Burnaby Updates

[officedweller]

I think they look good, although I think I see a spandrel grid at the penthouse levels.
I think the east tower should be flipped to face east and the south tower should be rotated to face south.
There's a bit too much repetition with than all facing west.

If the vertical cladding on the towers demarcate the office floors (west tower) and hotel floors (east tower) - those spaces are not huge.

The Daily Hive story calls it an "early design" - so hopefully it has improved since.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/loug...opment-burnaby

There's a faint resemblance to this Toronto project:
https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread....10346/page-93

[Henbo]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Yes its definitely an simple estimate based on 10' per floor. I'm hearing 270m-275m for Tower 1 and 240m-245m for tower 2.

Wow, this building won't be much lower then the peak of Burnaby mountain

Burnaby mountain peak = 370m

Lougheed base height = ~50m + 270m = 320m

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by officedweller

There's a faint resemblance to this Toronto project:
https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread....10346/page-93

Pinnacle is working with Hariri Pontarini on another condo and it also has some rememblances with One Bloor.



https://hariripontarini.com/projects/one-bloor/

[Cypherus]

Tower design is great, but I wish the shorter towers were of a different design to add architectural interest. 3 towers designed to look exactly the same, is a reflection of the value engineering gone too far.

[csbvan]

Vertical suburbia on steroids. Exactly what I would expect from Burnaby's tallest.

[Metro-One]

Given that Lougheed Town Centre is essentially little Korea, the three tall monolithic yet modern towers look quite appropriate. As if they were lifted directly from Seoul or Busan.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Given that Lougheed Town Centre is essentially little Korea, the three tall monolithic yet modern towers look quite appropriate. As if they were lifted directly from Seoul or Busan.

Little Korea or not, I agree that the design similarity in the three-tower complex adds a cohesion to it all. Differering designs would IMO make the complex "busy" and "cluttered."

[Spr0ckets]

Speaking of Pinnacle....

(or at least their other high-profile project in Downtown)

https://urbanyvr.com/pinnacles-55-st...light-redesign

Don't know if it's okay to post this here, but given the similarities in the design style of that tower to this project, I thought it might be apropos.

(Mods, feel free to delete if I'm incorrect)

They do seem to have a signature stylistic "feel" for their tower projects.

[BobLoblawsLawBlog]

Is it appropriate to make a separate thread for the Metrotown Plan? I mean, the Olympic village has got one, and Metrotown is a bigger deal than that. Also, this is coming as Ivanhoe Cambridge announced plans to redevelop.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...plan-1.5339075

[owenhujb]

Definitely appropriate, even Surrey has one (Surrey center redevelopment plans)

[SpongeG]

a good view of metrotown

• Video Link

[Kisai]

Originally Posted by BobLoblawsLawBlog

Is it appropriate to make a separate thread for the Metrotown Plan? I mean, the Olympic village has got one, and Metrotown is a bigger deal than that. Also, this is coming as Ivanhoe Cambridge announced plans to redevelop.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...plan-1.5339075

I hope saner individuals realize that destroying the primary job, shopping and attraction in Burnaby is a stupid idea, and both Concord Pacific and Ivanhoe Cambridge realize that trying to quickly cash out turning the mall into yet-more-shoebox condos is not a good thing. The plan to destroy the mall is stupid, and is akin to destroying a major landmark.

But at this rate the city council seems to just be back to approving mass demovictions.

Accorde Properties has put Marlborough back on the Public Hearing list for November 19th.

[logan5]

Renters in Burnaby are well protected now. New rules stipulate that renters being displaced must be found new accommodations at the same rental rate while the project is being built, and are given the right to a unit in the hew building at the same rate they were paying before.

The original proposal here was for a 24 story tower with townhouses. The new proposal calls for a 34 story mixed tenure tower with a 4 story affordable rental building. The 4 story building is likely for the displaced tenants, and the extra height on the tower is likely to accommodate the 20% rental requirement. Overall Burnaby gains rental units, as well as market condos.

The mall will still exist, but it will take on the form of Pacific Centre.

[Kisai]

Originally Posted by logan5

Renters in Burnaby are well protected now. New rules stipulate that renters being displaced must be found new accommodations at the same rental rate while the project is being built, and are given the right to a unit in the hew building at the same rate they were paying before.

