what I find particularly abhorrently antiquated about this scheme is not its formal design language but rather that the most sophisticated buildings today seek to exploit the environment to help with the heating/cooling/energy use of the project...this kind of bland façadism is purely about image...you cannot treat a south facing wall the same as a north ...I would be far more interested in ti if it was in some way a reaction to its location, instead of a simple-minded , and quite frankly, embarrassing pile -up of deco-cliche
what I find particularly abhorrently antiquated about this scheme is not its formal design language but rather that the most sophisticated buildings today seek to exploit the environment to help with the heating/cooling/energy use of the project...this kind of bland façadism is purely about image...you cannot treat a south facing wall the same as a north ...I would be far more interested in ti if it was in some way a reaction to its location, instead of a simple-minded , and quite frankly, embarrassing pile -up of deco-cliche
Care to explain how a glassy tower or a building of other design helps in creating a greener building that a classic concrete building cannot achieve? Ever heard that concrete has one of the best insulating values for the heating/cooling of interior spaces?
I am not referring to its materials ...what I am saying is that good buildings today respond to different orientations in different ways...south elevations should be screened to inhibit the problems of solar gain...this buildings is purely about an image of some by-gone era where the energy concerns of today were not issues... its window pattern is treated fairly similarly on all 4 sides, a cliche trope ...I am not arguing that it would look better as a glassy tower but rather that it has 4 sides, or shall we say 8 sides ...two of which look directly at each other, two that look north, etc.
this scheme is embarrassing and if I was the udp I would toss it out and ask them to do something intelligent with all that potential mass and density
all around the world good architects are finding ways to make buildings smarter and that is what I wish this project did
Touché! You have a point here, but then again there are many towers under construction all over the Lower Mainland that can also be smart buildings, so I don't see why these two are particularly embarrassing. For now, all I care is that the 2 towers look damn good.
I am not referring to its materials ...what I am saying is that good buildings today respond to different orientations in different ways...
These buildings, with their windows punched out of a concrete wall will serve LEED well with their south and west elevations (and maybe east).
On more "modern" glassy buildings, you would see opaque spandrel panels destroying the aesthetic in order to reduce the vision glass / solar gain.
The complaint would be that the small punched out windows may make the north side rather dark inside.
Here is 527 Carnarvon in New West responding to a southern exposure. Replace the spandrel panels with stone or concrete - and you'd have the punched out windows of the Alberni proposal.
Just remove the bay windows and I would be very happy.
Any word on the official heights?
Agreed. It's different than all of the glass architectural buildings we get all across the city. this is something different. i like it. though, more renderings of the project would be nice. from the angle that was posted, looks good.
Hopefully it does the same with those faux-historic piles. C'mon ppl, does every city need to have the same assortment of styles from every other city and era? And we laugh at Chinese cities for copying Vancouver, Austria, etc.
what I find particularly abhorrently antiquated about this scheme is not its formal design language but rather that the most sophisticated buildings today seek to exploit the environment to help with the heating/cooling/energy use of the project...this kind of bland façadism is purely about image...you cannot treat a south facing wall the same as a north ...I would be far more interested in ti if it was in some way a reaction to its location, instead of a simple-minded , and quite frankly, embarrassing pile -up of deco-cliche
It's about time we had something in this city that was predominantly about image. Anything to break the mind-numbing dullness of the grey-blue skyline is welcome--even if it's kind of tacky and not especially energy-smart.
what I find particularly abhorrently antiquated about this scheme is not its formal design language but rather that the most sophisticated buildings today seek to exploit the environment to help with the heating/cooling/energy use of the project...this kind of bland façadism is purely about image...you cannot treat a south facing wall the same as a north ...I would be far more interested in ti if it was in some way a reaction to its location, instead of a simple-minded , and quite frankly, embarrassing pile -up of deco-cliche
... I think you are giving waaaaay too much credit to the buildings that have been built in the past 10-15 years. These curtain and window walls are often not engineered properly and surprisingly inefficient, especially when their oodles of seals start to go.
So, as pointed out previously, the fact that this isn't a glass building is really helping the project meet it's environmental goals. Also assisting in this is the placement and style of the balconies.
Early on the team approached the Park Board about whether they could build parking under the donated park space, however the Park Board vehemently refused, wanting to own the rights both above and below.
There was a large turn out of people at the event. While it seemed more than a few individuals were there because of the built up hype, there was a good majority of people in genuine support of the project. Also CBC News was at the open house, however I didn't see Global or CTV before I left at 6pm to head to the NEFC presentation. I like this project, it's really different for Vancouver in a positive way. I can't help but wonder what the UDP will think of it though.
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so many seals to maintain.... (leaky condo V. 2.0)
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