Burnaby Updates

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

It's great to see this project finally getting some momentum. If they stick to that 65 Storey height (I'm guessing Tower 1) that will give Metrotown one of the tallest towers in Burnaby (depending on the floor-to-floor height) and certainly the highest outside the Burnaby Mountain area.

This tower will be tallest in entire Metro Vancouver and have the highest tower apartments outside of Burnaby Mountain. Top floors will be a good 300 meters above sea level and the views will be ridiculous.

This gives me hope that we will see more towers of over 200 meters in Metrotown area. I am sure the corners of McKay/Kingsway (Sleep Country site) and the Willingdon/Kingsway intersection will continue to see some seriously tall towers.

[BodomReaper]

Thanks for the updates! Madison & Dawson is huge for a woodframe project. Looks like a nice clean design.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Yeah, the area will fill up soon and start adding to the skyline. Considering how little attention Milano is getting, it's actually shaping up to be quite nice and different from most generic towers.

Agree.

The display suites were quite nice also, 2 bedrooms have large corner balconies.

Should make for a nice building to live in - only drawback is train tracks near by.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by Klazu

This tower will be tallest in entire Metro Vancouver and have the highest tower apartments outside of Burnaby Mountain. Top floors will be a good 300 meters above sea level and the views will be ridiculous.

This gives me hope that we will see more towers of over 200 meters in Metrotown area. I am sure the corners of McKay/Kingsway (Sleep Country site) and the Willingdon/Kingsway intersection will continue to see some seriously tall towers.

The entire strip just north of Kingsway on the north side of the mall seriously needs some redevelopment love and attention between Royal Oak and Willingdon, at least.

Right now we only the Townline Tower project at Sussex and the Church site scheduled for the near future, so I'm really hoping we start to see some of those older retail buildings and surface parking lots get bought out and get some development love.

Other than farther south of Beresford in between the Skytrain line and Imperial (south of the first line of towers), there really isn't much place else around the area to build up towers in that region.

[SpongeG]

what would people like to see along that stretch of kingsway? just curios, I'm for anything other than what is there now, i do like that one older brick building though.

More of what the best buy shoppers drug mart part is like? or smaller scale like robson 3 stories? with towers on the blocks back? or towers fronting on kingsway?

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

The entire strip just north of Kingsway on the north side of the mall seriously needs some redevelopment love and attention between Royal Oak and Willingdon, at least.

Originally Posted by SpongeG

what would people like to see along that stretch of kingsway? just curios, I'm for anything other than what is there now, i do like that one older brick building though.

More of what the best buy shoppers drug mart part is like? or smaller scale like robson 3 stories? with towers on the blocks back? or towers fronting on kingsway?

I suspect the buildings that are already a couple floors or more will be staying (that includes some older buildings) and it's only the groundscraping buildings with surface parking that will go. One of the first areas I'd expect to hear about is between McKay and Sussex as the Cactus Club that's in the middle is moving into Station Square.

Nelson to Royal Oak probably isn't a high priority with developers right now - once the towers south of Kingsway in that area are done, then I can see them looking at the strip north of Kingsway to finish it off.

The city will probably go more towards the BB / Shoppers block with retail and office facing Kingsway and residential facing Hazel St. I'm happy as long as it doesn't all look exactly the same and blur together.

[Klazu]

Milano

[BobLoblawsLawBlog]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

what would people like to see along that stretch of kingsway? just curios, I'm for anything other than what is there now, i do like that one older brick building though.

More of what the best buy shoppers drug mart part is like? or smaller scale like robson 3 stories? with towers on the blocks back? or towers fronting on kingsway?

Yeah I like the old brick building there. Metrotown needs some sort of hertiage building thing going on and they already tore down that old church on Sussex.

I'd just like to see a lot of tall residential buildings. I really think office buildings should be kept separate from residential buildings because office towers have a different aesthetic to them. The office should go next to the Metrotowers when the mall gets demolished.

I would like to see it go two ways. One of them being more realistic than the other.

