Downtown Vancouver Updates

[NewWester]

I think the post office site is interesting at least. I like the use of space and kind of love that they are keeping so much of the post office: from a street level this is going to be downright monolithic. I'm agnostic about the walled-city-ness and the towers, since how that turns out is going to be so dependent on materials that the current models are almost useless for judging it. If they can pull the concept off, it could be a pretty neat (but clearly polarizing) statement.

[Infrequent Poster]

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/canada-post-redevelopment-7.jpg


Imagine living in a unit anywhere within the bottom 5-8 floors of the two center buildings (the shortest buildings on the longer side of the rectangular shape of the post office) whats it going to be like on the portion of the building that faces the center of the post office?

No sun. All you see in every direction (including up and down) is other peoples windows. A small rectangle of sky above you.


Would these not be pretty hard units to sell? Or maybe these will be the rentals?

[domusile]

Originally Posted by Infrequent Poster

Imagine living in a unit anywhere within the bottom 5-8 floors of the two center buildings (the shortest buildings on the longer side of the rectangular shape of the post office) whats it going to be like on the portion of the building that faces the center of the post office?

No sun. All you see in every direction (including up and down) is other peoples windows. A small rectangle of sky above you.


Would these not be pretty hard units to sell? Or maybe these will be the rentals?

I would imagine they would do a green space/ park for the residential and office tenants

[Delirium]

Looks like a typical Richmond project. No idea why anyone thinks 'saving' the post office building is important. It's garbage and not worth the effort.

[city guy]

this is one of the most abysmal design ideas I have seen in a very long time...what are they thinking? stick a bunch of unrelated towers on top of an existing building without one formal nod to the original...produce uninhabitable units...the list goes on...I can't wait for it to hit design panel

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by city guy

this is one of the most abysmal design ideas I have seen in a very long time...what are they thinking? stick a bunch of unrelated towers on top of an existing building without one formal nod to the original...produce uninhabitable units...the list goes on...I can't wait for it to hit design panel

The UDP will love how they broke up the massing!

[wrenegade]

I'll reserve final judgement until I can see more detailed renderings, but this is about what I expected. It is a shame about the view cone, but it is an exercise on how big density can be achieved without skyscrapers.

The Canada Post building is built like a brick shithouse and dubious heritage value notwithstanding it does make sense to make use of the building if possible. I can't imagine what the demo costs would be.

Personally I would have liked the site to be totally demoed and used as the Art Gallery site, with the Dunsmuir frontage having a tower or two, and enough density and height (damn the viewcones) spread onto the Queen E theatre site, Larwill Park and the budget rent-a-car site to pay for almost all of the Gallery. That's obviously a pipe dream as the cost would be $2B+ and has waaaaay too many moving parts, but hey, a guy can dream.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by wrenegade

I'll reserve final judgement until I can see more detailed renderings, but this is about what I expected. It is a shame about the view cone, but it is an exercise on how big density can be achieved without skyscrapers.

The Canada Post building is built like a brick shithouse and dubious heritage value notwithstanding it does make sense to make use of the building if possible. I can't imagine what the demo costs would be.

Personally I would have liked the site to be totally demoed and used as the Art Gallery site, with the Dunsmuir frontage having a tower or two, and enough density and height (damn the viewcones) spread onto the Queen E theatre site, Larwill Park and the budget rent-a-car site to pay for almost all of the Gallery. That's obviously a pipe dream as the cost would be $2B+ and has waaaaay too many moving parts, but hey, a guy can dream.

There's nothing dubious about the heritage value of the Post Office building. It's an outstanding example of institutional architecture of the 1950's. The Art Gallery should have been forced into the existing building, with the gift of the lot and development rights. They then could have built multi-unit rental above which would have provided them with a guaranteed income stream that would be the envy of any art gallery or museum.

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

I guess with the long term changes in the neighbourhood the owners of this building at the corner of Georgia and Richards (kitty corner from the Telus office tower) want to be able to take advantage of the opportunity to have more retail and restaurant space available on the lower level(s). I hope the bull stays.


