980 Howe | 61M | 16 Flr | Completed
 

Here's the rezoning application link for 960/982 Howe:

http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/plannin...howe/index.htm

Massing rationale:
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/plannin...ts/massing.pdf

Elevation Renders:
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/plannin...ments/elev.pdf

That's a nice piece of office infill. The massing is nice and simple plus the square footage is significant; on par with the new Oxford tower beside the Marine Building.

Thanks for posting.

Blah, looks as exciting as something from south of the Gardiner in Toronto...

But those are twice as tall.

So what's going to happen to the 25' slice of land at 948 Howe that is left over when this project is done?
The land under 948 will become too valuable to have a just two story building sitting on it, but can a new 25' building be built between this project to the south and the neighbour to the north that maximizes the increased value of the land?

The application said that the owner of the project was making an offer to purchase it so it wouldn't be orphaned.

is that where the royal bank and parking lot currently is? nice

noice infill. Can't complain with all this influx of office proposals/construction! :cool: and yeah that's the rbc corner across from the courthouse

Looks okay. It's bothersome that they had to complicate the massing so as to reflect the surrounding context, but it was never going to be a standout building anyway.

??? I'm not sure what you find bothersome about that. Infill should be sensitive to its context, so that it doesn't stand out too much.

Agreed, but it also stifles creativity in the design somewhat. You can tell the building has been designed with UDP approval in mind (not that there's anything wrong with that - if it was my money, that's what I would do!).

What is the definition of infill anyway? Is it where a project is built to the lot lines? I've seen the term used on this forum to describe everything from a two-unit townhouse project to this building, which is one of the largest recent downtown developments (by floor area) in recent years.

No. Why?

So much for individuality, I guess.

Frankly, having to ape aspects of surrounding buildings is practically the same as design by committee.

I think you could use infill to describe many things. I sorta take it as building out a site to match the massing in the area (like here) or building out to zoning (in C-2 or C-3A areas). At 200' though, this is definitely pushing the "infill" definition, even if it is downtown. I think it's a great looking building considering the site restraints (height/viewcones) and we should never complain about new office projects.

I'll take the devil's advocate approach and voice my opinion that this particular infill is too tall for its site. It strains to fit in, but sticks up about 4 storeys too high for where it is. If it were more interesting in design and instead attempted to add something architecturally interesting to the site, then I'd be more encouraging of height. But they are essentially filling in the corner with an over-tall, uninteresting, responsive design that should either blow the height restriction altogether and ask to go very tall or be 'responsive' and take away some of that mass from the top and the corner.

This building will be considerably shorter than the Electric Avenue complex on the west side of Robson Square - Vancouver is just not familiar with tall street walls (Dunsmuir from Granville to Burrard is really our only example).

It's not the "contextual" aspect (next to Robson Square precinct) that's limiting height - it's the dreaded view cone.

The design isn't all that bad. The cornice line introduces a roof deck that the tenants will like (the massing reminds me of the MaRS addition to Toronto General Hospital, but in a much more superficial manner). See here:

MaRS Discovery District, Toronto:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...h2-main-lg.jpg
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showthr...Hamann)/page20

By comparison, the Robson Court office building a block away is just curtain wall on the street side with an angled corner. It's main feature is a massive stained glass window inside the lobby.

Think it's too early to tell, the massing itself seems fine. I think the details that will go into it are what will make or break it. At this point it's still unknown if the neighbouring property will join in or not, if it does that will change the ratio and feel of the building.
That said this is a sizeable project and with all the other projects will create some real oppurtunity in this city.

Let me continue to be pessimistic for a moment, and firstly say that it is highly unlikely the quality of the building going up in Toronto will be what we see on this site--although I would like to be pleasantly surprised.

If the roof deck becomes anything other than a smokers hangout I will be surprised. But again, would like to be pleasantly surprised this is not the case.

If the building pictured what we get at the Vancouver site, then perhaps the height at 15 storeys with a high degree of transparency and interesting surface treatments would be great.

This is actually quite a prominent site, or has the potential to be--being a main corridor out of downtown, intersecting with another main corridor and across from a significant public building--albeit at the back side of it.

A mediocre building at lower height is okay, but not at the proposed one. This building doesn't measure up--yet.

I'd rather have the smokers on a balcony high above the sidewalk than lining the sidewalk.

Transparency is probably what you don't want - otherwise it'll have that cluttered condo look and the two tints won't be distinct.
On the other hand, if it's too reflective, it'll just reflect the backside of the Law Courts (not very attractive) -
so maybe a darkly tinted glass and a silvery tinted accent glass would work.

There's an office building (Revenue Canada?) at 1050 West Pender that has two tones.
The tones are distinct on that building (although the building it self isn't attractive).

http://www.realinsite.com/files/file...87/photo/1.jpg
http://www.realinsite.com/index.php?...1954&pagenum=3

Marinaside Residences also tried to do the same thing
(green tint and blue tint on the same tower) and it doesn't show up enough.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6194/...93378826c2.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouv...298521/detail/

This one is speeding along, going to the UDP next week, Dec 14th.

I don't think that height needs to be an issue with this paticular building. And, no, I'm not intimidated or angered by the d¤¤¤ view corridors in this case.

The main reason it seems good, IMHO, is that it provides a nice continuity on the Howe St side of Robson Square (which, on its southern half facing Howe, reminds me of a bomb shelter or such.)

