Office Building Proposed Next to VCC-Clark Station
A development application has been submitted to the City of Vancouver for permission to develop a 41,147 SF site at the Northwest corner of Clark Drive and East 6th Avenue, directly South of VCC-Clark Station and adjacent the ‘East Van’ Cross in East Vancouver. The I-3 zoned site also borders Keith Drive, hence the project address 2102 Keith Drive.
The plan for the site is an 8-storey mass-timber office building that includes:
- 124,000 SF of office space;
- 18,370 SF floorplates;
- A total density of 3.0 FSR;
- A total building height of 117 feet;
- 141 underground parking spaces.
The application describes the design rationale: “Located at the prominent eastern gateway to the False Creek Flats area, the massing of the 2102 Keith Drive building responds to the constraints of the site; rectangular in plan, the south face of the building is angled to match the Metro Vancouver Sewer SRW. The first floor of the building has been integrated into the sloping grade of the site, creating a building that emerges from the landscape. To the north, the ground floor relates to the industrial character of the False Creek Flats area through robust materials, service access and overhead doors. To the west and south interfaces of the building, a dynamic landscape design connects to the Great Northern Way Greenway and park spaces located to the south of the site. With the building lobby prominently located at the south-west corner of the site at Keith Drive and East 6th Ave, the building engages with the streetscape through a highly-glazed first floor facade that steps to match a series of landscaped terraces that animate the public realm at street level. Above the landscape-oriented ground floor, the building is constructed with mass-timber, a contemporary update of the typology of mass-timber buildings that were historically built for commerce and industry in East Vancouver.
The structural design of the building utilizes an innovative perimeter structural system of diagonally oriented braces which are integrated into the architecture of the building to create the primary expression of the building.”
Under the site’s I-3 zoning, the application is “conditional” so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Development Permit Board.
The architect for the project is Dialog.
The site was sold in 2016 for $17,530,000, or $142 per buildable SF.