Downtown Vancouver Updates

[giallo]

Nice one, Del. I'm going to share this one on the construction page.

[Joat]

IMO the rogers tower looks no worse than a lot of the towers in the area. I also like the fact that its got some girth. I guess compared to the renders its pretty disappointing. And it would have been nice if it were all office instead of just the bottom half.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

i don't know how you can say it's the worst one. it looks almost the same as all the buildings around it!

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i don't know how you can say it's the worst one. it looks almost the same as all the buildings around it!

You have hit the nail on its head!

[Vanelevatorman]

That's a gorgeous picture. I know I was home when that picture was taken as my roller shades are up and I always close them when I leave.

[Vancity]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i don't know how you can say it's the worst one. it looks almost the same as all the buildings around it!

can't say that i'm a fan of much of the architecture in our city, but then again, you have that all over the world. some cities have it, some cities don't. van's a young city (only 125 years old?), give it some time, and i think we'll begin to see the evolution of vancouver's architecture (here's hoping, at least). will i be alive to witness it? probably not, but then again, in 300 years, what's this beautiful city going to look like?

i love NY. but NYC is NYC because of time. the city itself is over, what, 300-400 years old?? three times as old as van is. and yeah, i know comparing van to ny is like apples to oranges. but it doesn't mean that vancouver can't look to the great cities of the world, their architecture and planning, and learning from their mistakes, but also learning and adoping certain things from them too.

we've got mountains and oceans here. great. beautiful. but i feel like the city relies on that a little too much, too often. i love this city, and want to see it continue to grow, and flourish

[Vanelevatorman]

Originally Posted by Vancity

can't say that i'm a fan of much of the architecture in our city, but then again, you have that all over the world. some cities have it, some cities don't. van's a young city (only 125 years old?), give it some time, and i think we'll begin to see the evolution of vancouver's architecture (here's hoping, at least). will i be alive to witness it? probably not, but then again, in 300 years, what's this beautiful city going to look like?

i love NY. but NYC is NYC because of time. the city itself is over, what, 300-400 years old?? three times as old as van is. and yeah, i know comparing van to ny is like apples to oranges. but it doesn't mean that vancouver can't look to the great cities of the world, their architecture and planning, and learning from their mistakes, but also learning and adoping certain things from them too.

we've got mountains and oceans here. great. beautiful. but i feel like the city relies on that a little too much, too often. i love this city, and want to see it continue to grow, and flourish

Well said.

[SpongeG]

complainers should spend some time in edmonton, they will run home and hug buildings in vancouver

[Vin]

Most here never look up to the "less-fortunate" cities. But surprisingly some do, I wonder why.

[Metro-One]

The vast majority of buildings in Japanese cities are ugly as fuck. Residential tower architecture in Vancouver is far more aesthetically pleasing than here in Japan.

Also, everyone loves Hong Kong, but besides being tall the vast majority of residential towers there as well are super ugly. Big tall slabs.

[theKB]

Originally Posted by officedweller

The other "microsuite" building proposed by Reliance Holdings is said to be near "Burrard & Drake":

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/aff...provals+slow+popular/10389296/story.html


Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Bar...suites/10389296/story.html#ixzz3JSHmTLMM

Given that those 4 corners are occupied (or soon to be occupied when Burrard Gateway is completed -
I suspect that it's actually the 7-Eleven site at Davie & Hornby.

I can't wait for one of these projects to be marketed for purchase and not rent. "Affordable" condos at a mere 1000/sq-ft!

[PaperTiger]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

The vast majority of buildings in Japanese cities are ugly as fuck. Residential tower architecture in Vancouver is far more aesthetically pleasing than here in Japan.

Also, everyone loves Hong Kong, but besides being tall the vast majority of residential towers there as well are super ugly. Big tall slabs.

+ 1

Same goes for most of Asia. You get some Fancy buildings in the CBD (to varying success) and then you get a lot of ... This is in Guangzhou.

[giallo]

Interesting talk, guys, and it's true (to me at least) that Vancouver's architecture, while not amazing, isn't bad at all. I like the point tower uniformity of the region. Vancouver has it's own look and style which is VERY difficult for a city to achieve. Shanghai, for instance, has a lot of cutting edge architecture that blows pretty much everything Vancouver has out of the water, but it also has a lot of garbage. Despite these amazing pieces of architecture that dot the landscape in SH, Vancouver looks a lot better and more "futuristic" (for lack of a better word) to me.

