A rezoning application has been submitted by Prima Properties for 1157 Burrard Street, a former gas station site at the Northwest corner of Burrard and Davie Streets that has been used as a community garden for several years.

The 21,605 SF site was designated for rezoning in 2014 under the West End Community Plan. It is currently zoned DD (Downtown District) and C-5 (Commercial).

The plan for the site is a 47-storey mixed-use tower that includes:

•  236 condo units;
• 50 hotel units or 50 more residential units; 
  • 65 studios, 111 one bedrooms & 110 two-bedrooms;
• building height of 480 ft.;
• a total density of 13.99 FSR;
• 25,000 SF of commercial space, including;
  • 17,000 SF of office space;
• a 37-space public childcare facility
• 265 vehicle parking stalls and 400 bicycle spaces.

The application describes the design rationale: “The project proposes a new benchmark for site and city-specific architectural creativity and excellence through several distinctive measures. The west façade is proposed as a dynamic ever-changing mosaic responding to solar movement. In the morning when no direct sun falls on the elevation, the façade forms a sleek glass envelope animated by balconies. As the sun comes around to the south and west, exterior vertical solar control blinds start to animate the façade, with the sun exposure lowering them sequentially. As the sun rotates further to the west, the
blinds gradually form a veil, a pixilated abstraction of the Westcoast landscape ground to sea to sky. As afternoon turns to evening, the blinds retract once again to reveal the glowing glass envelope by night, as lights illuminate from the inside. The blinds have both an aesthetic and a sustainable design role, reducing solar heat gain and glare from low angle west sun. The concept is inspired by the Electra, the former BC Hydro building on Burrard Street. Electra makes explicit reference to the Westcoast landscape in its design and ornamentation, a major innovation at the time the tower was built.

In addition to the dynamic nature of the west façade–visible from both Burrard Street and Davie Village– the building is shaped like a flatiron as you approach the Downtown along Burrard Street. Consequently, the building is exceptionally slender compared to other towers. The balconies along the leading edge further animate this impression, by faceting towards the west as the tower rises. This shape forms an invitation towards Davie Village
and the West End as the tower addresses ceremonial Burrard Street. At grade, the corner plaza provides a public destination, welcoming visitors to Davie Village. The building canopy gathers rainwater and directs it to a small symbolic wetland at the corner, providing a pleasant place to gather and evoking the Westcoast landscape concept of the building. The project elevators offer outlook to Burrard Street in the podium and at the rooftop, providing spectacular views out for building users. At the rooftop a viewing platform forms part of the Residential Amenity with vistas to the fireworks of English Bay.”

This application is being considered under the West End Community Plan and the Rezoning Policy for the West End.

The architect for the project is Merrick Architecture.

The full application can be viewed here: https://rezoning.vancouver.ca/applications/1157burrard/index.htm

The City of Coquitlam Council will receive a report next week for information and feedback regarding residential density and land use transition approach for the City Centre Area Plan (CCAP) Update. The planning update got underway last year, and it is anticipated that a draft plan will be presented to Council in Summer 2019.

The original CCAP was developed in 2008, and updated with a Transit Oriented Development Strategy in 2012. This update was initiated to capitalize on the Evergreen Line, with an intent to prioritize high density development around the new station areas. The City Centre update projects 24,000 new residents by 2046.

The focus for proposed new residential density will be broadly defined in two separate areas:

Core Area 

The majority of land use changes to the existing 2008 CCAP are proposed around
the Coquitlam Centre and Lincoln Skytrain stations. Currently, the maximum permitted density for all residential and commercial uses under the City Centre Commercial land use designation (C-4 zone) is 6.5 FAR inclusive of density available for affordable housing, with a 0.5 FAR commercial floor space requirement. It is proposed that a maximum FAR of 6.5, inclusive of density available for affordable housing, and a 1.0 commercial FAR requirement be applied in the Commercial Downtown Core until a comprehensive review of the City’s density bonus program is completed. 

The City separately reviewed commercial densities in a discussion paper released last month in which an increase in minimum commercial densities in the City Centre was recommended.

