Vancouver House (1400 Howe St) | 151.5m | 52Fl | Completed

[Thousands Wouldn't]

Qutoing Vin's post: Have you noticed that the walkways flanking the bridge are WAY BELOW CAPACITY? Why build a new walkway when so few are actually walking on the bridge?

Excellent point. Put the sidewalks down the centre and replace the ones on the flanks with new lanes for traffic.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Delirium

Photo: http://westbankcorp.com/press/rodney-graham-work-enliven-vancouver-streetscape#.UxipavldXAQ

Vancouver Sun article says the cost will be $1.2 million.

“There are few precedents for such an audacious adaptation and addition to civic infrastructure,” Reid said in the Vancouver House public art proposal to the city.

Total cost of the project is estimated at $1.2 million. The biggest component of the project is making the chandelier at $390,000.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/S...+underneath+Granville/9583826/story.html

I wonder who will clean the bird poop off of it?
and the City doesn't have a good record for maintaining moving or functional art pieces...

[itinerant]

It would be a suitable temporary exhibit as part of the sculpture bienale, but NOT permanent. Agree wholeheartedly that the city does not maintain kinetic sculpture well.

I hope this isn't considered to be part of Westbank's contribution to civic art/infrastructure from the project, as that money would be better directed elsewhere.

[NewWester]

Even as a static object I think it is cool. It's going to take dramatic gestures to make the area under the bridge feel more like a pleasant covered space and less like... an area under a bridge. I think a large, light based, hanging sculpture fits that bill very well.

[privatejet]

There is an interesting article about Ian Gillespie in this month's Vancouver Magazine.

http://www.vanmag.com/News_and_Features/The_View_From_Olympus?page=0%2C0

This was an interesting bit:

Gillespie, Cheng, and up-and-coming condo salesman Bob Rennie exploded onto the Vancouver development scene together in the mid-'90s; the three represented development savvy, distinctive architecture, and a new kind of lifestyle marketing. But the great partnership evaporated. Rennie and Gillespie had a famous falling-out six years ago. Gillespie says Rennie got so busy with his other lives (power broker to the city and province, other clients) that he didn't have time or attention for Westbank; Rennie will say only that "We both grew up and unfortunately apart on too many issues." For his part, Cheng said he moved on because he didn't want to be a Westbank-only architect and he found his aesthetic preferences diverging from Gillespie's. "I don't want to do just flashy things to sell real estate. As a designer, Ian likes a certain kind of architecture, a kind of flash." Another person who knows his work well commented wryly, "He's like a raven. He likes shiny things." The result of Gillespie's shift is about to become visible, with Telus Garden's jazzed-up exterior (a Gregory Henriquez design) and the attention-grabbing Bjarke Ingels tower.

There is also a mention on the First Baptist Church proposal.

[officedweller]

Thanks.

The wierd thing about James Cheng's quote?
Cheng's "best" designs are his "flashy" Westbank ones - Palisades, Residences on Georgia, Shaw Tower and Fairmont Pacific Rim.
(and 888 Beach, which I don't think was Westbank, was it?)

[LeftCoaster]

Don't forget about his two Shangri-Las

[officedweller]

Oops - that's right - both Westbank, too.

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by privatejet

There is an interesting article about Ian Gillespie in this month's Vancouver Magazine.

http://www.vanmag.com/News_and_Features/The_View_From_Olympus?page=0%2C0

There is also a mention on the First Baptist Church proposal.

The article quotes the Skyscraperpage post in which news about the First Baptists Church tower was broken here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=5978745&postcount=8

Now that the recently-passed West End Community Plan allows a building of 60 stories to be built on this site, I am really looking forward to seeing a rendering of this mystery tower--a tower which at 35 floors reportedly produced gasps of "awe and excitement" when Ian Gillespie showed it to an audience in San Francisco over a year ago.

[a very long weekend]

i wonder what fabula's handle is on ssp. as for her closing with the expectation of a san francisco project, i have a tough time imagining what it might be. when he was down there at the spur event (where he revealed images of the crystalline baptist church redevelopment plan which he probably dumped precisely because the west end plan went so uh "unexpectedly"... cough... his way), his team was bidding on transbay parcel 9, which they lost to another canadian gang (essex). i haven't heard of him popping up around town otherwise, nor have i heard westbank/gillespie in conversation, so i'm guessing that bula is wrong on sf as a gillespie destination.

as for honest ed's, it's hard to explain the extent to which his redevelopment will be appreciated, as opposed to potentially another, less sensitive, type. that's high annex there and there was a huge worry about a corporate big box retailer coming in there. the only real worry from a gillespie/mirvish partnership is that it goes too upscale and tries to graft the site onto the yorkville high end area.

[uzi]

that chandler thing on the street looks a bit stupid.

[LeftCoaster]

Most art looks stupid, that's why we like it. It has the audacity to look stupid in a world of conformity.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Most art looks stupid, that's why we like it. It has the audacity to look stupid in a world of conformity.

That's why I even love the Main St. poodle.

[Delirium]

a couple new images from their website


www.vancouverhouse.ca


www.vancouverhouse.ca


www.vancouverhouse.ca


www.vancouverhouse.ca

edit; just found this. i really don't know what to think. if there was any worry about birds nesting in this thing, they'll be going for a hell of a ride! lol
• Video Link

[wrenegade]

So at 9pm each night it turns into a centrifuge for the pigeons. Fun!

[officedweller]

Are they going to shut it down during windstorms?

The wood around the balconies looks cool - although it does cater to the Vancouver stereotype of differnetiating facades (as it does not appear to be on the north side (since there aren't alcoved balconies)).

[Vin]

Bird poop thrown around from the spinning chandelier in the evenings?

I was at the exhibition and a diagram actually showed an anti-bird screen over the chandelier. However, it isn't clear if that would work effectively as it only covered the upper portion. Also not sure if that would impact the aesthetics of the chandelier as the diagram showed a cut-off section.

[Vin]

For those who are unaware of where to view the models..... Here:


Plan 55 | Arthur Erickson

The wait is over. We invite you to visit the Gesamtkunstwerk exhibition opening this weekend from 11am – 5pm.

Experience city-building in real time.

Located at 1460 Howe Street, Vancouver, the exhibition is a rare opportunity to see how all of the components of a very large, complex, mixed-use project will come together to transform a portion of Vancouver.

For anyone interested in art, architecture, urbanism, sustainability, transportation, engineering, landscape or simply the city of Vancouver – we hope you will be inspired.

Come see the city change and form your own opinions, ahead of the curve.
GESAMTKUNSTWERK EXHIBITION
1460 Howe Street, Vancouver
604 893 8958
March 22 - May 18, 2014
MON - SUN 11 am - 5 pm
GWERK.CA | #GWERK


Designed by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group | Produced by Westbank

Message from yahoo invite.

[city guy]

show looks great...I urge everyone to visit

[spm2013]

It's not wood but some kind of brass finish on the balconies.

And there are a bunch of models on display among other things.