The first way the buildings on Kingsway I'd like to see look like would be Burnaby's discount version of Park Avenue in Manhattan. This would look really good because everything is really tightly knit but not too tall. Urban valleys look good.
-Buildings without podiums going up about 15-20 storeys
-Buildings touching walls, no gaps in between
-All the buildings share the about the same height
-Green strip in the middle of Kingsway with trees/grass







The second would be to have bigger podiums, maybe 5 or 6 storeys, and towers 40-45 storeys on top of it. I'd look much better if these buildings weren't set back and just started on the edge of the sidewalk and went up.

This would be like the Modello building that just went up but with a podium slightly higher.

[Vin]

^^ I thought people don't like "shadowing" in cold dark Vancouver? What you are suggesting wouldn't fly here. Shorter podiums, with the occasional taller ones, but all with taller towers above, seem to work better in our region.

[BobLoblawsLawBlog]

Originally Posted by Vin

^^ I thought people don't like "shadowing" in cold dark Vancouver? What you are suggesting wouldn't fly here. Shorter podiums, with the occasional taller ones, but all with taller towers above, seem to work better in our region.

The sun is a little overrated to city planners in Vancouver

[osirisboy]

Originally Posted by BobLoblawsLawBlog

The sun is a little overrated to city planners in Vancouver

Right but this is Burnaby so totally separate city planners. Although, for some reason each city here seems to just all do the same thing.

Also, it's weird that they hate shadowing but have no problem plunking down three rows of trees on each side of a street, causing absolutely no sunlight to hit the sidewalk

[Vin]

Originally Posted by BobLoblawsLawBlog

The sun is a little overrated to city planners in Vancouver

Don't get me wrong, I do agree with you in that regard. I'm referring to the many people who will make it an issue and oppose it. Usually developers just try to skirt that if they can, and hence we don't get a lot of the kind of street wall that you are prescribing.

[Klazu]

I don't normally worry about the shadowing effect, but it will be interesting to see how the Central Boulevard area in Metrotown will look like with so many really tall towers going up along Beresford Street. The entire southern edge of Metrotown will be lined up with towers, which will certainly cause a lot of shadows over the area.

I am not against it, but I think it will be pretty noticeable once Gold and Sun towers complete.

[VarBreStr18]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I don't normally worry about the shadowing effect, but it will be interesting to see how the Central Boulevard area in Metrotown will look like with so many really tall towers going up along Beresford Street. The entire southern edge of Metrotown will be lined up with towers, which will certainly cause a lot of shadows over the area.

I am not against it, but I think it will be pretty noticeable once Gold and Sun towers complete.

In this case . the shadowing is actually good for central Blvd because it provides shade on the north facade of the Blvd. Makes it pleasant to walk/shop

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I don't normally worry about the shadowing effect, but it will be interesting to see how the Central Boulevard area in Metrotown will look like with so many really tall towers going up along Beresford Street. The entire southern edge of Metrotown will be lined up with towers, which will certainly cause a lot of shadows over the area.

I am not against it, but I think it will be pretty noticeable once Gold and Sun towers complete.

It'll shadow the mall which might (eventually) make them think twice about replacing it with retail podiums / towers - that would lead to a lot of shadowing through to Kingsway. They've got a couple decades to figure that out.

Also the Maywood area is planned for rebuilding with the tallest towers along Beresford and then dropping down to lowrise along Imperial, so the Maywood plan has the majority of shadowing not affecting the residential that much.

[officedweller]

If they want a "downtown" they'll have shadowing.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by officedweller

If they want a "downtown" they'll have shadowing.

Yeah and that's what a true city is like.

Even in Burnaby towers are skinny, just like in Vancouver, so it should be fine, but it will very soon be different than the open and sparsely-built neighborhood it today is.

[officedweller]

... and there will be a sparseness over the Metropolis superblock for a very long time.

[sburnaby33]

Just looked at the Burnaby developments page. The Admiral Pub in tge Heights will be redeveloped into a five story on Hastings and a three story on Albert. Does anyone know about the developer 4308 Holdings?

[Vin]

I long for the day when they start shadowing Robson, Denman and Davie streets too.