For areas designated as City Centre Commercial outside of the Commercial Downtown Core, the existing 6.5 FAR maximum, inclusive of density available for affordable housing, and 0.5 FAR commercial floor would be maintained.

Shoulder Area

Outside of the Commercial Downtown Core and City Centre Commercial designation, a combination of high and medium density residential rounds out the residential density and land use transition.

High density residential allows up to a 5.5 FAR, inclusive of density available for
affordable housing, under the RM-6 zone without any height limit and the medium density land use allows up to a 2.64 FAR, inclusive of density available for affordable housing, under the RM-3 zone with a height limit up to 8-storeys.

To provide a transition to the adjacent lower density neighbourhoods, site
specific height limits are proposed for high density (20-25 storey) and medium
density (4-6 storey) residential areas. Although proposed residential land use changes are primarily within the CCAP Focus Area, staff recommends a land use change for the area east of Inlet Street and south of Tahsis Avenue from low density apartment residential and townhousing to medium density with a 4-6 storey height limit.

A medium density land use form with a 4-6 storey height limit in this area will serve as a transitional land use between the Commercial Downtown Core and peripheral areas in City Centre and blend into adjacent established, lower density neighbourhoods.

A draft plan will be developed with a final round of public consultation and council consideration later this year.

Further detail on the City Center Area Plan update can be viewed on the City of Coquitlam’s website, here: https://www.coquitlam.ca/planning-and-development/resources/special-plans-projects/city-centre-area-plan-update

A development application has been submitted by Bonnis Properties for 950 Granville Street, a 21,000 SF site (consolidated as 950, 958 and 968 Granville Street) that is currently built out as a retail building. 

The proposal calls for a new 4-storey, commercial building with 3 levels of underground parking, including:

• 54,000 SF of retail space;
• 4 ground level CRU’s and 35,000 SF of retail on 2nd and 3rd floors;
• 18,321 SF of office space on the 4th floor;
• a total density of 3.38 FSR;
• 95% site coverage;
• 102 underground parking stalls on three levels.

Under the site’s existing DD zoning, the application is “conditional” so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Director of Planning.

The development permit application has been filed for Oakridge Centre’s second phase. Oakridge Centre is owned by Quadreal and Westbank who previously rezoned the 28-acre site to allow a reconfigured mall, with several residential towers, office space, amenities and a public park.

The first phase of ‘Oakridge Vancouver‘ (Buildings 3 & 4 on the Northern portion of the site fronting West 41st Avenue) were approved for a development permit in late 2018 and subsequently launched for pre-sale. 

This second development permit application consists of Southeast corner of the site at Cambie and 45th, currently home to the Safeway and surface parking lot.

Details of this phase of the project include:

• Three towers, 32, 17 and 34-storeys in height;
• 615 condo units;
  • 199 one-bedrooms, 326 two-bedrooms and 90 three(+)-bedrooms;
• a podium containing retail and office uses;
• 358,397 SF of retail space including new below-grade grocery and liquor store;
• 119,582 SF of office space;
• a total density of 0.95 FSR (based on total Oakridge site);
• 3 levels of underground parking;
• A portion of the future 9-acre park;
• A “Summer House” pavilion to act as a stage for performances.

The application describes some of the design rationale:

“Building 6 & 7 –  Skin & Bones Concept
The metaphor of skin and bone is the ordering principal for the architectural tectonic for buildings here and elsewhere in the project. It is derived from the idea of draping the mall with a landscaped park. The acts of wrapping and revealing are used to help define the relationship between the landscape and buildings, as an approach to break down the mass of the buildings, as a passive solar strategy to have the buildings respond to their environment, and for providing way finding and programmatic identity. 

Building 8 – Mountain Concept
While much of the Oakridge project is conceived as a topographical emergence of architecture from landscape, Building 8 is more geologically expressive as if smoothed by eons of wind and water as it terraces up from the Woodland Park. The building seen as a newly formed mountain, we can analyze its parts: the forested valley floor at its base, the spur ascending to the summit, and the precipitous east and west faces.”

The architect for the project is Henriquez Partners Architects.

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