Oxford Properties has changed the design plan for their 1133 Melville Street office building project, originally proposed for rezoning back in July 2015. The previous design was not supported at the Urban Design Panel in 2015, and has since been reworked with a smaller, but taller building.

The new design by James Cheng, features a much more interesting building massing. The revision includes stacked box design with the third box twisted from the street grid. There is a slight increase in height from 33 to 34-storeys. Details include:

• a building height of 550 ft.
• a total floor area of 555,047 SF
• a total density of 18.20 FSR (down from 22.46 FSR)
• four floorplate sizes, multiple decks including a rooftop deck
• floor to ceiling windows
• six levels of underground parking (231 vehicle spaces and 221 bicycle spaces)

The previous rezoning application can be viewed here: http://rezoning.vancouver.ca/applications/1133melville/index.htm

A partnership between Strand Development and Intracorp has submitted an application to rezone a site located at 1055 Harwood Street, between Thurlow and Burrard in the West End area of Downtown Vancouver.

The proposal is for a 32-storey residential building with:

• 82 market residential units;
• 68 two-bedrooms, 8 three-bedrooms and 6 four-bedrooms;
• 44 social housing units;
• a density of 10.35 FSR;
• four levels of underground parking with 156 vehicle parking stalls;
• 158 bicycle parking spaces; and
• a building height of 300 ft.

The RM-5A zoned site was redesignated under the West End Community Plan, adopted in 2014. Currently occupied by a lowrise coop, the site was acquired in August 2016 for $40.5 Million.

The application describes the design rationale:

Westbank‘s rezoning application for the Budget Car Rental site at 400 West Georgia Street has been submitted to the City. The site is located at the corner of West Georgia and Homer Street, across from the Central Library Branch. The letter of intent submitted by Westbank, suggests that the building will be built “on spec”.

The plan for the 20,992 SF (175′ x 120′) site calls for rezoning from Downtown (DD) District to Comprehensive Development (CD-1) District to allow for a 24-storey office building. The proposal includes:

• 350,000 SF of office space;
• 5,775 SF of retail space;
• a building height of 301 ft.;
• a total density 17.51 FSR;
• steel construction;
• six levels of underground parking; and
• 125 bicycle parking spaces.

Design features will include triple-paned curtain wall, openable windows, large spans of column free space, glass floors. It will also incorporate a 4-storey high lobby.

The application describes the design rationale:

The architect for the project is Merrick Architecture.