[Delirium]

vancouver packs quite a bit of variety when you think about it. yes there's condoland but who cares about that. what about things like canada place, convention centre, bc place, law courts, art gallery, central library, hospital buildings, ubc buildings, marine building, sun building, orpheum, yaletown, gastown buildings, jameson house, west pender place, trump, waterfall building, city hall, our bridges, skytrain stations, community centres, van dusen, it goes on an on. i think people focus too much on the generic condo and forget about all the other stuff we have. there's a lot of cool shit here relative to our size.

sounds like it's time to start a vancouver architecture thread.

[EdinVan]

745 Thurlow, MNP Tower, and the Manulife Building are the only new ones worthy of recognition. The rest are trash.

Originally Posted by Delirium

pick a project - you can see most of them in this pic. imo, rogers tower is the worst building to go up in memory. worst than the Loren.

Photo by Dave Roberts https://www.flickr.com/photos/46069415@N00/15825277052/sizes/h/

[officedweller]

601 West Cordova

Minutes from the Gastown Historic Area Planning Committee Nov 19, 2014.

Who the heck is going to pay the cost of that mistake!?!?
The New York architects are probably wondering what kind of hick town this is...

3) Waterfront Tower – 601 West Cordova Street – DE418532
Chair Sill welcomed the proponents and advised them of the GHAPC Meeting
Procedures.

Zlatan Jankovic, Heritage Planner introduced the item, advising that the
development permit application for a mixed-use office tower on a site immediately
east of the CPR Station building has been received. The proposal was initially
presented to GHAPC on December 18, 2013, at the pre-application stage. At that
time GHAPC generally supported the proposal, recommended some changes and
requested that the final proposal be brought back to the Committee for review at
the development application permit stage. It was noted that the applicant had
addressed some of GHAPC’s previous comments given at the December 18 meeting.

Although the site is not located within Gastown Historic Area boundaries, this
proposal was presented to GHAPC because of its proximity to Gastown and its
potential impact on the heritage character of the area.

Paul Cheng, Development Planner noted that it had been discovered on
November 18, 2014 that, due to a miscommunication earlier in the process, the
height of the building exceeded the Council-imposed view cone by 13 metres, and
that the design of the building would need to be revisited. It was further noted that
due to the view cone restriction, the applicant would not be able to take advantage
of the possibility of building a taller, thinner tower to reduce the impediment on the
adjacent heritage building as suggested by Committee resolution on
December 18, 2013.

Laura Jimenez, Adrian Smith + Gordon Hill Architecture, introduced herself and the
project team in attendance. Ms. Jimenez provided an overview of the project,
including site context and design details.

Glade Schoenfeld arrived at this time (4:16 pm) and recused himself from the
discussion on this item, as his engineering firm is part of the project team for the
development.

The project team and staff received comments and responded to various questions
related to the application and project proposal.

MOVED by Ashley Pope
SECONDED by Glenda Bartosh

That the Gastown Historic Area Planning Committee expresses gratitude for the
opportunity to review and comment on the development permit application for the
Waterfront Tower at 601 West Cordova Street, and due to the current issue with the
height of the proposed tower, will defer providing a motion of support or non-support
until the tower reaches its final design stage;

However the Committee does recommend that as the design process continues,
further consideration be given to the following:
• The project’s impact on the cultural landscape of a the area, particularly in
the pedestrian realm;
• A greater setback from the CPR Heritage Class A building; and
• Given the requirements for the lower tower height, a review of the overall
massing of the building; and

That the Committee looks forward to seeing the project again if significant changes
are made to the built form of the tower.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/committees...ric-area-planning-committee-20141119.pdf

[phesto]

^This is precisely why 95% of developers go with one of our boring local architects...no surprises!

[red-paladin]

I guess it makes sense that the east side of the station is being restored now, before the new building starts. I am worried they will destroy the heritage building's basement there, which exists under the current parking lot. I believe it used to be used to process immigrants or something?

[jlousa]

Looks like the city is going ahead with the park at Smithe and Richards, the RFP seems a little predetermined as has been the case with previous RFPS from the city over the last few years.
They are limiting applicants to firms that have designed 3 or more downtown parks worth over $1M. Not going to be a large number of firms that meet that criteria locally... And since the budget of the project is quite low it won't be attracting outside firms either... Why even issue the RFP is the winner is predetermined.

http://former.vancouver.ca/fs/bid/bidopp/RFP/documents/PS20140336-RFP.PDF

[officedweller]

Thanks.

I'm hoping they build up the site along the alley so that it's fairly level (instead of sloping down towards the alley) - and the loading areas of the 889 Homer Bing Thom designed building can be screened with trees.

A wide set of stairs at the alley corner would be good.


http://www.xfilesuniverse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=135