Vancouver’s downtown Jameson House project, designed by London architectural firm Foster and Partners, will offer several unique design features but perhaps the feature setting it apart from others is its automated parking system that is the first of its kind in Canada.
High-rise parking garages have been a place that many condo dwellers were reluctant to visit, especially women, late at night or in early mornings. The Jameson House complex does away with the conventional underground facility. “We have a fully automated parking system,” says Lee Hallman, the project architect representing Foster and Partners in Vancouver. Known as Swiss Park, the Swiss-made system has been used in Europe since 1956 and eliminates the need to venture underground to park or retrieve a vehicle. It serves as an invisible parking valet.
Hallman says residents simply drive into the building’s parking entrance, swipe a parking card and drive into a garage-like bay. Once parked in the bay, the driver leaves the vehicle and motion detectors ensure that the driver (children, pets, or passengers) have really left the vehicle. Once satisfied that all are out of the vehicle, the detectors allow the garage door to close on the bay, and the vehicle is moved via a conveyor system to a parking shelf. “Only the underside of the (car’s) wheels move (once it is at shelf level),” says Hallman and the conveyed vehicle is then rolled onto the assigned parking spot. When the individual wishes to retrieve the vehicle, the vehicle owner simply swipes the parking card into the garage’s computer slot and the computer reads where it has assigned the vehicle. The vehicle is rolled off the shelf onto the delivery platform and when the garage doors open, the resident’s vehicle is waiting.
“There is no need to lock your vehicle,” says Hallman, adding that access to the area is restricted. Safeguards have been built in as well. Should someone be left sleeping in a vehicle (that the motion detectors miss), then once the individual moves out of the vehicle (in the underground area), motion detectors will shut down the whole conveyor system and security will be immediately alerted.
Since vehicle stacking takes less room than a regular underground parking area, the cost saving to the developer comes in less structure to build, less excavation as less basement can accommodate the structure, and there is less need for lighting. (The vehicles are automatically measured when they arrive in the bays and the system knows whether to take it to a small or large parking slot, which also conserves space). Hallman says the parkade will consist of two parts and depending upon the number of parking spots allocated to an apartment, the computer will give two-car families one spot in each part of the parkade. In the event that one half the system malfunctions, the family can still access a vehicle in the second section.
Nigel Dancy, one of the partners from the London-based firm, says despite the innovative parking, a substantial feature of this structure is the client’s desire to make it a sustainable building. Not only in the features itself, but in the way that it integrates into the downtown core. “This is a place to work and live,” he says, adding that larger cities such as Hong Kong and New York are actively seeking to draw back residents to the downtown core in a bid to combat traffic congestion. One of the city’s requirements for the redevelopment of the site was the inclusion of office space, which is needed to balance the city’s core needs. The Jameson House is the first residential complex for Foster and Partners in North America, although it has an extensive history in Europe and has commercial projects in Calgary and Toronto. It is known for merging high-tech with unusual designs.
The Jameson House will consist of three parts: street-level retail outlets (which will also be placed in the two next-door heritage buildings, the former Royal Bank building and the Ceperley Rounsfell building); a mid-section, which will house office space and be at the same level as other office buildings on the street and finally, a cantilevered residential tower holding 131 apartments. The footprint of the tower’s top is actually larger than at the street level. Jameson House, which will be built on the old Jolly Taxpayer pub site at 830 Hastings Street, will offer 17 different residential condo floor plans with five penthouses spread over three levels. (The top level, or roof- top, serves as a terrace garden for the penthouses. A glassed in portion of the roof is a skylight for each penthouse’s stairway connecting the unit’s two-floors below.) Since all the mechanical has been installed between the office and the residential sections of the building, the roof space has been left clear for terrace development.
