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

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.