Telus Garden | 135m, 88m | 46fl res, 22fl office | 928,000sqft | Completed - Page 2

Prometheus · #21 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 5:43 AM**

A whole 22 floors?

I guess the skyscraper crowd on here can just sit down and shut their mouths now.

dreambrother808 · #22 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 5:51 AM**

There's still the accompanying 43 storey residential tower.

Prometheus · #23 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 5:54 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

There's still the accompanying 43 storey residential tower.

Whoa! A 43-storey residential tower in Vancouver? That's just so wicked!

Bulletin to the pro-business, free-enterprise, skyscraper crowd: pop the champagne corks! A renaissance has arrived!

Yume-sama · #24 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 5:59 AM**

Yeah. It really should have been a 65 storey mixed-use building.

But, then someone would forget they're in Vancouver when they can't see past it.

SFUVancouver · #25 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 5:59 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike K.

Just a reminder that full copyrighted articles cannot be posted to the forum. Article posting guidelines are available here

My apologies. Thank you for the editing.

Phil McAvity · #26 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 6:27 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prometheus

A whole 22 floors?

I guess the skyscraper crowd on here can just sit down and shut their mouths now.

Since you didn't include yourself in that "crowd", I gotta ask, why would you join a site called "skyscraperpage.com" if you aren't interested in them?

Prometheus · #27 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 6:33 AM**

What happened to the 600-foot twin-tower project mentioned by someone in the rumour thread? He or she said that if it was not permitted to go ahead, Vancouver could lose something it already had. Wasn't that Telus?

At 22-storeys and 43-storeys, these buildings don't exactly fit the description.

raggedy13 · #28 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 6:55 AM**

I'm surprised this already went public. It was only just mentioned in the rumors thread. I'm disappointed by the office tower height for sure, but I'm looking forward to the renderings nonetheless. I like that 40+ storey residential towers have become more the norm as of late but I'm getting a little tired of it already. Any more and we'll have only upped our table-top from 300ft to 400ft. Taller please!

golog · #29 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 7:52 AM**

so Telus is trying to cash in on the land it owns, getting more residential space approved so that they can get more money than selling it up front by packaging it with jobs+office space.

I want to see the project go ahead, and it does depend on the area of those floors but can't we do better than a 22 / 43 split? If they approve that, shouldn't there at least be a stringent condition that the project proceed regardless of any financial market crash without delays?

Prometheus · #30 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 8:13 AM**

So, awvan, if these are the 600-foot towers you were referring to in the rumours thread, why was your inside info so completely wrong?

dleung · #31 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 9:11 AM**

The boot in Burnaby has 640,000 square feet in a 21-storey complex of two buildings. How can they possibly fit that space, let alone a million square feet, in a 22-storey office tower downtown? That's foot-ball field sized floorplates.

Hed Kandi · #32 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 12:02 PM**

..

LeftCoaster · #33 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 12:07 PM**

Say what you will about Henriquez, but his projects are not dull. I understand you dont like them because they dont look like they belong on coruscant, but if you are going to criticize someone at least get it right.

vanlaw · #34 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 4:14 PM**

That would probably make it similar height to 401 West Georgia - Accenture Building - which is 22 floors. 87m/285ft

phesto · #35 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 4:52 PM**

Ha! I love how people are blasting the project when they haven't even seen it yet.

And I guess some people don't bother to pay attention to the view cone policy that has been discussed on this forum ad nauseum, but A VIEW CONE IMPACTS THIS SITE!!! You cannot do a 600 foot tower. In fact, if you place the office tower on the Georgia side, 22-storeys is about as tall as you can go.

But, as Jlousa pointed out, there is more to this proposal than was outlined in the newspaper article, which doesn't actually say much at all...

There is only about 125,000 sq ft of residential density (about 20 floors) allowed for the block under current zoning and policy, so even with rezoning I have no idea how Westbank expects to get a 43-storey residential tower.

mezzanine · #36 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 5:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hed Kandi

On the positive side, at least the project was [not] handed over to Cheng.

is this what you meant?

But still, I look forward to this. Westbank and Henriquez are blue chip IMO.

Yume-sama · #37 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 5:03 PM**

You don't suppose they'd use the moving of a major corporate HQ in to Vancouver as leverage to get 43 floors, do you

?

golog · #38 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 5:13 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by phesto

And I guess some people don't bother to pay attention to the view cone policy that has been discussed on this forum ad nauseum, but A VIEW CONE IMPACTS THIS SITE!!! You cannot do a 600 foot tower. In fact, if you place the office tower on the Georgia side, 22-storeys is about as tall as you can go.

The viewcone limit is around 450', but since it's in the CBD the height limit can be increased to 600' at Council's discretion. If Telus wanted to build a big office tower, with the plan of adding jobs in Vancouver and/or provide additional vacant space to place on the market for now... well what more could Council ask for?

The fact that Telus is proposing a 43fl residential tower, and is partnering with an investment firm, shows that they're in it for the money. The rules should not be relaxed unless Telus offers a fair split of the proposed increase in value. It's possible the initial proposal does that, but it's also more likely they open with a low-ball offer.

phesto · #39 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 5:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

You don't suppose they'd use the moving of a major corporate HQ in to Vancouver as leverage to get 43 floors, do you

?

It's not the height, it's the residential density which is prohibited in the zoning.

Over the past 5 years the City has set up policy to prohibit residential in the CBD area (which includes most of this block). The policy states that commercial capacity has to be maximized before residential will be considered.

The only way I could see them getting away with it is to include some major affordable housing component or cultural amenity...even then it's a stretch.

wrenegade · #40 Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 5:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prometheus

So, awvan, if these are the 600-foot towers you were referring to in the rumours thread, why was your inside info so completely wrong?

It was a rumour, and I posted it as such. I did say that it didn't really seem possible to do two 600 footers because of the viewcones, but I am disappointed to see it only being 22 and 43 stories. I also did not know that there would be residential on the site, but I suppose we shouldn't be surprised, it is Vancouver of course. And I'm not sure why it was wrong. It was second hand info that supposedly came from Gillespie himself, perhaps it was his original vision for the site? I held back on the other info (developer/architect/client) at the time because I wasn't sure of the info, but thought it was worth passing onto SSP.