[North Vancouver] The Pier Waterfront Community | Several towers/retail/museum | u/c

[Pinion]

Massive update thanks to beautiful Christmas day weather, new areas of the development being opened to the public, and me actually remembering to bring my 8 megapixel camera. That's right, no crappy iPhone pics!

The market area now has nice siding.











































































Bonus shot of Rusty Gull pub in honour of our LoLo board celebrity. It's literally across the alley from the development.



Don't have time for many comments right now but I have to say the further this goes along the more impressed I am. Seems like a really high quality development. Would love to hear what the "experts" here think.

[trofirhen]

Wow, great picture series, thanks!

The buildings are not overpoweringly big, and they seem to want to keep that "maritime" flavour of the North Vancouver Waterfront. If they can do that, this will be a great neighbourhood.

Just strolling down Lonsdale, through Victoria Park on a sunny day, hearing the seagulls mewing is great, and to come to a real "seafront" community will really make it special.

False Creek is great for the "maritime feeling," too, but North Van has that steep hill rising up in the back, providing for splendid views.

[delboy]

City council really needs to do something about the litter and dog crap on the streets in the area though. I've been very disappointed at how dirty the area is up lower Lonsdale, which is scruffy. Part of the problem is lack of garbage cans and the useless, small green ones they have that are full by the end of the day.

I sure hope they plan on addressing this. Its the worse area i've ever lived in in this regard. I plan on writing a letter to city council. I'm not sure what I;m paying taxes for.

[giallo]

Thanks for the pictures, Pinion. A perfect Christmas gift.

The ship art looks awesome. Actually, I'm really impressed with the whole area.

[Rusty Gull]

Nicely done and great pictures!

I love how this is all coming together -- even though the wait has been far two long (like decades long, literally).

[SpongeG]

looking good - will be nice to have more waterfront open

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

looking good - will be nice to have more waterfront open

There were lots of people walking around on Christmas, it was really nice. Had a False Creek vibe, but as a more authentic working harbour.

[officedweller]

Great pics - thanks!

I also like the way the maritime theme is carried through but isn't too obvious in the new buildings. The hotel looks long and ship/liner-like without a funnel on top, there are some porthole windows scattered around and there appears to be fritted glass on the south facade of the condos creating another set of portholes.

[CameronT120]

Originally Posted by delboy

City council really needs to do something about the litter and dog crap on the streets in the area though. I've been very disappointed at how dirty the area is up lower Lonsdale, which is scruffy. Part of the problem is lack of garbage cans and the useless, small green ones they have that are full by the end of the day.

I sure hope they plan on addressing this. Its the worse area i've ever lived in in this regard. I plan on writing a letter to city council. I'm not sure what I;m paying taxes for.

It's not just Lower Lonsdale, but all over the City. Part of the problem isn't a lack of garbage cans but a refusal by our citizenry to use them. I see it all the time and give offenders sh*t for it.

[delboy]

Originally Posted by CameronT120

It's not just Lower Lonsdale, but all over the City. Part of the problem isn't a lack of garbage cans but a refusal by our citizenry to use them. I see it all the time and give offenders sh*t for it.

It;s really been an eye opener for me. I was always impresed by how clean Vancouver was. North Van is as bad as Manchester in the UK where I'm from. I generally take a bag with me when i walk the dog in the morning and I;ve usually filled it with the usual empty cups and subway wrappers etc by the time I get to the bottom of lower lonsdale.

I watched some city guys do a very poor job at cleaning. The missed most stuff and completely ignored all the side streets of lower lonsdale.

[Pinion]

There's a general Lower Lonsdale thread that'd probably be more appropriate for garbage issues.

On that note though, there have been four shopping carts on my condo's front lawn for a week now. I'm about ready to shove them off down the hill.

I came here to post that people are already walking through the Pier area a lot. It's a really nice shortcut for those of us east of Lonsdale. I go through twice a day now on the way to the seabus.

[jozero]

Ridiculously good Jamacian food place called Kingston 11 Reggae Cafe on Lonsdale and 3rd. Its been there for a few months and I finally got around to trying it. Fall of the bone meat, just the right spice level, and really delicious ginger root beer.

Good to seeing there are a few great little places battling the inevitable wave of places like Boston Pizza moving in.

__

Walked around the newly opened path at the Pier. While I don't think the overall impact of the project is as nice as the brick focused projects of One Park Lane and Time buildings on 1st, I really appreciate the builder of the Pier making several buildings that look different. Over time this will age better.What isn't so great is the insane white blandness of the Hotel building. On the Esplanade side it really looks like a government office building. Still overall super exciting to see.

On the original plan there are 3 heritage buildings, the one right beside Lonsdale is almost finished, but where are the other 2 ? What is going on that large tract of empty land in front of the Hotel ?

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by jozero

On the original plan there are 3 heritage buildings, the one right beside Lonsdale is almost finished, but where are the other 2 ? What is going on that large tract of empty land in front of the Hotel ?

Two of the heritage "buildings," if you could call them that (more like heritage frames), were deemed too rotten to survive and were demolished (thank jeebus).

The empty land is supposed to be the Maritime museum space, but frankly I wouldn't mind a mini David Lam style park there. Would be a great place to soak in the sun on summer days.

I honestly don't see a maritime museum being that popular, but will welcome it if actually built since we could use something to draw people further from the Quay when they come over.

[Pinion]

In other news, a nice restaurant in the hotel building called The Lobby (very creative) is opening January 15th according to their advertising. Looks like it may be expensive.

[raggedy13]

Here's a pic I took Saturday from Coal Harbour. You can see the hotel to the right of the pic. Unfortunately I didn't take the pic with the intention of getting the Pier development in it so it isn't all that well centered on it. Thanks to Pinion for bringing this pic to my attention!

[Pinion]

Thanks raggedy. For the anti-white crowd (not to be confused with the pro-diversity crowd ), you'll be happy to know some grey accents have been added to the north side of the building at least, and will probably be around the whole building sooner or later. Makes it look a lot better.

[officedweller]

Having the hotel oriented east-west balanced the bulky offcie building where I think ICBC is located.

[wrenegade]

Has anyone heard plans as to who is going on the restaurant pad site? (Located south of the seawall, next to the creek and in front of the hertitage frame building). It is a pretty prime location, I'd love to know what goes in there.

[trofirhen]

Wouldn't it be great if the could bring in one or two tall ships to anchor permanently there, such as at the Embarcadero in San Francisco?

I think it's important to keep both the historic aspect and maritime flavour strong in this locale.

Keep the old buildings; bring them up to standard for sure, but keep them "looking" as if they belonged, and were not slated for destruction.
(Some people might think they were)

Have a maritime museum that is not only informative, but one that somehow captures that "waterfront" feeling. Here's a chance to have it right across the harbour from downtown.

It would round out the charm of the city.

[Pinion]

Went to an open house at the Landing out of curiousity, saw several display suites and fell in love with one (the most expensive one of course). No way I could afford it, but I'm curious if anyone knows why a building that's been open for over a year and seems very nice has about 40% vacancy still? (It was the first Pier building finished)

Does the developer have a reputation or did the market crash harder than I thought in high end condos?