CF Pacific Centre Developments

[officedweller]

Pics by me today:

Still one more level of second skin to be installed:



The interior wall looks to wrap around the corner too.
I think that's drywall installed on the ceiling above the escalators to the mall
(good sign the mall will open in Spring ahead of Nordstrom?)

[nickbeaulieu]

Awesome! I love department stores that don't let any natural light in. Such a warm shopping experience.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

so, they get rid of sold walls; put up windows to let light in; then put a wall up behind the windows to stop light from coming in? wheres the logic in that?

such a piece of crap this building became.

[SpongeG]

thats how department stores are, the bayès windows on the unrenovated floors are all blocked off

[officedweller]

From Yellow Fever at SSC.
Posted yesterday.
Most of the scaffolding is gone from Howe St.

Originally Posted by Yellow Fever

IMG_8004 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_8005 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

[Tfreder]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

thats how department stores are, the bayès windows on the unrenovated floors are all blocked off

I've always wondered about the "Business logic" behind department stores choosing not to utilize any windows. Personally, I love to be able to have natural light when I'm shopping.

[officedweller]

The primary concern would be clothes fading from sunlight -
but there are other ways to mitigate that - UV film, product placement, etc.

Nordstrom blocking the windows doesn't make sense to me, although Winners has its Granville windows blocked off (while its south windows near the cashiers are wide open).
The Bay's men's wear has a lot of exposed windows, too.

[djh]

Originally Posted by Tfreder

I've always wondered about the "Business logic" behind department stores choosing not to utilize any windows. Personally, I love to be able to have natural light when I'm shopping.

Apart from the reasons Officedweller mentioned, there's also probably the same behavioural logic that casinos use: remove any indicators of the outside world and people will lose track of time and keep shopping in your establishment.

[Klazu]

James Cheng is a joke. It took years for the old Eaton's to start looking like an outdated eyesore, but the new building manages to do that even before completed. It is beyond me how anyone would pay these clown architects a dime...

[Nites]

Originally Posted by djh

Apart from the reasons Officedweller mentioned, there's also probably the same behavioural logic that casinos use: remove any indicators of the outside world and people will lose track of time and keep shopping in your establishment.

The Bay utilizes windows upstairs in the mens department. When your in the change room by the dress shirt department you can get pretty good view outside lol.

[connect2source]

Originally Posted by Klazu

James Cheng is a joke. It took years for the old Eaton's to start looking like an outdated eyesore, but the new building manages to do that even before completed. It is beyond me how anyone would pay these clown architects a dime...

Agreed!!! I've been posting old photos of the Eaton's building in it's prime, throughout this thread, before the addition of the 6th and 7th floors and when it was kept in pristine condition. It was striking, modernist, simple and stunning in it's day. It complemented the TD Tower perfectly and unified the overall look of Pacific Centre.

This hodgepodge, mismatched mess does nothing to unify the overall look of the block. Not only is the building itself a mess but it's now a total mismatch for the TD Tower. Did anyone take into account the PC should maintain a unified look overall, like Bentall Centre and Royal Centre still manage to do?

I predict this building will be an instant embarrassment and will be ridiculed from day one. With the hate-on for the late stages of the Sears building this building had, Vancouver had high hopes and was expecting great things!! This building was being more closely watched than perhaps anything else downtown and now we have this to contend with for decades.

A re-skinning of the building could have maintained the original look by simply adding simple dark glazing to the upper floors, boxing the building off to it's original shape and perhaps more glazing at street level while leaving the terrazzo white and matching the glazing to that of the TD Tower. Done!

EATON'S building in the good days :

Photos by : http://departmentstoremuseum.blogspot.ca

[Denscity]

...another benefit of windows in a department store, especially ground level ones: Customers are more likely to enter if they know whats inside. Especially if they've never been inside before.

[osirisboy]

I don't like the original one at all I think it looks cold and sterile and the place was poorly designed with that weird dead space in the back corner

[officedweller]

The back corner (NW corner) wasn't "dead" until the entrances through the TD Bank branch and the breezeway were closed. They were still open in the early 1990s from what I recall (From TD Tower you could walk through the bank, across the breezeway into Eaton's and get to Robson street without stepping outside).

The new 725 Granville office lobby will reinvigorate that breezeway, but the connectivity from the bank through to the department store will still be lost.

************

Pics by me last night -
I'm not sure what the steel structure is for - it doesn't look like it will be hoisted up, as they've installed steel studs in the area (but I guess it could be?). It could just be a raised floor in that area (as a transition from the entrance mezzanine), which might create the need for handicapped ramps, etc. The steel does not extend to the rotunda entrance (where the entrance mezzanine would be).

Looking towards rotunda:


Note the cove ceiling above the raised area:




A bit farther south (south of the emergency stair stack), the whole ceiling is uniformly lower:


Pics by me today:

The concrete for the raised sidewalk extension was poured yesterday:


You can see the planters along the stationhouse and the angled floor where the steps will be installed:

[EdinVan]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

I don't like the original one at all I think it looks cold and sterile and the place was poorly designed with that weird dead space in the back corner

There are far weirder things on the current building; the original was vastly superior (at least while it was still maintained). Sitting as it does in such a prominent location, this building is a true embarrassment to the residents of this city.

Shame.

[osirisboy]

Originally Posted by EdinVan

There are far weirder things on the current building; the original was vastly superior (at least while it was still maintained). Sitting as it does in such a prominent location, this building is a true embarrassment to the residents of this city.

Shame.

Totally disagree. And hopefully you aren't loosing sleep over this embarrassment lol

[GMasterAres]

It looks like a standard department store building you'd find in downtown Seattle or downtown anywhere-America. I find it just boring as a building but I also found the original building there fugly probably because as has been pointed out, it was barely if not at all maintained.

That said, I don't think this building was going to be winning any awards anyway given I'm sure the redesign/reskin budget wasn't likely massive.

I am surprised there seems to be less street-front interaction compared to what urban designers are trying to do these days, but I'll wait to see the final building when complete to judge for myself.

[trofirhen]

I think the present one is a bit of a disappointment in that it's too "busy," and has not capitalized enough on street/building interaction and "permeability' (underuse of windows, etc) ....
However, IMO, the previous one was a shrieking monstrosity that bred microbes.
Voila.

[logan5]

The green spandrel clashes so badly with the terracotta or whatever material that is. It's as if Mr. Glass just said screw it, let's just throw any old glass on there.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

so, they get rid of sold walls; put up windows to let light in; then put a wall up behind the windows to stop light from coming in? wheres the logic in that?

such a piece of crap this building became.

Yeah, it's pretty suspect when the architects reason for cladding the building in glass is to "provide maximum natural light".