Downtown Vancouver Updates

[Vancouver_Highrise]

I have a feeling the Westin bayshore will be replaced by The W and the four seasons will be a ritz Carlton.

[Vin]

W and other lux hotels should be located in new ultra modern towers. All the existing Hyatt, Westin Bayshore and 4-Seasons buildings are only suitable for 3-Star Best Western/Radisson type hotels.

[Graham_Yvr]

Originally Posted by Vancouver_Highrise

I have a feeling the Westin bayshore will be replaced by The W and the four seasons will be a ritz Carlton.

There has been buzz of late that the Bayshore will soon become a Peninsula Hotel. http://www.peninsula.com.

[mcminsen]

Here's the latest art installation on the Dal Grauer Substation on Burrard.



April 30 '18, my pics

[mcminsen]

And the three previous installations. My favourite was the pixellated one from 2015. I think all the others (including this year's) just get lost in the streetscape and don't catch your eye.



April 12 ’17, my pic



April 8 ’16, my pic



April 5 ’15, my pic

[mcminsen]

The Jervis (at Jervis and Davie) seems to be nearing completion.



May 1 '18, my pics












...

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

April 9 '18, my pics

About three weeks later at Westbank's two tower 1661 Davie site (former Safeway store). Some concrete and rebar has appeared. Maybe a crane soon?

The last two pics below are looking back from Bidwell across the adjacent construction site.



May 1 '18, my pics

[SpongeG]

seems like they might get that completed before the one going up next to London Drugs, lol

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

April 9 '18, my pic

1188 Bidwell (at Davie), about three weeks later. Old Safeway site in the background of the last two pics.



May 1 '18, my pics

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

April 9 '18, my pic

1688 Davie Street (former London Drugs parking lot) about three weeks later.



May 1 '18, my pics

[mcminsen]

I just got this in the mail. More modular housing for the homeless coming to downtown.

[Max.]

Originally Posted by Vancouver_Highrise

I have a feeling the Westin bayshore will be replaced by The W and the four seasons will be a ritz Carlton.

There are many source said Westin Bayshore will be replaced by the Peninsula hotel & residences.

[phesto]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Thanks - re ceiling heights.

I'll bet its steel frame though - like the office towers and Eaton's - which might make disassembly more straightforward (?).
Prime site for a high end department store with high end hotel on top (not that Vancouver really needs more high end retail, and assuming Saks doesn't pull out of Canada).

Hopefully this will also mean a reworking of the Georgia & Howe rotunda replacement.

... and no speculation of redevelopment is complete without a view cone analysis...

It would appear that the Four Seasons site may sit in the VIEW SHADOW of Scotia Tower!
(from the 12th & Cambie view cone).
Whether that would give it more height than the neighbouring Residences @ Hotel Georgia would have to be determined.
The site is also squarely within the "Higher Buildings Policy" area.

This diagram is from the 753 Seymour rezoning.

Hmmmm.....


http://rezoning.vancouver.ca/applications/753seymour/index.htm

Thanks. Seems like a new tower of approx. 500 ft. could potentially be achievable. According to emporis, the existing tower is 305 ft. so a decent height lift, although tearing it down to simply rebuild a new hotel with 40% more height seems less likely.

Maybe in the context of a larger redevelopment of the whole Howe Street frontage of Pacific Centre could work...put a new office tower at the Howe and Dunsmuir corner and reorient the retail towards Georgia with a big entrance plaza and a new 40-storey hotel on top...now that would be something!

On the other hand, CF wasn't particularly ambitious with the Sears redevelopment, so probably shouldn't think too big...

[officedweller]

Yeah, the Howe street frontage is the worst side of the mall.
If they do redevelop, you'd expect the City to be all over that.
I've pretty sure it's also a steel frame structure like the rest of Pacific Centre.

Conceivably, CF stripped off the façade of Eatons' blank wall and could do the same here too to add windows. The Howe St. facade has the same marble/terrazzo panels as Eatons had (as well as previously on Granville Street near H&M).
A consistent design plan for Pacific Centre could involve the recladding of the entire Howe St. façade and the gutting of the interior spaces behind, which are largely windowless Four Seasons ballrooms and amenity areas (Harry Rosen is in the upper mall at the north end and the shadowing in that area would probably allow Harry Rosen to have windows without fading the merchandise).

