Great Northern Way Campus and Area Updates

[officedweller]

Langara College opening new digital arts school in False Creek Flats
…
The new 38,000-sq-ft ArtU at Langara campus will be located at the recently completed South Flatz office building at 565 Great Northern Way, which places the new facility strategically next to the new Emily Carr University (ECU) campus and the Great Northern Way digital arts campus jointly operated by UBC, SFU, ECU, and BCIT.
…

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/artu...ern-way-campus

[Feathered Friend]

Athletic clothing maker Lululemon plans office building in Vancouver’s False Creek Flats
by Carlito Pablo on April 18th, 2019 at 1:58 PM

Yoga and sports apparel maker Lululemon Athletica has made a rezoning enquiry with the City of Vancouver.
Yoga and sports apparel maker Lululemon Athletica has made a rezoning enquiry with the City of Vancouver.
Lululemon Athletica wants to develop an office building in the False Creek Flats area of Vancouver.

The yoga and sports apparel maker is proposing an 11-13-storey building at 1980 Foley Street.

The Vancouver-born company has made a rezoning enquiry with the city for the development.

A city staff report is seeking council approval for planners to work with Lululemon in preparing a rezoning application.

https://www.straight.com/news/123025...se-creek-flats

Staff Report :
https://council.vancouver.ca/20190423/documents/p12.pdf

[officedweller]

That is soo much higher than the area height limit.
Emily Carr had to fit under the height restriction - why should Lululemon get a variance?
They should be forced to build a short squat wide building like any other project under a height restriction
(then maybe the unreasonableness of the policies will come to the forefront and result in broader change rather than a one-off exception).

Height and Density – The proposed development in the rezoning inquiry seeks no increase in
density. However, it does seek additional height to allow the existing density to be achieved,
while allowing urban design creativity to maximize views to the North Shore Mountains and to
minimize shadows on the future China Creek public space. A building height of up to 250 feet
will be tested as part of the Rezoning Application process. The maximum allowable height under
the existing zoning is 120 feet. Any proposed increase in height above that currently allowed
under the CD-1 By-law will be subject to Council approval as part of the rezoning process, if the
rezoning application proceeds and Council subsequently refers it to a Public Hearing.

https://council.vancouver.ca/20190423/documents/p12.pdf

[Galaxy]

I'm wondering why they didn't just buy the adjacent lot to the west and built another building and even if they have to much space right now just lease out space they don't need right away. They could even build a footbridge between buildings and still keep the height of both buildings lower and not need to ask for a height approval.

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

I'm wondering why they didn't just buy the adjacent lot to the west and built another building and even if they have to much space right now just lease out space they don't need right away. They could even build a footbridge between buildings and still keep the height of both buildings lower and not need to ask for a height approval.

Money, most likely. This site is already a massive up from their current building, and the land alone costs as much as their current HQ offices.

Again, they only want the height approval to build a park on an old creekbed (also reduces the difficulty in having to deal with that sort of infilled site). Otherwise, it'd be a 8-9 story squat office complex with the same density.

Originally Posted by officedweller

That is soo much higher than the area height limit.
Emily Carr had to fit under the height restriction - why should Lululemon get a variance?
They should be forced to build a short squat wide building like any other project under a height restriction
(then maybe the unreasonableness of the policies will come to the forefront and result in broader change rather than a one-off exception).


https://council.vancouver.ca/20190423/documents/p12.pdf

No, because everyone will eventually forget about the entire thing to begin with.
This entire height limitation thing is probably also largely because of the wish to make this part of the flats 'mixed industrial' (ie. office parks), otherwise, you're looking at a Metro Vancouver rezoning process.

I don't think the height limitations are that bad. They're still looking at 8-9 stories of height, and density isn't increased by height (they're just adding a park), so I won't mind if the exception doesn't go through.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by officedweller

That is soo much higher than the area height limit.
Emily Carr had to fit under the height restriction - why should Lululemon get a variance?
They should be forced to build a short squat wide building like any other project under a height restriction
(then maybe the unreasonableness of the policies will come to the forefront and result in broader change rather than a one-off exception).


https://council.vancouver.ca/20190423/documents/p12.pdf

You're under the assumption that City Hall will approve more height. Seeing as other, more worthy rezonings have been shot down, nobody should be counting chickens yet.

[officedweller]

Yeah, but how often does council go against Staff recommendations?

[Vin]

Originally Posted by officedweller

That is soo much higher than the area height limit.
Emily Carr had to fit under the height restriction - why should Lululemon get a variance?
They should be forced to build a short squat wide building like any other project under a height restriction
(then maybe the unreasonableness of the policies will come to the forefront and result in broader change rather than a one-off exception).


https://council.vancouver.ca/20190423/documents/p12.pdf

This is so weird. Think about it: an area so close to downtown and a 11-13 storey building is considered the Burj Kalifa in the eyes of the City. This area should've been upzoned to 20-30+ stories a long time ago. Sometimes I wonder how businesses set up shop in this city.

[phesto]

Originally Posted by officedweller

That is soo much higher than the area height limit.
Emily Carr had to fit under the height restriction - why should Lululemon get a variance?
They should be forced to build a short squat wide building like any other project under a height restriction
(then maybe the unreasonableness of the policies will come to the forefront and result in broader change rather than a one-off exception).


https://council.vancouver.ca/20190423/documents/p12.pdf

I think Lululemon has a tad more influence at City Hall than the usual proponents.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by phesto

I think Lululemon has a tad more influence at City Hall than the usual proponents.

More pull than Bosa? I don't think LLL's going to get very far on this one.

[officedweller]

Yeah, too bad there wasn't a creek to daylight on West Georgia St.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Technically, neither does this location. Rewilding would mean dropping all of the Flats back into the ocean; what City Council proposes is more of a naturalistic canal to give Trout Lake some much-needed drainage.

[officedweller]

That map also shows all the stream beds that the Broadway subway will have to deal with. I recall that the original plan for tunneling the M-Line along Broadway to VCC was going to be problematic because of the soft soils from the stream bed - but I think that would have been cut and cover.

[jollyburger]

Previous proposals for that lot?





https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/1858...-Vancouver-BC/

https://council.vancouver.ca/20031118/a3.pdf

[officedweller]

Nice find!

[rofina]

This is silly.

How is it an issue to build 12 floors here? Good grief, were not debating the difference between 50 floors and 55...

Its a tiny building in an area designated for business, lets not over debate and analyse the shit out of everything, every time.

[Galaxy]

I agree with you Rofina! Although this is Vancouver so everything has so much red tape and needs to be picked through with a fine comb brush because no one in this town has anything better to do!

[GenWhy?]

Height limits and uses are in place to stem and hold land costs and taxes from going through the roof for industrial / businesses.

[officedweller]

Curious to see a rendering of the proposed design
- hard to see how a 11-13 storey building is 250 ft in height (unless that's just a spire or other architectural feature).
Office building don't have 20ft ceiling heights.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Curious to see a rendering of the proposed design
- hard to see how a 11-13 storey building is 250 ft in height (unless that's just a spire or other architectural feature).
Office building don't have 20ft ceiling heights.

I'm guessing that there's a very tall lobby and/or stilts involved. Remembers Rogers' south tower?