Qualex-Landmark  has applied to the City of Vancouver for permission to redevelop a 30,763 SF land assembly that includes the Mac’s property at 4464 Dunbar Street with a condo building. The existing site is improved with an older strip retail centre. The site is zoned C-2 which allows a density of up to 2.50 FSR.

The proposal is for a new 5-storey condo building that includes the following:

• • 48 condo units;
  • 40 two-bedrooms & 8 three-bedrooms;
  • 10,859 SF of retail space;
  • Building height of approximately 52.9 ft;
  • A total density of 2.50 FSR;
  • Two levels of underground parking accessed from the lane with a total 129 parking spaces.

The application describes the design rationale: “The site on Dunbar Street, between West 28th and 29th Avenues, slopes greatly — almost 15′ from the lowest point of the site at grade to the highest point. The proposed building’s massing carefully addresses
the site’s terrain while recognizing the height limitations. We have designed a significant
setback at the corner of Dunbar and West 29th to serve as a public plaza. We imagine one retail unit facing the plaza to be a coffee shop or similar, to take advantage of the landscaped outdoor space of the plaza. We have also dedicated a part of the plaza to a public art piece, voluntarily commissioned by the owners.”

Under the site’s existing C-2 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 IBI Group.

The full application can be viewed here: https://development.vancouver.ca/4464dunbar/index.htm

A rezoning application has been submitted for Grant Thornton Place – 333 Seymour Street, a 17-storey class A office building at the corner of Seymour and Cordova Streets. The rezoning is intended to allow upgrades at the base of the building, including:

• updated fitness amenities;
• additional office area in the podium on levels one and two; and
• additional retail and improvements to the public realm at grade.

The building sits between two active development sites – 601 West Hastings, a 25-storey office being built by PCI Group, and Bosa Waterfront Centre at 320 Granville Street, a 32-storey office tower. 

The upgrades are scheduled to begin next year.

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.

VivaGrand Developments has applied to the City of Vancouver for permission to develop 1555 Robson Street, a site at the corner of Robson and Cardero Streets in Downtown Vancouver. The 132 x 131 ft site is located in the West End Community Plan which rezoned the property to C-6, which conditionally allows for a market residential highrise if social housing and commercial space is included.

The site sits directly south of 1550 Alberni, a 43-storey condo tower by Westbank currently under construction.

The proposal is for a 28-storey tower that includes:

• 177 residential units including 24 units of social housing;
• Retail on the ground floor;
• Office space on floors 2-3;
• Social housing on floors 2-7;
• Condos on floors 8-28;
• A total density of 9.63 FSR:
• A building height of approximately 300 ft.

Vivagrand acquired the site in October 2017 for $79,500,000 or $455 per buildable SF based on the gross floor area in the application.

The architect for the project is IBI Group.

The full development application can be viewed here: https://development.vancouver.ca/1555robson/index.htm

A development application has been submitted for the first phase of the Oakridge Centre redevelopment, for which the overall development plan was approved earlier this year. 

The first phase will consist of two towers (Towers 3 and 4), and a portion of the future park. Details include:

• one 32-storey tower (Building 3) and one 42-storey tower (Building 4)
• 504 market condo units;
• 212 one-bedrooms, 260 two-bedrooms & 32 three-bedroom units;
• a podium containing retail/office Uses (Levels P1 – 6);
• 173,113 SF of office space in Building 3;
• all over three levels of underground parking;
• a portion of the future 9-acre Park;
• a total density of 0.74 FSR;
• a maximum geodetic building height of 189.38 m for Building 3, and 217.28 m for Building 4.

The application describes the design rationale: 

“Skin & Bones Concept
The metaphor of skin and bone is the ordering principle for the Architectural Tectonic. It is born from the idea of draping the Mall with a landscaped Park. The act of wrapping or revealing becomes architecturally significant when defining the relationship between the landscape and buildings, as an approach to breakdown the mass of the buildings, as a passive solar strategy to have the buildings respond to their environment, and for providing wayfinding and programmatic identity.

Skin as Veil
Expanding upon the skin & bones concept, the skin is treated like a fine light fabric that wraps the buildings in a unifying veil. It is both delicate and protective, and is expressed architecturally as a plane of Curtain Wall that extends past the building itself in vertical and horizontal fly-bys. The Curtain wall design is reduced to its essence of transparent glass using 4 sided SSG, grey sealant and gaskets, light colored shadow boxes and only horizontal spandrel. The extent of the wrapping of the veil is related to the buildings orientation, as the veil opens toward the light, allowing the deep recessed terracing of the bones to shade the spaces within.”

The architect for the project is Henriquez Partners Architecture.