Sustainability is reflected directly in the building’s mechanical. It has its own co-generation plant. To make co-generation work, says Hallman, there must be full utilization. The building’s mixed use provides the ideal setting. Power consumption is used in the mornings and evenings by residents within the residential areas (the 17th to 37th floors with 38 serving as the penthouse roof). The 16 floors of office and retail space in the complex, which also includes the two heritage buildings next door, utilize energy consumption during the day. Therefore, use of power is balanced during the day and into the evening. The need for air-conditioning is also eliminated by using water-heated and cooled floors. Jameson House has been designed to exceed the LEEDS standards. The high degree of sustainability, including exterior cladding, which will contain and reflect heat according to the climate – was a requirement set out by the developer, James Development Corp, Foster and Partners’ client.
Local architect Walter Francl of Francl Architects in Vancouver is working on the project as associate architect and helping to solve such problems as how to keep the heritage structure of the A-listed 1921 Ceperley Rounsfell building in place while excavation goes on for the underground vehicle storage area. (The Royal Bank building is on the B-list and only a facade). The solution says Francl and Hallman is to suspend the whole building, which measures 120 by 24 by 30 feet. General contractor Stuart Olson will place supports every three feet under the walls of the Ceperley Rounsfell structure. Four concrete support columns will be built around the building and the supports will be fastened back to these columns. “It’s like being hung under the bottom of a bridge,” says Hallman, as he describes the process that will allow crews to safely excavate beneath it without leading to the destruction of the heritage site. During the process, he says, Stuart Olson will have its offices in the building.
The building’s exterior design is also different from conventional Vancouver design. It is a series of B-shaped curves along the face of the building and, in some units called the “organic” suites, this curved design is carried into the interior layout to the rooms. The ability to provide this curved design, without moving to a thicker concrete floor slab was made possible through the architect’s design. It utilizes one-third of the C-shaped curve (in the exterior design) as a cement support wall while the remainder is curved glass. Hallman says the cement portion of the curve also provides the privacy needed for interior design rooms such as the bedroom. Other more public areas utilize the sweeping views that are afforded by the curved glass bay windows inserted in the remaining two-thirds of the C. (The building uses a post-tension concrete slab for the residential areas and a conventional concrete slab for the office and retail areas). When complete, it will offer a striking curved glass front that will set it apart from other towers set along the Vancouver waterfront.
In order not to build on top of the two heritage buildings, a cantilevered design emerged for the upper office and residential floors yielding almost a P-shaped or cantilevered configuration. “A cantilevered design is relatively uncommon for Vancouver, “ says Francl. “But it is in response to the site. We have designed for the block – not just the site.” The rooftops of the heritage sites will serve as a garden area and also will be used to direct light into the retail shops that will be housed inside the two heritage structures.
Those occupying the offices will look onto the garden rooftops of the heritage buildings or into other office buildings. The residential portion is built above the office buildings on the block, thus providing for privacy.
Construction is expected to begin at the end of March, when a development permit is issued, and the structure is expected to be complete by fall 2009. Hallman says escalating construction costs are a major consideration in a hot market such as Vancouver. “It is also a concern when you are selling up-front,” he says, as Rennie Marketing is taking over the sales of the units by month’s end.
As a result, he says, Foster is looking to do as much prefab and modular design components as possible so that the requirement for local skilled trades (which are in short supply) can be reduced and also reduce the on-site time needed to bring the project onto the market. The closets and the bathrooms are done in modular units. A model in the display centre (located at 830 Pender), shows the modular concept behind the bathrooms, with each wall-module offering fixtures. The bathrooms can be expanded from a simple three-piece (three modules) bathroom to five pieces. However, the need to reduce assembly time is most evident when considering Foster and Partner’s role in the kitchen.
“We have completely prefabricated the kitchen,” says Hallman, adding the firm went to Italian manufacturer Molteni S. Dada, which was able to bring all modern kitchen features (cabinet fridge, built-in dishwasher and cold storage areas and countertop stove plus cabinets) into a stainless steel countered, modern unit. The units can be expanded for the larger suites or shortened to accommodate the smaller spaces. The suites, which have a clean, open-space design, utilize a dining or work island in the kitchen that has one end, which automatically lowers to accommodate children or can be used as a computer station. The prefabs, which resemble a wall unit, have been adapted to reflect the North American demands such as wider kitchen counter and offer various color combinations.
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