Downtown Vancouver Updates

[officedweller]

Thanks.
The brown mullions are also missing the cornices shown in the renders.
I don't think they would make much difference, but it's a detail that is missing.

Originally Posted by giallo

For me, Artemisia would look good somewhere along South Granville or Broadway in Kits. It just doesn't work for me at its current location.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by Jimbo604

Oh well at least the artemisia is small enough to be easy to tear down when the potential density of the site is needed.

But it's strata-titled, so a vote of the owners would be needed.

Originally Posted by Klazu

My last contribution to The Lauren.

Is that supposed to be an accessible curving ramp?
If so, it fails on 2 counts - the slope and angle of the grade, and the placement of the lamppost.
The angle of the path even looks like it would be uncomfortable for a pedestrian.

[NewWester]

I like the Lauren and Artemisia. Both are tacky, but both are weird and at least trying to make a statement: Artemisia with it's wacky palace inspirations and Lauren with its commentary on all of the kitschy old towers in the West End. I think that a few interesting, if unaesthetic buildings are fun and add the fabric of a city. Or at least help breakup the Vancouver monotone.

[spm2013]

....

[LeftCoaster]

It won't be the same as TD, each building at Pacific Centre is meant to retain its own identity. If anything the project bears more resemblance to the recently completed 200 Granville lobby reno.

The full set of renderings are posted in the lobby of 609 if anyone is interesting in checking them out. Here is what the exterior is going to look like:


609 Granville Rendering, on Flickr

[officedweller]

Thanks...
that looks completely disjointed from the look and proportions of the tower and its cladding.

It's almost as bad as the eatons / Sears "arch" that was in front of the rotunda.

[LeftCoaster]

I see what you're saying. Worth noting that the render takes liberty with the lobby glass which is shown as completely clear (not even present) where as it will actually be the same as the tower. Should help ease the disjoint as the final product will just be a white awning sticking out of a black/brown building.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by NewWester

I like the Lauren and Artemisia. Both are tacky, but both are weird and at least trying to make a statement: Artemisia with it's wacky palace inspirations and Lauren with its commentary on all of the kitschy old towers in the West End. I think that a few interesting, if unaesthetic buildings are fun and add the fabric of a city. Or at least help breakup the Vancouver monotone.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

I see what you're saying. Worth noting that the render takes liberty with the lobby glass which is shown as completely clear (not even present) where as it will actually be the same as the tower. Should help ease the disjoint as the final product will just be a white awning sticking out of a black/brown building.

It's the proportions of the awning - and how it is purely rectangular or rectilinear in form, but the dimensions bear no relation to the mullion grid on which it is placed - so there's a mismatch.

The thickness of the awning is thinner than the spandrel on the curtain wall.
The white carrerra columns are thinner than the width of a window pane.

It would have been better if they chose a form that diverged from the rectilinear so there would be some contrast -
like the curved metallic awning that 701 West Georgia used to have or a trapezoidal or lozenge shape.

The old awning thickness matched a spandrel panel width (which may have been placed to match the awning):


http://changingvancouver.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/colonial-theatre-granville-street/

[EdinVan]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Thanks...
that looks completely disjointed from the look and proportions of the tower and its cladding.

It's almost as bad as the eatons / Sears "arch" that was in front of the rotunda.

Don't ever expect anything tasteful to come from Cadillac-Fairview. Look at the way they re-did the lobby at 200 Granville -- it is totally out of keeping with the brutalist exterior of the building. It's a beautiful lobby, but not for that kind of building. Same thing with the TD Tower lobby. Chandeliers? Really? What were they thinking?

[officedweller]

What, you don't like the black quartz stone baseboard against the beige travertine marble in TD Tower?!?
They actually replaced the chandeliers at TD Tower - the first set had too many halogens that kept burning out.
The new ones have the bulbs in the baseplate shining down.

[officedweller]

Facebook album of pics from the renovation of the Dominion Motors Building (Staples) at Seymour & Smithe:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.685207148243081.1073741850.334419653321834&type=1

I still don't think an awning / canopy has been installed on the building yet (but you can see openings for drainage pipes / downspouts).

I still think it would have been a much better project if they had used the 1 storey addition on Seymour (where the Staples copy centre is located) for the office entrance - that would have allowed a new elevator and stair core wrapped in a glass cube with catwalks to the older structure.

[Locked In]

Speaking of awnings... I noticed today that the wooden structure in the Lauren mini-park (show in Klazu's photo below) has been removed - not sure what that's about...

Originally Posted by Klazu

[officedweller]

Maybe it became a haven for smokers and the residents above didn't like that.

[connect2source]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

It won't be the same as TD, each building at Pacific Centre is meant to retain its own identity. If anything the project bears more resemblance to the recently completed 200 Granville lobby reno.

The full set of renderings are posted in the lobby of 609 if anyone is interesting in checking them out. Here is what the exterior is going to look like:


609 Granville Rendering, on Flickr

Agreed! The entire Pacific Centre once had a brilliant cohesive and ultra-modernist design, from the sidewalks to the matching gridlines in the glazing and the overhangs. That's long been discarded and so now we're losing the last of it with the 609 re-do. It's seem odd how we're returning to a more modernist theme but forgetting some of the basics that made many of these structures timeless.

[Delirium]

vancitybuzz posted some photos of Artemisia and while it definitely looks like a quality building, there's some things about the unit that i find completely bizarre. example;

no door to the washroom! who does this?

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2014/10/vancouver-condos-artemisia-1102-hornby-street/

not sure why anyone would want to do their laundry in the dining room (especially in a unit with nearly 1,400sq/ft) but you get a nice view of the machines through the glass!

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2014/10/vancouver-condos-artemisia-1102-hornby-street/

for the $1.5million price tag, i'd be shopping elsewhere. more photos http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2014/10/vancouver-condos-artemisia-1102-hornby-street/

[Klazu]

Haha, those are indeed some interesting design decisions! Isn't the missing bathroom door going to be an issue with moist air spreading out to the bedroom?

[osirisboy]

Nothing really new with the bathroom being open to the bedroom like that. I've seen it a number of times. Personally I don't mind it. However as a couple I would hate it if one is trying to sleep and the other is using the bathroom. Usually a pocket slider door is used.

Seeing the washer dryer behind the glass is bs. Some screwed up there!

[spm2013]

....

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

Seeing the washer dryer behind the glass is bs. Some screwed up there!

At least use wooden louvres. Could still be noisy though.

[Darren Tate]

Originally Posted by Joat

I guess the majority of posters still hate it but I actually like how Artemisia turned out.

It looks like a funeral parlour or a home for retired priests.