COV of will going over the rezoning application on Sept 20th. Here are some of the details
This report assesses an application to rezone the site at 555 Robson Street, 775 Richards Street, and 520 West Georgia Street from DD (Downtown) District (78) to a new CD-1 (Comprehensive Development) District to provide for a mixed-use development with a 499,572 sq. ft. office building, a 459 unit residential building with 56,617 sq. ft. of retail space, and additional 37,940 sq. ft. for expansion of the existing Telus office building on the site.
The existing Telus facility (William Farrell building), located at Robson Street along Seymour Street frontage will be upgraded and expanded as part of the proposal.
There are three main components to the proposal:
a) A residential development is proposed at the corner of Robson and Richards Streets. Within the residential building the lower two floors provide for retail use, residential amenity at level 3, and residential units starting at level 4 up through the remaining 45 storey building. The addition of 2.0 FSR of retail meets both the existing zoning and the CBD Shoulder policy for the residential development as proposed.
b) The existing Telus building (William Farrell Building) along Seymour Street would be expanded by three floors to accommodate a data centre. This data centre would be the hub for telecommunications infrastructure for the Lower Mainland. The existing Telus facility on the Seymour Street frontage will be retained with exterior upgrades to improve its commercial frontage and to encourage retail use while expanding its data centre capacity with a three-storey addition to its upper floors.
c) A new 21-storey office tower is proposed fronting onto West Georgia Street. The existing White spot restaurant on the north end of Seymour Street would be demolished and replaced by an extension of the office block over the City lane, framing and creating a covered plaza oriented to West Georgia Street.
The proposal consists of 499,572 sq. ft. office space, 56,617 sq. ft. of retail, 37,940 sq. ft. expanded data centre space and 391,478 sq. ft. residential floor area. The proposed density (FSR) of the commercial office building site is 12.24 FSR, the existing Telus building with the data centre addition is 9.23 FSR and the residential site is 17.59 FSR.
Office Building at Georgia and Richards Streets
The architectural concept for the office building features a public space framed by the office tower integrating a building component that spans the site cantilevering over both Richards and Seymour Streets. The exterior skin of the office building incorporates various glazing treatments with passive design elements to optimize the building’s environmental performance. Several landscaped internal sky gardens and roof terraces further articulate
the overall building form. The typical office floor plates are approx. 1 950 m²
(21,000 sq. ft.). The office tower is restricted by view cone 9.1, Cambie Street to North Shore Mountains, limiting the height for this component of the proposal. The commercial office component is pursuing LEED® Platinum, which exceeds the minimum requirements of the City for LEED® Gold.
The application proposes cantilevered building components over portions of Richards and Seymour Streets. While these private building components constructed over City streets are fairly uncommon within the city built fabric, there are existing examples where they have been allowed to fulfill specific civic functions such as provide pedestrian connections across streets (ex. Bay Parkade, Pacific Centre). In this case, the cantilevering is supported because it represents a part of a significant and highly supported defining aspect of the architecture, and has the potential to contribute to the civic experience and wayfinding for the building.
Impacts on views down the street were assessed and considered to be supportable. The function of the cantilevered element over Richards Street is a landscaped sky garden serving as an office amenity space that also accommodates internal circulation between the office floors. The cantilevered space over Seymour Street is proposed as four floors of general
office space. Staff are recommending further design development to address the public realm interface of the cantilevered elements. In addition, increased transparency and visual interest along with the incorporation of a use with more visual interest than a general office floor is recommended for the cantilevered component over Seymour Street.
The proposed office height is 289 feet, which includes a slight incursion into the Cambie Street view corridor. This incursion into the view corridor would be for the photovoltaic appurtenances on the roof of the project. Staff feel this minimal incursion into the view corridor is consistent with previous discretion used in other circumstances, and serves the City’s sustainability interests.
Residential Building at Robson and Richards Streets
The architectural concept features an exterior expression on Richards Street that incorporates a vertical passive design element made of wood. The proposed residential floor plate of approximately 9,500 sq. ft. (levels 4 thru 42) is significantly larger than many of the residential buildings within the nearby context, which are typically in the range of 6,500 sq. ft. floor plates except for the Capital Residence, 833 Seymour Street, which has a floor plate of approximately 8,200 sq. ft. It is recognized that the proposed tower’s specific context allows for the consideration of the larger floor plate. To minimize its scale, the residential tower itself has been shaped with its narrowest dimension of approx. 24.5 m (80 ft.) to Robson Street with its longer dimension of 34 m (112 ft.) along the Richard’s street frontage. The residential building is pursuing LEED® Gold as required by City policy.
Staff consider the proposed height for the residential building, with the additional height consideration optimizing the view shadow of the Scotia Tower, to be acceptable and will not compromise the integrity of the protected public view. The additional height above the view cone and within the view shadow of the Scotia Tower will be further assessed as part of the
more detailed Development Permit application process which will include an expanded Urban Design Panel incorporating the higher building review process and assessment (which includes increased standards for architectural excellence and green building performance, particularly in terms of energy performance).
