13-Storey Office Building Proposed for Robson and Seymour

A development application has been submitted for the Southwest corner of Robson and Seymour Streets in Downtown Vancouver. The site was sold in 2018 for $40 Million to Bonnis Properties. The existing building is an older single storey retail building.

The application for the site is for a new 13-storey, commercial building. The proposal consists of the following:

• • 61,700 SF of office space;
  • 4,300 SF of retail space;
  • amenity space including outdoor terrace, gyms and yoga area on the 6th floor;
  • a building height of approximately 215 ft.;
  • a total density of 5.5 FSR;
  • all over 3 levels of underground parking accessed from Seymour Street through a shared access agreement with Capitol Residences.

The application describes the design rationale: “A number of strategies are employed to create a respectful and considerate massing.

The building reduces in width along the Robson Street frontage to limit the width of the building facing neighbors. The overall composition of the building is arranged as three elements, each responding to the conditions around them.

At the lower levels, retail uses line the street and will extend down Seymour Street at the corner. With the addition of a public plaza along Seymour that creates an entry to the office lobby, a high degree of transparency and a number of access points creating a welcoming frontage, an improved public realm, and renewed set of commercial uses will reinvigorate the site. Importantly, the building configuration creates a three-sided storefront that addresses the significance of the corner.

An outdoor amenity terrace is arranged on the second level of the building, overlooking Robson and Seymour Streets, which is accessible by all building users. Clearly visible and legible from the street, the activation of a second floor use is intended to improve the experience in the public realm. The existing large oak trees on Robson Street
encroach beyond the property line, and the building massing responds to accommodate their continued life on the street.

At the middle section of the building, larger floor office spaces are provided, is set off from the adjacent building to the south, providing a welcome interruption in a city block that is highly regular and large (Orpheum Theatre and Capitol Residences). Setting the massing off the party wall allows the floor space to benefit from greater access to daylight and air, with the space between the new space and party wall acting as a light well. A vegetated wall is introduced in the interstitial space, which covers the existing blank party wall of the neighboring building to the south. Introducing meaningful landscape downtown is intended as a public amenity and as an unexpected addition of nature downtown.”

Under the site’s existing DD 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 Perkins + Will.

The full development application can be viewed here: https://development.vancouver.ca/600robson/index.htm