June 13 '15, my pics

This bull is getting penned in now.



March 10 '16, my pics

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Delirium

Looks like a typical Richmond project. No idea why anyone thinks 'saving' the post office building is important. It's garbage and not worth the effort.

Amen and Amen !!

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by Delirium

Looks like a typical Richmond project. No idea why anyone thinks 'saving' the post office building is important. It's garbage and not worth the effort.

I totally agree. I would not care one bit if we lost this "heritage" building. There is nothing beautiful about it. The only reason it's considered "heritage" is because it's massive.

[wrenegade]

Originally Posted by whatnext

There's nothing dubious about the heritage value of the Post Office building. It's an outstanding example of institutional architecture of the 1950's. The Art Gallery should have been forced into the existing building, with the gift of the lot and development rights. They then could have built multi-unit rental above which would have provided them with a guaranteed income stream that would be the envy of any art gallery or museum.

There are very few examples of 1950s institutional architecture that I think are worth saving, so saying it is an "excellent example" is like telling me it's worth saving a mint-condition, low milage 1988 Chrysler LeBaron. Just send it to the crusher and start from scratch. Personal opinion.

I also feel that a marque art gallery should stand alone. While I'm sure any gallery or museum would love to have the income stream of an apartment building or two, I don't think the architecture nor the uses should be combined.

[Large Cat]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

This bull is getting penned in now.



March 10 '16, my pics


Funniest update in a long time poor bull!! Thanks mcminsen!

Funniest update in a long time poor bull! Thanks mcminsen!!

[logan5]

I don't like the Post Office bbuilding all that much myself, but that facade is probably better than what would be there if we started from scratch. Retail units with red granite trumps what we normally get.

I'm sure they'll change a few things to spruce up the design.

[Tetsuo]

Imperial Oil divested themselves of their Esso retail business.

The Burrard and Davie gas station is appraised at $18M IIRC and Imperial used it as an expensive advertisement. Wouldn't be surprised if the site is sold and redeveloped in the next few years

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by logan5

I don't like the Post Office bbuilding all that much myself, but that facade is probably better than what would be there if we started from scratch. Retail units with red granite trumps what we normally get.

I'm sure they'll change a few things to spruce up the design.

I like the Post Office building a lot, it's a type of architecture that Vancouver doesn't have a lot, it is kind of monolithic, and it helps break up some of the monotony.

That being said, I agree with the rest of your sentiment. If this was a demolition project with ONLY new buildings to replace it, I have a feeling the buildings would be bland and the retail even more so. This at least preserves an interesting character retail opportunity. Not to mention with the new VAG going in at some point, hopefully, and the library in the area, I think that it is forming a nice cluster of un-Vancouver-like buildings, all forming the backbone of the downtown arts/culture precinct.

[vanman]

Originally Posted by logan5

I don't like the Post Office bbuilding all that much myself, but that facade is probably better than what would be there if we started from scratch. Retail units with red granite trumps what we normally get.

I'm sure they'll change a few things to spruce up the design.

I agree. The heritage facade with the punched in retail is about the only thing I like about the proposal. The squat, asymmetrical towers sprouting from the rooftop look terrible.

[Aroundtheworld]

I was wondering what's the easiest way to upload photos to this forum?

I have some pictures from yesterdays open house for the Baptist Church project at Burrard and Nelson

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Aroundtheworld

I was wondering what's the easiest way to upload photos to this forum?

For example http://imgur.com/ is a very easy-to-use site.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

Imperial Oil divested themselves of their Esso retail business.

The Burrard and Davie gas station is appraised at $18M IIRC and Imperial used it as an expensive advertisement. Wouldn't be surprised if the site is sold and redeveloped in the next few years

Seems more likely 7-11 keeps it since they are losing their nearby store (?)

I wonder if they'll be able to keep the Tim Hortons kiosks if they rebrand their stores? Would be pretty stupid to lose them...