.

In this case, as with most, the "two of three" principle probably applies

Cheap
Fast
Good

I'm guessing they went with cheap & fast

[wrenegade]

I'm not terribly surprised with the bedroom size issues or the doors banging into each other. Anyone that took the time to look when walking through the suites should have been able to notice this. Definitely a little more difficult when buying off of a piece of paper but if you are investing this much money into something you would think you would take a better look at which way the doors are opening and get measurements for the room sizes. I sure as hell did when I bought a pre-sale unit.

They were tricky though when walking through the suites that many of the bathroom and closet doors were taken off of their hinges to make the units feel more open. I never did see a queen size bed in any of the units apart from those in Canada House though, the bedrooms are tiny.

[Zassk]

Obviously there are both design and construction issues.... Shoddy construction is sadly nothing new, but I'm really shocked at the design issues, and whoever was the architect needs to be held accountable.

But surely most prospective buyers would notice the design flaws before they buy??? I suppose the fit of a bed might be hard to visualize, but as for the rest of the flaws... three doors swinging into each other, windows opening against concrete, poor door sills or crooked glass would be obvious on any walkthrough. These things are impossible to hide.

[officedweller]

Alot of those things (small rooms, doors conflicting) are typical foo downtown condos.

The leaks in the ceiling are not.

[SpongeG]

haha maybe they should just give the housing away to the homeless protestors haha

the units i saw in person of course were perfect but there are a lot of issues you can see from just the outside walking around

[djh]

Yeah, I don't understand how people didn't notice the obvious flaws on the plans - e.g., a bedroom not big enough to fit a queen-sized bed.

Out of interest, for those that bought after the building was complete, did the salespeople allow prospective buyers to tour the specific suite they were interested in? Not just a showroom, but the exact suite that you're buying?

[sacrifice333]

There are a few issues there that are obviously not acceptable.

But there's a lot of stuff pointed out in the video that is simply due to a natural settling that occurs in buildings as they age, especially in their initial life.

Note regarding cracks, minor deficiencies, etc. I am a tenant at "The Village" obviously not the highest-priority resident of development yet I have had people in to fix deficiencies, of which there were some, within days and generally accommodating my schedule. Granted, while Millennium still owned the village I understand there were a lot more issues with have deficiencies dealt with promptly. With E&Y/COV this has not been the case, in my experience.

Re some of the leaks shown. I suspect that those are largely capillary mat issues (the heating/cooling system) and were probably inadvertently punctured, possible by the owners!

As for doors opening into each other and so forth. Some of what was on the video obviously need to be fixed. But others are just a matter of size and having the best of both worlds... unless you want endless wasted hallway space you may have multiple doors that can not be opened at the same time. Get over it.

As for the bedroom size, again, it's a bit of a catch 22. Firstly, welcome to condo living, where you DON'T have much bedroom furniture other than your BED and maybe some NIGHT TABLES. Second, if in some of these suites, especially the smaller ones you were given a larger bedroom, such as one with a king bed and room for a "5 piece bedroom set" you wouldn't have room for more than a single chair in your living area. Living space is in my opinion more important than bedroom space and if the tables were turned you'd agree!

5 percent of one circular column being cut off at the base. Oh not, call the seismic police, the buildings coming down!



I repeat, there's a few issues there that are obviously not acceptable, but the vast majority of that stuff is a) just condo living and b) what you would get with the majority of developers in this day and age.

[240glt]

I don't know. A lot of people will overlook the details when wealking through a new place, and something lie a door installed not in the proper orientatino could be over looked. That's not that big a deal..... I'd be more concerned about the obvious plumbing, heating, drainage and possible structural deficiencies as well as the shoddy finishing work (that once again may not be obviosu until a suite is occupied)

Either way it sounds like a fiasco, as it was from the get go, and the city is going to be on the hook. The high cost of holding an Olympic games I suppose.

[SpongeG]

in the past olympic games - didn't the athlete villages usually become student housing? i think its only a recent thing where they make the athlete villages become market housing in an attempt to recoup costs isn't it?

as for size and doors - i have visited plenty of condos downtown that are so small i just can't imagine living in one - i was at one place and the bedroom fit a bed and nothing else at all no dresser no nothing - the closet was barely accessible because they had a huge bed - you definately have to downsize or pay a lot more for liveable space

[trofirhen]

British Columbia has long been known as a "make a quick buck" place. I recall living in a new apartment building, and my front door opening was sloped, so that there was a thin triangular space that peaked over the opening side of the door and let in noise.

Just quick, shoddy, do-the-minimum-and-go-for-a-beer workmanship.

We had the leaky condo issue several decades back, and they (the leaky condos) were everywhere.

It's largely lack of pride, and selfish laziness (or vice versa) that's the underlying factor. A mentality that lacks a sense of civility, and crassly thinks only of its own interests is largely at the root of much of this ... sadly.