Alberni by Kengo Kuma (1550 Alberni) | 133m | 42Fl | Completed

[Klazu]

The dilemma to find ways to please existing residents in the area and preserving some of their views is always up the the current project and developers don't care about buyer's views after a tower is completed. So I guess it will be the WhiteSpot site developer's headache to address that.

I believe this why they are building first the "back row" of towers with Station Square. Have them sold and occupied before taking away their main views towards west with the front row of towers. I am surprised they didn't do the same with Solo District.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Thanks for the info.



Cardero Street...

I assume that the hollowed out part faces north (i.e. faces the elevator core of 1500 West Georgia)?
Will there be units facing that elevator core or is the tower pared back to its own elevator core?
If the building is hollowed out to allow views from the pink building to Stanley Park, what happens when the White Spot site is redeveloped?

Yes! Cardero Street.

As far as I can remember, the lobby is situated closer to the back alley, with only the entrance to the underground parkade separating them, and the front of the lot is the Japanese garden. Driveway is from Alberni Street and runs along the eastern border of the lot towards the parkade entrance behind, with a drop-off zone at the lobby. I think you are right the hollowed-out part faces north, and that the it faces the elevator core of 1500 W. Georgia. The 3 elevators (if I can remember correctly) sit on the north side of the lobby. Of course, the western flange would be the CRUs.

The Whitespot project is presumably shorter and probably won't affect the penthouse condos of the pink building? Well, I guess we won't know for sure until that happens.

And Klazu is quite accurate with the depiction of the tower with those retro phones!

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Vin

Yes! Cardero Street.

....................
And Klazu is quite accurate with the depiction of the tower with those retro phones!

We had those when I was a tyke. Made in Sweden, of course. Ericsson, I believe.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Vin

Yes! Cardero Street.

As far as I can remember, the lobby is situated closer to the back alley, with only the entrance to the underground parkade separating them, and the front of the lot is the Japanese garden. Driveway is from Alberni Street and runs along the eastern border of the lot towards the parkade entrance behind, with a drop-off zone at the lobby. I think you are right the hollowed-out part faces north, and that the it faces the elevator core of 1500 W. Georgia. The 3 elevators (if I can remember correctly) sit on the north side of the lobby. Of course, the western flange would be the CRUs.

The Whitespot project is presumably shorter and probably won't affect the penthouse condos of the pink building? Well, I guess we won't know for sure until that happens.

And Klazu is quite accurate with the depiction of the tower with those retro phones!

Thanks!

It sortof makes sense that the cut-out cuts back to this tower's core and would face 1500's elevator core
- so as to mitigate a negative, and create a positive for the neighbour.

And the top part of this tower would also be taller than the entire pink building, I think.

[Klazu]

I don't think the pink tower is even 100 meters so this is surely going to be taller. The people living in that building are going to see their view change (vanish) to a large extent in next 5 years. They had a long priviledged run to enjoy it.

[red-paladin]

Musings on the project, but no pictures, from Changing City Book:

1550 Alberni Street
Posted on June 30, 2015 by ChangingCity

Today there’s a rather tired 1972 office building, but the West End Plan permits a condo tower up to 500 feet tall. The site was recently acquired by Westbank and they’ve just held an open house to show the design concept for the site by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. If an image of the tower is published, we’ll add it: so far Westbank are being very careful to control access to the design, including preventing photography at their private open house.

Already working with Westbank on the Four Season resort at Ko Olina in Hawaii, Kuma hasn’t designed a tower for North America before, although there’s a fascinating 49 storey Tokyo tower just completed in Toshima ward which has apartments over a new city hall. The designs that were shown suggest the tower has curved elements, and wood accents (a feature of almost all his work). From his previous designs we anticipate the Vancouver tower is likely to be every bit as dramatic as other recent out-of-town designed towers.

From http://changingcitybook.com/2015/06/...lberni-street/

[urbancanadian]

Thanks for all the info everyone. I'm a huge fan of his work and I think his style of architecture is so well suited to this city.