P
ublic Realm and Landscape
There are two significant public realm components. The first is the covered plaza and the integration and use of the lane. The north end of the City lane is to be sold to the developer by the City and integrated into an expanded covered plaza at the corner of Georgia and Seymour Streets. The new public plaza at Georgia and Seymour features a sculptural wood framed open pavilion structure providing weather protection. As part of the continuum of
public plazas along Georgia Street, this plaza is an important contribution to the ceremonial quality sought for Georgia Street. Further design refinements are sought to engage and enhance the public definition and experience of this plaza.
The second significant public realm component is the remainder of the lane between Robson Street and the new plaza. This area is conceived as an enhanced pedestrian environment connecting Robson Street with the new plaza at Georgia Street. It is intended that the lane will still provide all the necessary servicing activities required to minimize impacts onto existing streets. Additional detail is sought on the resolution of the design intent of this portion of lane as a pedestrian environment including material treatments and lighting
Overall the conceptual public realm and landscape components are successful but will need design refinement through the Development Permit process including aspects related to weather protection, lighting and signage for the street frontages.
Signage and LED Lighting
Unique lighting for the project has been proposed in a few key locations. The project provides white uplighting for the sculptural wood framed open pavilion, the sky garden located on the cantilevered element parallel to Georgia Street, and a green wall proposed along the lane adjacent to the existing Telus Building. Complimenting this are two colored LED lighting strategies located at grade on the plaza on Georgia Street, and the photovoltaics on the roof of the proposed new office building. These LED lights would be programmable with a gently revolving colour display. Further analysis shall be provided at the Development Permit stage to ensure minimal impact on adjacent residential properties.
As well, the proposed rezoning contemplates display screens in four locations for the project:
a. One 3,000 square foot retractable projection screen located between the 14th and 17th floors of the office building
b. One 400 square foot LED screen located between floors 2 and 4 along the Seymour Street Frontage
c. Two 1,250 square foot LED screens located between floors 2 and 4 at the corner of Robson and Seymour Streets (one screen on Robson and one screen on Seymour Street)
No third party advertising will be permitted. This is significantly different than other proposals, which have suggested that third party advertising was essential to the business case for the technology.
The projection screen between the 14th and 17th floors is located on the west façade of the office building. The display would be predominantly visible from the North side of Georgia Street when approaching the building from the west, and based on this technology only available from dusk until dawn. It is anticipated the screen would be retractable, and might only used in the evening and nighttime hours with a shut-off time to be determined after
further evaluation. It has been suggested that the screen could be for events or used at strategic dates, rather than on a seven-day-a-week basis.
Sustainability
The applicant is proposing several approaches to conserving and optimizing energy use in an integrated way. Currently, excess energy is rejected into the atmosphere from the data centre located in the existing building. Under the proposed concept, this energy will be harnessed and redistributed to satisfy demand of either the residential or office spaces. In addition to the capture and redistribution of waste heat from the data centre, a geo-exchange field is being proposed to provide additional heating and cooling services.
Geo-exchange fields are able to store energy to and from the earth acting as a heat source during the winter and a heat sink during the summer. In addition to the energy conservation and optimization approaches noted above, a comprehensive approach to energy efficient design requires that the buildings be positioned and designed to optimize passive design elements. In response, the applicant is using triple glazed windows in the office building. These measures lead to a reduction in heating and cooling energy consumption and allow for equipment efficiencies. In addition to the triple
glazing, the thermal mass within the building fabric will support further thermal comfort achieved through passive means.
To facilitate minimal interruption to the pedestrian traffic along Robson Street, a removable obstruction has been requested at the entrance to the lane north of Robson. Access from Robson Street shall be limited to periods of lower pedestrian activity (i.e., late evening and early morning) for the Class C loading space on site and in cases of emergency. The proposal
provides enhanced site frontages all around the development including varied setbacks for the west side of Richards Street building frontages to achieve a 5.0 m to 5.5 m sidewalk (the existing sidewalk on the west side of Richards is currently 2.6 m wide).
Offered Public Benefits:
Staff recommend that the priority for the CAC be allocation towards park development at the future City park at Richards Street and Smithe Street. The Downtown South Public Benefits strategy approved by Council in May 2007 identified a site at the corner of Smithe and Richards Streets as a second park space for the area (with the first being Emery Barnes Park).
While the City’s Property Endowment Fund has acquired the property, priority was placed on the development of Emery Barnes Park in Downtown South. The proposed park size is approximately 0.76 acres (0.31 ha). The CAC allocation would cover the cost of purchasing the site from the Property Endowment Fund, demolition costs, and park development and construction. Estimated costs to complete the park (including site acquisition and
demolition) would be $8,000,000.
There are some new renders and much more info in the full document if anyone is interested.
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20110920/documents/p3.pdf
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