Downtown Vancouver Updates

[jollyburger]

Ace Hotel just opened in Toronto and soon Australia

https://www.businesstraveller.com/busine...ce-hotel-to-open-in-toronto-this-spring/

Though it seems kind of small even for Ace.

[svlt]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Ace Hotel just opened in Toronto and soon Australia

https://www.businesstraveller.com/busine...ce-hotel-to-open-in-toronto-this-spring/

Though it seems kind of small even for Ace.

Now that's the kind of hotel chain I would like to see in Gastown

[SFUVancouver]

It's my understanding that in the mid-2000s the Ace Hotel Group was in talks to buy the Gastown building housing the Water Street Cafe. Clearly, it never happened, but they were certainly looking at Vancouver, and at a much earlier stage in the company's life when it was just still primarily a Pacific Northwest-based hotelier.

[privatejet]

From https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by privatejet

From https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca

thanks for the link. looks like a Commercial addition.





more pics from the site https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca/

[scryer]

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

thanks for the link. looks like a Commercial addition.





more pics from the site https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca/

Even though they just stamped a glass box over The Bay, it looks like a nice glass box just based on the render.

With that said, I am kind of thinking that the historical & heritage societies in Vancouver will have a field day with this one. On one hand, I do think that our Bay buildings are worth saving them as-is because architecture like that is no longer being built. To use a bit of an extreme example, it would be like Rome adding a glass box on the Pantheon.

But on the other hand, the Post Office set the precedent in Vancouver that adding glass boxes ontop of heritage buildings is completely acceptable. So...

[connect2source]

Would love this one just kept as-is on the exterior. It's stately and elegant and always reminds me of Selfridges in London. The tower addition greatly detracts from the perfect proportions. Great department store landmark buildings around the world usually aren't typically tampered with. A more modest addition, similar to Ogilvy in Montreal would work better.

[city guy]

*sigh* yet ANOTHER grey/blue curtain wall for Georgia St.

[WarrenC12]

I like it. Approved.

[GenWhy?]

Only things left original I think are the exterior and the "dinning room" wood columns and skylight. Place is a real hodge podge

[giallo]

I quite like it.

[Changing City]

Some additional details on The Bay. About 1 million sq. ft. of office space, and 350,000 in departmental store. (It looks like the top two floors of the heritage building will be office). Open concept escalator linked retail space. No on-site parking for cars - the existing parkade remains the parking (so Holborn aren't off the hook to provide parking). Basement level includes a 1,500 space bike parkade (presumably mostly a requirement for the office).

Not much more on the Changing City blog

[officedweller]

Thanks for posting, it's as expected, but the consistency of the facade seems to work well with the HBC facade.
With the atrium spaces hidden behind the curtain wall (instead of being exposed), it maintains the rhythm and doesn't try to be "showy".

It'll be interesting to see if the "fine grain" of mullions is simplified in the "cheapening", as was done at The Post.

EDIT:
You can already see the simplification of the facade in this other rendering:

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

thanks for the link. looks like a Commercial addition.

[officedweller]

Note that they have moved the spacing of the 2 Georgia frontage canopies closer together.

Originally Posted by privatejet

From https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca

Interior main floor rendering.
I'm not sure how an escalator from Granville Station could come up from the south, unless they are sending people around a circuitous route (?).

What areas in the building will be available to the public?
A reconfigured retail space will be enhanced by a new transit hub, with bicycle storage in the building’s lower floors. New public pedestrian walkways
will provide covered access linking the Bay Building, its new office space, surrounding businesses, and downtown shopping areas. One arcade will link
Granville and Seymour Streets mid-block, and provide access to the SkyTrain, retail, and office spaces.

https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca/about/

Potentially an interior atrium in the department store (or new mall?):


https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca/about/


Skewed escalators like Holt Renfrew or International Village (also seen on the right side of the sketch above).


https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca/sustainability/

The basement levels (plural) will become a bike locker room. I suppose it's an admission that the space is not leasable.

Bike to Downtown
The lower levels of the Bay Building will create a transport hub, integrated with the existing downtown cycling network to add storage
for around 1,500 bicycles and will provide direct access to transit and SkyTrain through new pedestrian links.

https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca/about/


https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca/sustainability/

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Potentially an interior atruium in the department store (or new mall?):

They say that the retail space will be a Bay store, so not a mall. The space will be 350,000 sq. ft, so just over half the space the current store occupies (650,000).

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

i think i would like to see some kind of historic lighting added to the top of the building like there used to be. though i would need to see it with this new building ontop to see how it would work with the addition.



overall i dont mind it. i just hope they use a high quality glass. i thought this site was one of the ones that could go high to like 550' though?

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by scryer

Even though they just stamped a glass box over The Bay, it looks like a nice glass box just based on the render.

With that said, I am kind of thinking that the historical & heritage societies in Vancouver will have a field day with this one. On one hand, I do think that our Bay buildings are worth saving them as-is because architecture like that is no longer being built. To use a bit of an extreme example, it would be like Rome adding a glass box on the Pantheon.

But on the other hand, the Post Office set the precedent in Vancouver that adding glass boxes ontop of heritage buildings is completely acceptable. So...

Yes, as you say it is significant for the architecture and then when you bring in the important place of HBC in Canadian history it is even more significant.

I am a little worried this glass box will overwhelm the building unlike the Post. I assume the store will have to close while all this takes place though. How will they handle that?

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by whatnext

I assume the store will have to close while all this takes place though. How will they handle that?

Maybe the new Oakridge HBC store store will open before this one is closed
and will be the flagship for a few years during construction.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Changing City

They say that the retail space will be a Bay store, so not a mall. The space will be 350,000 sq. ft, so just over half the space the current store occupies (650,000).

I wonder how much of the HBC store will be at-grade?
That main corridor reminds me of the east-west corridor inside the Hotel Vancouver.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by Changing City

They say that the retail space will be a Bay store, so not a mall. The space will be 350,000 sq. ft, so just over half the space the current store occupies (650,000).

Sounds like a mixture:

The Bay Building will offer a whole new retail environment for visitors to Hudson’s Bay and other new stores with a mix of dining and entertainment interspersed throughout a future-ready retail experience.