Burnaby Updates

[HomeBoy]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

That green space to the right of the building is where the tunnel is located. It won't actually go underneath the building

I think you're right, it looks like the tunnel will run up just beside the building.

I wonder how sound/vibration proof the building will be - I remember eating at the Sushi Garden restaurant at Lougheed and Madison and feeling the vibrations from the train under the building.

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by Sheba

I'm not sure what you expect. It's next to a small park, a few blocks from Kingsway and not that much farther from Metrotown. A retail podium wasn't going to happen at this location.

I didn't say anything about a retail podium, but a more substantial podium, even with townhouses at grade, would have looked infinitely better. Also the podium shouldn't have such a big setback from the street.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Jebby

I didn't say anything about a retail podium, but a more substantial podium, even with townhouses at grade, would have looked infinitely better. Also the podium shouldn't have such a big setback from the street.

You can see a row of townhouses on the far side of the render, facing the next street. Then a courtyard and what looks to be possibly some amenities space next to the somewhat hidden driveway. Interesting that they completely removed Grimmer St and have the property right next to the park there.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by TourOdeon

Quite exciting, it looks like there will be some cafes and restaurants on the ground floor. When's the expected completion date for this project?

Agreed! I hope Dawson is retained as a more pedestrian, lower rise street, filled some cafes and shops. This would be a good start towards achieving that vision.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Sheba

The sales center is taking shape (I only saw it from the back). Talking to one of the Value Village workers, it sounds like they expect to be there for another year and then that's it.

Wow Kings Crossing is stuck in slow motion - over two months later and the sales center still isn't finished. There were a couple workman at the building on the corner of Edmonds and Kingsway (where the office building is going to be). They're prettying it up for advertising for the development 'cause it's not supposed to be torn down until Feb.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Kisai

Looks like the Midori's Sales center is now open as of the 12th.
http://www.polyhomes.com/community/midori

They mailed out flyers for it this week.

[urbancanadian]

Polygon is proposing another 38-storey tower in between Midori (also by them) and Amacon's recently announced high-rise. There has been a lot of activity in this little area of Metrotown, so I made a quick map to show what's going on.

Yellow = Recently completed. Green = U/C. Blue = Proposed.



All of the buildings are in the 35- to 40-floor range, except for Amacon's tower, which is supposed to be 27 storeys. Without getting into the details of each development, I feel that this area really epitomizes some of Burnaby's overall planning problems, such as poor walkability in such a transit-friendly neighbourhood.

But regardless, this area has become quite the hotspot!

[quobobo]

Very helpful map, thanks.

[osirisboy]

Wow that's amazimg the change that area is seeing. Thx for that map. It would've been nice if grimmer couldvE gone through to Nelson

[Sheba]

I just wish Imperial would get some love, west of Nelson to Willingdon. Along there the south side is SFH with the occasional spot of retail (unlikely to be rezoned), while the north side is 2 and 3 story groundscraping apartment buildings. Even just bumping that up to 3 to 4 story buildings would be an improvement without 'destroying the character of the neighbourhood'.

[WugOverlord]

Originally Posted by urbancanadian

All of the buildings are in the 35- to 40-floor range, except for Amacon's tower, which is supposed to be 27 storeys. Without getting into the details of each development, I feel that this area really epitomizes some of Burnaby's overall planning problems, such as poor walkability in such a transit-friendly neighbourhood.

Thanks for the little illustration. Looking forward to seeing how it all pans out. I don't know much about urban design, would you mind elaborating on how exactly this area highlights poor walkability/ Burnaby's general poor planning?

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by WugOverlord

Thanks for the little illustration. Looking forward to seeing how it all pans out. I don't know much about urban design, would you mind elaborating on how exactly this area highlights poor walkability/ Burnaby's general poor planning?

I presume he means because there are longish north - south blocks. I'd be surprised if there are no east - west walkways between the buildings. My guess would be just south of Midori and then either north or south of The Park Metro. That would give easy access to Bonsor Park and Rec Center.

[Large Cat]

Originally Posted by Sheba

I just wish Imperial would get some love, west of Nelson to Willingdon. Along there the south side is SFH with the occasional spot of retail (unlikely to be rezoned), while the north side is 2 and 3 story groundscraping apartment buildings. Even just bumping that up to 3 to 4 story buildings would be an improvement without 'destroying the character of the neighbourhood'.

Yes, but remember that these are important relatively low-cost apartment buildings that are coming in shorter and shorter supply around Metrotown and in the region. While I would welcome new development on Imperial, I think it's definitely better that theyve started with more industrial plots around Royal Oak. The Beresford and Nelson towers that have provoked protests because of demolitions at least have the benefit of a huge density bonus, but even then I question whether they are worth it in terms of net benefit to Burnaby. In fact, I'd much rather they redeveloped the single-family homes south of Imperial than the apartment blocks right next to the station.

[Tetsuo]

Originally Posted by urbancanadian

Polygon is proposing another 38-storey tower in between Midori (also by them) and Amacon's recently announced high-rise. There has been a lot of activity in this little area of Metrotown, so I made a quick map to show what's going on.

Yellow = Recently completed. Green = U/C. Blue = Proposed.



All of the buildings are in the 35- to 40-floor range, except for Amacon's tower, which is supposed to be 27 storeys. Without getting into the details of each development, I feel that this area really epitomizes some of Burnaby's overall planning problems, such as poor walkability in such a transit-friendly neighbourhood.

But regardless, this area has become quite the hotspot!

