[Burnaby] Station Square | 35,38,48,41,52 fl | Completed

[officedweller]

By Yellow Fever.
Taken Nov 23rd, posted Dec 3rd.

Originally Posted by Yellow Fever

Dec 2nd

20161123_103137 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

20161123_103403 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

20161123_103452 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

Originally Posted by Yellow Fever

20161123_103452 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

20161123_103148 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

[vanman]

My pics taken yesterday.

[Klazu]

After the first snowmageddon on last Monday.

[gillty]

Visited Station Square for the first time today since the renos, the staircase to the old passerelle between Metrotown is still a joke with zero capacity upgrades. I cannot believe no upgrades were made here, at the very least a ramp for the disabled and strollers should have been included.

[Klazu]

Yeah, the new indoor space where Best Buy and Bed Bad & Beyond are located is so poorly planned it's incredible. There are strange and unnecessary small stairs everywhere, it's narrow, dark and desolated. I am not sure if they just renovated an existing space, but it is very poorly planned when the pedestrian traffic will eventually increase with the new Skytrain walkway.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Yeah, the new indoor space where Best Buy and Bed Bad & Beyond are located is so poorly planned it's incredible. There are strange and unnecessary small stairs everywhere, it's narrow, dark and desolated. I am not sure if they just renovated an existing space, but it is very poorly planned when the pedestrian traffic will eventually increase with the new Skytrain walkway.

They renovated the old Famous Players movie theater and the Pub that used to be there rather than build the whole thing from scratch since the Hotel was, and still is functioning above that podium.

That was obviously a bad idea and it now shows since you have a lot of disparity in levels (which made sense when you had several movie theater halls of varying floor to ceiling heights - but not now when it would have been better to have everything more or less level) and just poorly planned and laid out spaces.

I'm not even sure why they left the hotel standing at all as the building itself was aging anyway and all they did was some facelifts to the exterior.

Anthem should have just torn the whole thing down and added a 6th tower with mixed use - part hotel part residences, and done a proper podium that made sense with the tenants they have now and also with the planned connection to the new skytrain station footbridge.

They were probably dealing with too many moving parts and invested parties and just wanted to take the cheapest or at least, the most cost-effective route.
Which isn't always a good idea - so many lost opportunities.

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

T
I'm not even sure why they left the hotel standing at all as the building itself was aging anyway and all they did was some facelifts to the exterior.

IIRC the hotel is not owned by the developer.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by Jebby

IIRC the hotel is not owned by the developer.

That's what I thought, but isn't the land it sits on owned by Anthem?
I was also under the impression that the other buildings around the hotel (like the old Futureshop, the old Dollar store, etc....basically the old plaza that constituted Station Square sans the Hotel) were owned by the developer hence the drive to develop the whole square.

It's too bad a deal couldn't have been struck with the hotel owners to completely redevelop it from the ground up rather than just getting a facelift because I feel that having to develop the rest of the plaza around it with the existing structure is part of the reason why that space is so poorly conceived and executed.

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

It's too bad a deal couldn't have been struck with the hotel owners to completely redevelop it from the ground up rather than just getting a facelift because I feel that having to develop the rest of the plaza around it with the existing structure is part of the reason why that space is so poorly conceived and executed.

That would mean demolishing the hotel and leaving the owners without that income for 2 or more years.

[officedweller]

By Yellow Fever taken Dec 11th posted Dec 15th:

Originally Posted by Yellow Fever

Dec 15th

20161211_121431 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

20161211_121247 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

20161211_121156 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

Originally Posted by Yellow Fever

20161211_121118 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

20161211_120907 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

20161211_120833 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

Originally Posted by Yellow Fever

20161211_121219 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

20161211_121355 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

Originally Posted by Yellow Fever

Station Square

20161211_121114 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

20161211_121124 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

They renovated the old Famous Players movie theater and the Pub that used to be there rather than build the whole thing from scratch since the Hotel was, and still is functioning above that podium.

I have hard time remembering how the area looked when the parkade and everything was still in there, but when did the movie theater close? I have been first time in Metrotown in November 2011 and I don't recall any movie theater around this area.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I have hard time remembering how the area looked when the parkade and everything was still in there, but when did the movie theater close? I have been first time in Metrotown in November 2011 and I don't recall any movie theater around this area.

There were two theatres, the 5 and the 7 (number of screens), both in that same section of Station Square. I can't find anything about when the 5 closed but the 7 closed Sept 2012. By that point SilverCity was already open in the mall and it basically took over being local the movie theatre.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Sheba

There were two theatres, the 5 and the 7 (number of screens), both in that same section of Station Square. I can't find anything about when the 5 closed but the 7 closed Sept 2012. By that point SilverCity was already open in the mall and it basically took over being local the movie theatre.

The five screen was the Cineplex Odeon Station Square Cinemas and closed in 2001.

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/40427

I knew there were theatres in there but I never remember a Famous Player being right across from a Cineplex Odeon.

And they were on the second floor.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I have hard time remembering how the area looked when the parkade and everything was still in there, but when did the movie theater close? I have been first time in Metrotown in November 2011 and I don't recall any movie theater around this area.

Here's a little trip down memory lane.

So here's the Theater entrance from the old Station Square plaza...
You can see the marquee and the old signage




The lobby and box office....





One of the theater entrances. The theaters had different names; I forget what they all were...





And finally the inside of one the the theaters.
Yeah, they did NOT age well.....

[clee7903]

ahh memories! Thanks for sharing

[Klazu]

Cool, thanks for the information. I remember an entrance like that from my first visit, but I never realized that there was a cinema inside. I also didn't know that the current multiplex is so recent. I guess I should visit it to catch a flick.

[SpongeG]

i used to see movies at both theatres, cineplex was nicer. Once silvercity opened the other came like a discount theatre and cineplex had closed.

They used to have a karaoke place up there too which was always quite busy. On a tuesday that area between the two theatres got quite busy as it was cheap night. I think i saw the blair witch project at the cineplex.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

i used to see movies at both theatres, cineplex was nicer. Once silvercity opened the other came like a discount theatre and cineplex had closed.

They used to have a karaoke place up there too which was always quite busy. On a tuesday that area between the two theatres got quite busy as it was cheap night. I think i saw the blair witch project at the cineplex.

...aah, I remember the karaoke place too.
It was quite busy and popular along with the pub.

Which highlights the dearth of recreational and social amenities and hotspots in these new developments as Metrotown is sorely lacking a nightlife or places that (especially young) people can go socialize and have fun at.

There was a discussion about it in another thread, but other than Silvercity, Bonsor (not nightlife per se, but serves as a socializing function) and a couple of the restaurants (which are less entertainment and more strictly eateries) that's about it.
Which is not a good thing for a proposed future Burnaby designated "downtown".

Man, I really hated those entrance stairs to get to the theaters.
I forget if there was an elevator in that plaza area.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

There was a discussion about it in another thread, but other than Silvercity, Bonsor (not nightlife per se, but serves as a socializing function) and a couple of the restaurants (which are less entertainment and more strictly eateries) that's about it.
Which is not a good thing for a proposed future Burnaby designated "downtown".

They will have public plazas for night life

But seriously if you go through the plan I think it would be a stretch to say that they have nothing dedicated to encouraging "entertainment" uses and liquor primary facilities in the "downtown"

[skylinegazer]

Oh, nice to see these towers so far along. One of these will be the tallest in Metrotown right?