Plans have emerged for a site owned by Holborn Group at the Northeast corner of Abbott Street and Hastings Street near Victory Square and across the street from Woodwards. The site has long been unimproved and used a surface parking lot. The lot is 99′ x 132′ and is currently zoned DD.
Holborn has now submitted a rezoning application for a 10-storey mixed-use building with:
- 132 rental units
- 83 studio units, 4 one-bedrooms and 45 two-bedrooms
- 5,494 SF of commercial space on the ground floor
- a total density of 7.62 FSR
- 74 vehicle parking spaces on one level of underground parking
- 167 bicycle parking spaces
- a building height of 105 ft.
The application describes the design rationale:
“Our key place making and built form strategies reinforce the prevailing context through contemporary architectural expression, recognizing and strengthening the historic form and scale with an emphasis on appropriate frontage and modulating heights that provide a transitional scale from the Paris Block to Woodward’s. The residential entry is on Abbott
Street.
The Hastings Street massing provides varying material treatments approximating the historic lot sizes, with no continuous elevation treatment greater than 75 feet. The contextual fit of the building is based on an analysis and reinterpretation of the historic building typologies in the area. The east 7 storey segment of the Hastings Street elevation aligns with the Paris Block 2 lots over, while the west 8 storey segment aligns with the historic Woodward’s façade across Abbott Street. Levels 8-10 of the east segment are set back 8 feet from the street, while levels 9 and 10 of the west segment are recessed one foot from the lower façade.
The Abbott Street facade has the same materiality and setback at levels 9 and 10 as the Hasting Street façade; however, there is no vertical saw tooth as this is a minor street. The retail facades on both Hastings an d Abbott Street are articulated i nto small bays. In order to not encroach upon existing mature trees on Abbott and Hastings Streets, we have provided a 5’ wide canopy on both Abbott and Hastings Streets major facades.”
Under the site’s existing C-2 zoning, the application is “conditional” so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Director of Planning.
