Downtown Vancouver Updates

[Vin]

Originally Posted by bc2mb

Now that the application is on the CoV site, some more renderings have become available.

Still bland... hopefully doesn't take away too much from the stacking boxes of 400 W. Georgia...

Table-topping alert!

The building looks bland and has no character at all. My point is, developers should not not just build something nicer to replace good buildings that they take down, just to convince the City and the public in general to approve. Why not strive to build something really nice and tall on a vacant piece of land?

A lot of recently demolished buildings had way more character than this.

[officedweller]

The curtain wall on the new tower looks more detailed than on either Telus Garden of Deloitte Summit.
There looks to be a recess (or imbedded I-beam) at each slab.

Originally Posted by Henbo

Is that a dedicated entrance for a bike parkade I see?

Yup - to/from the new bikeway.
Would be cool if the ramp wall to the cafe were glass.

[Feathered Friend]

Urban Design Hearts Flutter As Beautifully Unique Snap Shot In Time Captures Unanimous “Likey Likey”

443 Seymour Street (601 West Pender Street)
This office building might be proposed along a laneway special to many K-pop fans, but Hannah tells me only about 40 people attended its open house, and the food there wasn’t anything remarkable either. Ironically, I didn’t attend that event as it was scheduled the same day as another Urban Design Panel meeting, but the concerns she heard weren’t about the loss of this 5 floor parking garage backdrop from a record breaking music video. Instead, they came from nearby homeowners.

These members of a nearby strata council were upset about the impacts on their home’s privacy and views. While city staff dutifully raised these comments, one panel member appeared to speak for the group when they dismissed them, stating that anyone who buys a condo downtown should expect close neighbours. In fact, the panel commended how this consistency of form and grid influenced datum lines created an appropriate scale that was both neighbourly and respectful to the adjacent heritage buildings.

https://cityduo.wordpress.com/2020/02/18...p-shot-in-time-captures-unanimous-likey/

[Prometheus]

Thanks, Feathered Friend. Good work, as usual.

There is no dedicated thread for this proposal?

[Metro-One]

Love this proposal.

Night and day compared to the one above.

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by truenorth44

This site has been quiet (vacant) for a few weeks - either it's a Quebec company that's taking an extended 'construction holiday', or they're waiting for their above-grade building permit. Work has stopped with the ground floor formwork completed (Pender St side), awaiting the installation of rebar. We have enjoyed the peace and quiet next door!

August 29, 2019 - my pics:

Originally Posted by truenorth44

There are a couple of guys with small jack-hammers on-site today - can't tell yet what they're accomplishing. The Atco trailers on the Pender St hoarding were removed last September, and this is the first life I've seen on the site.

Originally Posted by truenorth44

A few more workers on site today, including the crane operator. With the jackhammer work they're doing, it appears that they're cleaning up the concrete pour joints, preparing for pouring more concrete.

A couple of pics from this past Sunday...




Feb.16 '20, my pics

[SpongeG]

ScotiaBank has windows plastered in the Davie Street Safeway development

2020-02-19_08-25-39 by snub_you, on Flickr

[mcminsen]

When I was walking along the Granville side of the Bay today I noticed that all the homeless encampments were gone and were replaced by planters, tables and chairs. The furniture pieces were all secured by a heavy duty cable looped through them.



Feb.19 '20, my pics

[Vancouver_Highrise]

^^

They also did the same further down Granville outside the future rec room development.

[trofirhen]

The tables and chairs look acceptable enough; a shame that on a sunny day, albeit cool, that people were not sitting out as is done elsewhere. Perhaps the cables scared them off.
Sad and shocking, but not surprising, about the homeless camps. That makes a statement about the economy and about society. There are vital issues to address; solutions are pending.

[SpongeG]

the homeless are everywhere downtown, spots along some streets are just piled with their stuff in shopping carts and people sleeping on the sidewalks. Much less centralized than it used to be.

I don't think these particular tables are being used because it's not really an area people want to hang out, they are put there as a deterrent so people don't sprawl all over the sidewalk as they do. Chained up tables are pretty normal all over the city otherwise they get stolen.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

When I was walking along the Granville side of the Bay today I noticed that all the homeless encampments were gone and were replaced by planters, tables and chairs. The furniture pieces were all secured by a heavy duty cable looped through them.

About bloody time.

Countdown to the usual suspects stealing the furniture.

[ericmacm]

Originally Posted by bc2mb

Not a fan of the tabletop effect at all. If it were just a few floors taller it would break up tabletop a little bit. The proposal also lacks a lot of personality and just seems like one of the cheapest, quickest designs they could have come up with. I'd expect a design like this for a smaller city that hasn't built any office towers in a decade or two, but never in Vancouver, given the vast amount of towers going up with more inspired designs.

I bet it'll get built pretty quickly though.

[SpongeG]

it had to be simple to let the building next to it stand out, otherwise it would just look silly.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

When I was walking along the Granville side of the Bay today I noticed that all the homeless encampments were gone and were replaced by planters, tables and chairs. The furniture pieces were all secured by a heavy duty cable looped through them.

The homeless simply move to the south side and Semour Street side to camp overnight. No one camps at Pacific Centre though, and I wonder how the PC's management does it.

I would rather the City enact a bylaw that bans all street and park camping.

[officedweller]

double post

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by Vin

I would rather the City enact a bylaw that bans all street and park camping.

there already is a bylaw about that... it just isn't enforced anymore...

[Vin]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

there already is a bylaw about that... it just isn't enforced anymore...

Then I suppose residents need to pressure the City to start enforcing it again. We don't pay taxes for them to do nothing. This City seems to give up on things: world class indeed.

[giallo]

Originally Posted by Vin

Then I suppose residents need to pressure the City to start enforcing it again. We don't pay taxes for them to do nothing. This City seems to give up on things: world class indeed.

The problem is that there isn't anywhere for them to go. You'll just end up shuffling the homeless to one area or another. It's never-ending.

[WarrenC12]

I'm not sure where this belongs but it's an interesting summary.

Letters just went out to people who applied (in November) to have their kids attend their catchment school for kindergarten. They include where your child is on the overflow list if they didn't get in, and the total size of the list:

(from Facebook)

Edit and Elsie Roy don't have numbers but definitely oversubscribed. Even Crosstown is already 45 kids over.

Note that K classes are 20 students, and most schools have 2 (so 40 kids max). So we are 12-14 classrooms short in this area. Insane!

Simon Fraser (at Manitoba and 15th!) is the catchment for Olympic Village, this is the group that has been pressuring for the long promised school in that area.