Downtown Vancouver Updates

[Feathered Friend]

Thanks for sharing Changing City and Officedweller.

I'm curious as to where the open house will be for 1500 Robson as they have only provided the date, July 10th, so far. I see that the property sold for $28,800,000 in November of 2015, and I can't help but wonder if they'll combine it with the neighbouring 1518 property. Question was answered, the correct info is May 3rd at the Empire Landmark.

Hopefully the Onni building turns out well, especially given it's location in Downtown.

[officedweller]

PS - the name is Onni, not Omni.

[privatejet]

Another rendering of 1335 Howe from Onni' site

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

Thanks for sharing Changing City and Officedweller.

I'm curious as to where the open house will be for 1500 Robson as they have only provided the date, July 10th, so far. I see that the property sold for $28,800,000 in November of 2015, and I can't help but wonder if they'll combine it with the neighbouring 1518 property.

Presumably they looked at adding 1518 to the assembly, but it wasn't available at a reasonable price. They've submitted a full application, so they've obviously worked out how to build the proposed tower on the 99' width that they have.

The City's website is currently inaccurate. The July date is for the Development Permit Board. The open house is on May 3rd in the Empire Landmark.

[DesignerBunny]

Originally Posted by privatejet

Another rendering of 1335 Howe from Onni' site

I like the look of this building. Especially the contrast of the white and black. And the shapes the bacony stagger creates is nice, but one small pet peeve is that I personally wouldn't want to be living with a balcony that the unit above me can see down into me, or things fall into my space.

[Vin]

Well, on a positive note, should there be a towering inferno, one can essentially hop his/her way down to safety, except the poor top floor penthouse folks.

[LeftCoaster]

I hope onni actually builds to this design and the black effect stands out. Their Charleston project has turned out pretty true to renders so hopefully they can build off that success.

[Changing City]

Another Robson Street tower proposal - this one opposite the Terry Fox Plaza on the corner of Beatty. A hotel and residential tower incorporating the Catholic Charities building.

image from the Rezoning proposal on Changing City blog.

[dreambrother808]

The white part looks like office perhaps?

[SFUVancouver]

The six-storey white box and the two above-grade floors of the heritage building will be the hotel, per the descriptions on Vancouvermarket.ca and ChangingCityUpdates.

I've been waiting to see how this concept would turn out. It's been waiting in the wings for a while now.

[officedweller]

Thanks!

I think that's the first rendering of the Catholic Charities Building site redevelopment (we had seen massing drawings before with the rezoning).

It's nice to see the increased use of balconies - to presumably address LEED concerns through balcony shading rather than additional spandrel panels.

I can't help but think that the local architects are trying "too hard" to be distinctive with offsets balconies (see 1335 Howe) rather than the simple clean lines of a full wraparound balcony (as seen in many Toronto towers or even Amazing Brentwood or Concord Brentwood).

There will be 4 levels of hotel space in the heritage building and 6 levels in the new corner building.

The entire ground level (both heritage side and new side) is hotel restaurant, café and lounge.



++++++++++++++

On the 1335 Howe rendering - I just noticed the balcony screens on the podium - reminiscent of The Mark's podium.

[csbvan]

Thanks for posting! I like the heritage portion and the office (?) portion to the south. The tower itself is pretty bad in my opinion. More mundane architecture in a premier location in Vancouver. To be honest, I just cannot believe so many crucial sites and heritage assets are being treated so poorly and so cheaply. I wish I could have more positive comments.

[Feathered Friend]

Interesting to see how it has progressed from the massing.
I may be mistaken, but I think it was mcminsen that gave us the info for the developer's open house almost a year ago.

I have some slight reservations about the treatment of the heritage building, but overall I have hopes it will turn out nice.

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

Interesting to see how it has progressed from the massing.
I may be mistaken, but I think it was mcminsen that gave us the info for the developer's open house almost a year ago.

I have some slight reservations about the treatment of the heritage building, but overall I have hopes it will turn out nice.

I posted some pics of the display boards from the open house last September. Go here. Click on any of the small images to enlarge.

[Vin]

Nice looking proposal. I'm glad they are preserving the old catholic building facades, and converting it into part of the hotel, but would still prefer it to be a separate entity from the tower. The proposals for this part of Robson is indeed more exciting than the other end.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

I posted some pics of the display boards from the open house last September. Go here. Click on any of the small images to enlarge.

I like the old design/massing better than the current massing.

[Changing City]

There's a development application to reactivate the restaurant, and renovate the Media Club on the Cambie Street side of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre plaza.


Image from the DP Application on Changing City blog

[officedweller]

Nice.
The theatre / stadium crowds are a bit hit and miss / ebb and flow for restaurants, but hopefully this one will do okay.

[WarrenC12]

Good idea, terribly cheezy sign in that render.

[csbvan]

A Brown's....at the QE. Wtf?!