The original proposal here was for a 24 story tower with townhouses. The new proposal calls for a 34 story mixed tenure tower with a 4 story affordable rental building. The 4 story building is likely for the displaced tenants, and the extra height on the tower is likely to accommodate the 20% rental requirement. Overall Burnaby gains rental units, as well as market condos.

The mall will still exist, but it will take on the form of Pacific Centre.

The current owner is still trying to trick people into moving out (several units in my building are vacant.)

Like, personally. I do-not-care about the buildings themselves, they are between 60 and 80 years old, but they're not really in poor condition. Elsewhere in the province they just renovate units in these types of buildings to keep the building from catching fire or rotting or due to the climate-imposed wear.

However I do not believe until I see it in writing that the owner will good-faith try to find places for displaced renters. The people in the buildings are paying like pre-Olympics pricing for rent, while units in surrounding the property are triple the rental price. They tricked a few into moving out by promising them 8 months rent and then didn't pay up once they left (from what I heard.)

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by Kisai

I hope saner individuals realize that destroying the primary job, shopping and attraction in Burnaby is a stupid idea, and both Concord Pacific and Ivanhoe Cambridge realize that trying to quickly cash out turning the mall into yet-more-shoebox condos is not a good thing. The plan to destroy the mall is stupid, and is akin to destroying a major landmark.
.......

Everybody seems to have missed from that announcement that the Ivanhoe Cambridge VP stated that nothing is going to happen to the mall for quite a while.
And this is, after all, a 100 year plan.

Which means they could sit on their thumbs and do nothing for the next 40 years and continue to let the goose lay its golden eggs and cash in on the record revenues that the mall generates, and then put out another grand ambitious plan or update then, depending on the prevailing political and economic mood.

I've said it before, but Ivanhoe Cambridge are not developers.
They're primarily mall owners and mall operators and if there were serious concrete plans afoot to actually develop the mall, they likely would do it in partnership with actual developers who know what they're doing in that kind of business.

That hasn't happened, so that just clues you into the level of seriousness involved here.
(if anything, they're currently tied up in a court battle with the sort of developers that one could envision them partnering up with, over the proposal to redevelop the old Sears lot and parking lot)

It's a populist thing at the moment to voice support for the idea of breaking up the mall (as you can see from the comments in this forum) - which is what they're doing - but it's also one that's primarily not grounded in any economic or pragmatic reality.
So they'll pay it lip service, but continue to let things run as they're running - which is working out great for them, when you look at those mall revenue figures from the past couple of years.

[cairnstone]

I would assume that IC will start in about 5 to 10 years with redevelopment. The mall is 20 years since the last upgrade. It is 3 malls that have been built together and there are many issues with the current building. Unless things have changed there are several owners still of the property.

[logan5]

I don't know man, sounds like they're very serious about this. At the rate Metrotown is growing, I seriously doubt it will take 70 years to redevelop the mall. Look how fast downtown Vancouver has grown since the 90's til now, which is less than 30 years. Metrotown is the next frontier for mass tower development, so I wouldn't be surprised if the mall was completely rebuilt by 2050, or about 30 years from now.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by cairnstone

I would assume that IC will start in about 5 to 10 years with redevelopment. The mall is 20 years since the last upgrade. It is 3 malls that have been built together and there are many issues with the current building. Unless things have changed there are several owners still of the property.

It was 3 malls. There's Station Square (which has always been separate and is being redeveloped) and then Eatons Centre and Metrotown Centre, which merged into one about 15 years ago (when the last major upgrade was done). Also about the only 'official' people talking about redeveloping the main section of the mall work for the city.

[vanman]

I posted this before but I'll post it again. Not sure why everyone is wildy speculating about Metrtotown mall when Ivanhoe Cambridge itself has already stated the direction they will be going.

Originally Posted by vanman

Conceptual plans of the Metrotown redevelopment will be released at an open house on November 25th.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5339075

The audio clip with the vice president of Ivanhoe Cambridge is worth a listen.

-12,000 residential units
-Kingsway parking lots to be redeveloped first

[Vin]

I hope Cambridge Ivanhoe ignores this masterplan and keeps improving on the mall without sacrificing its footprint. This will force the next council to redraw the commercial centre map of Metrotown Centre to either south of Metropolis mall (south of Beresford), or east of Bonsor park, or even next to Central Park, or all of the above. That should be the right way for a city centre to grow.

The City can't afford to wait around for the mall to be gone to have a CBD built. Business opportunities would be lost if they wait around for 100 years, and I find that really really stupid.