Originally Posted by WugOverlord

Thanks for the little illustration. Looking forward to seeing how it all pans out. I don't know much about urban design, would you mind elaborating on how exactly this area highlights poor walkability/ Burnaby's general poor planning?

Well look at MET, the parking garage access is off Nelson right next to the new super long crosswalk with poor visibility and signage. The crosswalk is in such an awkward spot as on one end you have cars either turning to the parking garage or to Bonsor.

You also have to go around the park and can't cut through due to lack of pathways and fences

This area is going to become even more of a cluster-f in regards to walking and driving, Nelson and Imperial is a small intersection with many people doing left turns, lots of blind spots.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by urbancanadian

Polygon is proposing another 38-storey tower in between Midori (also by them) and Amacon's recently announced high-rise. There has been a lot of activity in this little area of Metrotown, so I made a quick map to show what's going on.

Yellow = Recently completed. Green = U/C. Blue = Proposed.



All of the buildings are in the 35- to 40-floor range, except for Amacon's tower, which is supposed to be 27 storeys. Without getting into the details of each development, I feel that this area really epitomizes some of Burnaby's overall planning problems, such as poor walkability in such a transit-friendly neighbourhood.

But regardless, this area has become quite the hotspot!

And it's going to continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

Lots' of low to mid-rises from the 1950's/1960's which are effectively losing their owners a lot of money given how high the property rates are going to be climbing for the next couple of years with all the high-rises coming up in the neighborhood and the general proximity to the Mall and Kingsway.

I expect to see a lot more of those property owners along Imperial, and even Beresford, selling to developers as the market rates justify it.


Does anyone have any idea if Sears are still planning on moving ahead with their 7 tower project on Kingsway or did that project just die in development hell?
A project of that scale (which would probably on par with the Brentwood mega-projects currently in process or in planning/permit application) would put even more pressure on more of those low-rises to get sold off and make way for higher density towers.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by Sheba

I just wish Imperial would get some love, west of Nelson to Willingdon. Along there the south side is SFH with the occasional spot of retail (unlikely to be rezoned), while the north side is 2 and 3 story groundscraping apartment buildings. Even just bumping that up to 3 to 4 story buildings would be an improvement without 'destroying the character of the neighbourhood'.

Isn't there a school somewhere in that vicinity, just next to Moda?

That's also unlikely to get rezoned any time soon.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by Sheba

I presume he means because there are longish north - south blocks. I'd be surprised if there are no east - west walkways between the buildings. My guess would be just south of Midori and then either north or south of The Park Metro. That would give easy access to Bonsor Park and Rec Center.

This is so true and so endemic to that entire area of Burnaby.

Such horribly walkability (even bike-ability) and it's pretty clear the area was planned/designed by people who drive everywhere (including to and from places like parks, which is where they do their walking/hiking).

Even just the lack of pedestrian crossings in logical spots forcing very long walks to intersections just to cross the street.

The super-long North-South blocks are pretty ridiculous and cartoonish though.

[officedweller]

The large blocks in the area probably result from the industrial nature of the area.

See some history of Metrotown here:

http://davidpereira.ca/projects/burn...res/metrotown/

[urbancanadian]

Thanks for the feedback.

And yeah, Metrotown has some pretty huge "super blocks". Metrotown and Bonsor are obviously the big ones, and are somewhat unavoidable, but there are lots of others as well. It seems like a lot of laneways have been completely eliminated in favour of largely private green space. As far as this area, and the residential areas to the south of the mall there are just a ton of long blocks that go on without any breaks. They aren't really super blocks - they're just too long.

I think Officedweller is completely right, in that the industrial roots of the area are the cause for the huge block-sizes. I'd say Brentwood is even worse, and it's also transforming from industrial to residential/mixed-use. But that's where the bad planning comes in. When they decided to make the switch, after SkyTrain came along, they would have needed to be far more comprehensive in their approach. What we basically see is a laissez-faire approach, where each land parcel has a general land-use designation and FSR limit, and the rest is just a free for all. That's why we see so many tower-in-the-park designs in the worst places. (Chancellor, Vantage, and the Renaissance Towers come to mind as just some of the worst.)

Without getting overly critical, there are a few things I think they could have done to improve this little area.
- Punch Grimmer Street (east of Midori) through to either Brief St. or Jubilee Ave.
- Extend Dunblane Ave. through to Bennett St. The lost park space could be regained by closing that portion of Grimmer and demolishing the small rowhouses to the south.
- Some of the CACs could go towards improving the park.
- Re-instate the laneways in between Nelson/Dunblane, and Dunblane/Marlborough. Parkade access would then be provided from there.
- Then you could build a strong street wall along each road, and gradually scale the heights down toward Royal Oak Ave. For example, you could have towers with 4- or 6-storey podiums, just like downtown. It could allow for a bit more density, while spacing the towers a little more equally. It would all require some more complicated land deals, but nothing crazy.

I'm just thinking out loud here, and this is just a of couple blocks, but you get the point. After these projects are built, it will be a bit better. But here's another map, using the last one I posted, showing the quickest path from the homes east along Grimmer and Bonsor Park. Still really confusing...

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

Does anyone have any idea if Sears are still planning on moving ahead with their 7 tower project on Kingsway or did that project just die in development hell?
A project of that scale (which would probably on par with the Brentwood mega-projects currently in process or in planning/permit application) would put even more pressure on more of those low-rises to get sold off and make way for higher density towers.

I haven't heard anything since they first put the proposal forward - and that was when Sears owned the property and was going to work with Concord on redeveloping it. Since then they've sold it to Concord and are leasing the store from them. So it's up to Concord now and they haven't said anything about it.