Photo of the model from Changing City's updates

https://changingcitybook.files.wordp...odel.jpg?w=640

Here are some pix that I took.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...1/P1040950.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...1/P1040946.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...1/P1040945.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...1/P1040944.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...1/P1040942.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...1/P1040940.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...1/P1040939.jpg
pix by Built Form

Thank you for the photos.

I am just thankful there will (with the exception of the entrance) be no recessed arcades along Howe or Nelson. The dreaded arcade plagues the bases of so many office buildings in downtown.

:previous:

Just out of interest, why do you dislike arcades so much? (I'm indifferent to them). But what do they do? What is their impact? Thank you. :)

Thanks.
I don't think the differentiation in the glazing colour will show up.
The spandrels on Nelson and the alley sides don't seem dense enough to make an impact.

http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/plannin...tes/Dec14.html

looks like she passed the UDP with flying colors! I really hope this one happens this year!


1. 960-982 HOWE Street
DE: N/A
Use: To permit the development of a 15-storey commercial office building.
Zoning: DD to CD-1
Application Status: Rezoning
Review: First
Architect: Endall Elliot Architects
Delegation:

Alan Endall, Endall Elliot Architects
John Scott, CEI Architecture
Randy Sharp, Sharp Diamond, Landscape Architects
Peter Arbuckle, MKT Arkle Development Management Inc.
Staff: Sailen Black and Ian Cooper

EVALUATION: SUPPORT (9-0)

Sweet, good little project! Again, anything office is nice to see!

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...0-982howe1.jpg

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...0-982howe2.jpg
photocredit: me

Nothing happening here yet. Let's hope they are able to incorporate 948 Howe (small two storey cinder-block building in the second picture) into the development saving it from being orphaned.

From what I can gather from the renders, this is a rather European-scale building, like Düsseldorf or Stockholm. It goes rather well with that understated side of Howe St facing Robson Square.

I could go either way with that 2 storey building. If it isnt incorporated there is no reason why it couldnt be developed into something in the future. There have been narrower buildings built.

Totally agree there! It seemed all the office buildings in Stockholm were 10 to 18 stories tall.

If 948 Howe was left and this large office building built to the south of it and given the large existing building to the north of it then the options for developing 948 would be severely constrained. It wouldn't be impossible, however it would be improbable and this piece of the limited resources downtown would never realize it's maximum potential.

The rezoning for this is on next city council agenda:

http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/...20120417ag.htm
DATE: Tuesday, April 17, 2012
TIME: 9:30 am

CD-1 Rezoning: 960-982 Howe Street
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/...cuments/p1.pdf

Re-zoning passed at council (Apr 17, 2012): http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/...20120417ag.htm
Minutes: http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/...0120417min.pdf

Been through Urban Design Panel already (Dec. 14, 2011): http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/plannin...s/Dec14.html#1

Next is Development Permit Board... ?

Saw this billboard up the other day for pre-leasing.
Spoke to RBC, they expect to move to their new location at the corner of Hornby and Nelson (mentioned already) by late fall and are not moving back.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...1/P1070347.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...1/P1070345.jpg
pix by Built Form

I wonder if anything is happening, with assimilating 948 Howe, the 2 storey cinder-block building in the background, into this project. With a large office the north and then this large development to the south the development options for 948 will then be severely limited compared to what they are now.

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...g/IMG_1736.jpg
Photo credit: me

This crew onsite today. Possibly doing some soil testing/drilling??

Has this project been approved yet?

Yes it was approved.

great stuff to see them working on this project. I have a good feeling it will fire up soon!

This building will add to the linear continuity of Howe Street, which is rather elegant, and makes a good counterpoint to high-rises to be built nearby in the CBD.

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...p/IMG_1914.jpg
Photo credit: me

A sign, literally, that this project is moving ahead. Royal Bank branch onsite is packing up and moving in two months time.

Hopefully the two tone glass on this tower will be different enough in their reflective qualities to distinguish between the two - a good example is the new MaRS tower in TO:

Going to UDP for a second review tomorrow...

UDP Agenda Oct 24, 2012

Address: 980 Howe Street
DA: DE416146
Description: To construct a new 14-storey office building with commercial uses on the ground
floor and parking for 217 vehicles accessed from the lane.
Zoning: DD
Application Status: C
Review: Second
Architect: CEI Architecture and Endall Elliot Architects (John Scott and Alan Endall)
Staff: Sailen Black

The RBC branch is now closed. I was among the last few customers visiting the branch just 5 minutes before noon. :notacrook:

They commenced the move out immediately and the new branch on Hornby Street will open already on Monday morning. I would think also the demolition of the old building will begin pretty soon.

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_1833.jpg
Photo credit: me

Signs removed but surface parking lot behind is still open.

I doubt they are building this one on spec, so we will hear news long before the parking lot shuts down.

Jan 3rd: status as of today - nothing happening. Parking lot still open for business.

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...psdddac2c5.jpg


http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...ps09c8998c.jpg


http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7934a093.jpg
Photo credit: me

Fencing up, crews removing asbestos, bins in parking lot.

Demolition of the bank building may lead to immediate start of construction or it may lead to an expansion of the parking lot before construction begins.

Looks like Asbestos removal.