Was there any mention of a second open house?

[tarrance17]

VancityBuzz also has some details about the project, however no photos.
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/06/j...own-vancouver/

[Vin]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

We had those when I was a tyke. Made in Sweden, of course. Ericsson, I believe.

Love the Scandinavian designs, especially the minimalist ones.

[LeftCoaster]

Happened to be in town and dropped by the open house as well. The project looks great, addresses the ground plane well and has some very striking angles. I was surprised by some of its similarities with Vancouver House given the different architectural language and designers behind the two projects.

To me it looked less like those previously posted phones and more like a rectangular tower with two large scoops taken out of the north and south facades. The first larger scoop taken out of the lower 2/3 of the north facade of the tower and the smaller scoop taken out of the upper 1/3 of the south facade of the tower. As you can then infer it led to some very interesting shapes on the east and west facades. A tower that almost waves it's way up into the sky.

I'm sure could draw up a quick paint diagram but I think that would be in poor taste since Westbank is clearly not looking to release the renders prematurely.

The other very interesting piece I noticed at the open house, that for some reason hasn't been brought up so far, was the tall tower on the current Axis Insurance building site (the wedge site where W Pender branches off Georgia). It looked to be as tall, if not taller than the 1500 site. I'd imagine we will be hearing about that site soon too as they and Wall probably don't want to be too late to the party.

[Klazu]

Excellent news! That area needs gateway buildings and it sounds like we are going to have some.

Interesting to see developers putting so much attention to this area which really ain't central to anything else than car traffic. Also the Robson Street section nearby is is worst part of the whole street. Perhaps these projects will spark some redevelopment along Robson Street as well! Here's hoping!

[st7860]

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/09/1...ncouver-tower/

"Renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has designed a slender 40-storey residential tower for the site, which was purchased by Westbank earlier this year at a cost of $47 million.

‘Carved deductions’ are one of the tower’s most prominent proposed architectural features, with the building’s sections hollowed out on the lower half of the northeast corner and upper half of the southwest corner.

The facade of the tower will be just as striking with the use of a combination of glass and polished anodized aluminum that will provide the structure with an almost chequered appearance.

A total of 188 residential units are proposed for the building, with many units within the carved deductions possessing substantially sized patios or what project proponents have termed as ‘open gardens’. Interior materials will include the heavy use of wood and bamboo.

Retail space and a restaurant will be located at the tower’s foot, along with a highly unique public amenity – a ground-level Japanese moss garden within a hollowed section of the building, with water and natural features built along the face of an amphitheatre-like, cascading plateau."

[Klazu]

Higher resolution

[osirisboy]

I'm imagining the exterior to look a bit like that one going up on hardwood. Would look pretty cool

[nickbeaulieu]

Will this be another project that looks cool in the rendering but then doesn't look anywhere close to the same once it's complete? I'm guessing all the fun will be sucked out of this design.

[Bcasey25raptor]

Oh my god this is amazing.

[mcminsen]

I'll bet the presence of the neighbouring buildings had an effect on the shape. Notice how the scooped out side makes it better for the west facing units in the (copper coloured condo) building next door (in the background to the left in the image above). The new tower's floorplates don't fill out on that side until they are above the neighbouring building.

Also, the scoop is angled a bit so that the new residents don't look directly face on to the Alberni facade of the office tower at 1500 Georgia. That slight angle also seems in deference to the copper coloured tower.

[Infrequent Poster]

Now can you imagine this tower at 200 metres? Before people jump on me..."b..b.but the mountains!!" I know its not gonna happen. Looks amazing all the same.

[Pinion]

If we keep building stuff like this we won't be able to fill in as generic American city in every tv show and movie, and it will be great. Love it.

[st7860]

Originally Posted by Pinion

If we keep building stuff like this we won't be able to fill in as generic American city in every tv show and movie, and it will be great. Love it.

lol- you saw yesterday's video that someone posted on youtube didnt you. many amazing scenes in that guys video