I wonder about a new, smaller, luxury department store space on lower floors with mixed use hotel office above, but that would probably require major demolition to increase ceiling heights for new retail space unless the steel frame could somehow allow conversion of 2 hotel floors to one retail floor with extra bracing?
But then you still need amenity areas for the new hotel, which are usually best suited for a podium. Depending on the business model for the hotel, it doesn't necessarily need large meeting / ballroom areas (think Shangri-La, although both Parq and Trump have big ballrooms), so some of the existing Four Seasons conference areas (which do have high ceilings) could be converted to retail.

Potential vertical expansion would also depend on the ability of the foundation to support any added height.

It would be nice to see a wholesale redevelopment of the Howe St. side of the complex.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by BodomReaper

Thanks mcminsen for braving the neighborhood (and alley) to give us such a thorough update of Sequel 138! I know it doesn't have too many fans on here, but I think that's the highest quality design for market housing you can ask for at Hastings and Main.

According to The Star, Sequel 138 is a failure:

Broken promises, but no fix, for Downtown Eastside condo building

The developer of Sequel 138 promised his building would provide social housing, affordable home ownership, an arts centre with community programming and a lane leading to Chinatown through the site in the city’s Downtown Eastside.

Two years after the building’s completion, the lane is now locked off behind a gate, four retail spaces sit empty, there is no arts centre or programming, and BC Housing acknowledges some homeowners rented out or put their units on Airbnb, abusing a housing covenant that was supposed to prevent real estate speculation.

Despite meeting few of the community benefits that were promised to the vulnerable Downtown Eastside community when the proposal was going through approval in 2011, both the City of Vancouver and BC Housing say they have no power to compel the developer or current owners to deliver on those commitments...

https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2018/0...for-downtown-eastside-condo-project.html

[Jougho]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

And the three previous installations. My favourite was the pixellated one from 2015. I think all the others (including this year's) just get lost in the streetscape and don't catch your eye.



April 12 ’17, my pic



April 8 ’16, my pic



April 5 ’15, my pic

This just make me want to cry. THe Dal Grauer substation is a work of art of national and international importance. These "art" installations are an insult. It has to be restored to it's original brilliance that Pratt and Binnings created.

[osirisboy]

You think the substation was a work of art? That's hilarious

[mcminsen]

Dug up this old post from about 6 years ago.

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

The original Dal Grauer substation was a striking mixture of architecture and public art and it was a collaboration of Ned Pratt and B.C. Binning, two of the most talented people to have lived and worked in this city. Here's how it looked upon its unveiling:


Source: http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2009/08/our-mondrian-on-burrard.html

Quote:
The most spectacular of his [B.C. Binning] public art efforts began in 1952-53 when Binning collaborated on a design for a three-storey electric substation. The B.C. Electric Company knew they had to make their new building palatable to a public already tired of the drabness of the downtown street to which it was to be built.

The president of the electric company, Albert Edward “Dal” Grauer, was a cultured and sensitive appreciator of the arts who understood the aesthetic potential of such a monumental example of industrial technology. He agreed with Binning’s suggestion to the architect Ned Pratt that the entire exterior wall facing the street should be curtained with glass to reveal the interior architectural composition to the public. Binning created a composition of brilliant colours to enhance the meticulously arranged architectural and industrial elements that, like the O’Brien mural, slowed traffic on the street as people prolonged the moment to observe and enjoy it. It was one of the important sights recommended to visitors to the city

Binning’s approach to colour was now deeply influenced by his study of the regional character of the natural context of the city. He was convinced that the most appropriate colouration of buildings in Vancouver would best enhance the urban scene by harmonizing with the northerly latitude and climate of Vancouver, with its surrounding rainforest, interlacing waterways, mist-catching mountains and greyer skies. Binning’s attention to architectural colour now began to emphasize greens, blues and greys, the scheme he applied to the new B.C. Electric Building and to the revised colour of the three-dimentional “mural” of its contigious substation.

B.C. Binning – A Passion for the Contemporary, Abraham Rogatnick.

Source: http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.co...n-burrard.html



Hopefully the vivid colours of the original substation paint job have been replicated and will be visible after dark.

[osirisboy]

Yeah I don't get it. It doesn't look special to me. I prefer having art installations then seeing some electrical junk

[Jougho]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

Dug up this old post from about 6 years ago.

Thanks for this McKinsey. This shot does not do it justice. The colours were far more vivid, very bright, very Mondrian.