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

[SFUVancouver]

Source: CBC

Telus to build new headquarters in Vancouver

Telus has announced plans to rebuild its headquarters in downtown Vancouver as part of a $750-million redevelopment plan that will include new office and residential towers.

The plan includes a 22-storey office tower for the communications company's headquarters. Designed by Henriquez Partners Architects, it will be the first of its kind in Canada built to the environmental LEED Platinum standard, according to the company.

"Once complete, Telus's new headquarters will be unique in North America, featuring 10,000 square feet of green roofs providing organic produce for local restaurants, two elevated roof forests, British Columbia artwork, LED lighting on the western façade projecting programmable coloured images on to fritted glass, and media walls where cultural events such as symphony concerts can be broadcast to the public," according to a statement issued by Telus on Wednesday.

The new buildings will be located on the same block already occupied by a Telus building, bounded by West Georgia, Richards, Robson and Seymour streets.

The plan also includes a 44-storey residential tower built to LEED Gold standards on the site. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall and be completed in 2015.

Read more

From the Vancouver Sun:

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Telus eyes massive downtown development to house new national headquarters

VANCOUVER — Telus plans to build a spiffy new home in downtown Vancouver that will not only include a 22-storey office complex and 44-storey residential tower, but bring an aging city block to life.

The $750-million project, which requires rezoning by the City of Vancouver, would be completed in 2015 if council approves the project and construction gets underway later this year as planned.

The one-million-square-foot development is also planned to be one of the most technologically and environmentally advanced sites in the world that includes 10,000 square feet of green roofs for growing organic produce, two elevated roof forests, LED lighting, an office tower built to LEED Platinum standard, a residential tower built to the LEED gold standard, and new heating technologies that would reduce energy consumption by nearly 35 per cent.

As well, the site will be home to Telus’s new national headquarters and will include advanced telecommunications technology to expedite the company’s goal of having 70 per cent of employees working at home or out of offices by 2015, in order to reduce the company’s real estate footprint and greenhouse gas emissions.

“This is the most significant next-generation property in Vancouver’s history,” Telus president and CEO Darren Entwistle said while announcing the project, Called Telus Garden, at Wednesday’s news conference. “It’s the transformation of an entire city block. We’ll build a cohesive blend of commercial space, homes, restaurants and it’s going to be very, very cool.

“It will inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy and revitalize the area.”

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The original scoop from the Globe and Mail:

Telus tower brings new life to Vancouver's office market

DAVID EBNER AND FRANCES BULA
VANCOUVER— From Monday's Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, Nov. 07, 2010 6:16PM EST
Last updated Sunday, Nov. 07, 2010 7:00PM EST
Source

The downtown Vancouver peninsula – which appeared headed for resort-town status, crowded only with residential condos – is poised for a commercial office building renaissance, as Telus (T-T45.731.322.97%) prepares to unveil a new headquarters.

The $500-million-plus Telus project expected to be announced this week joins a similarly large proposal two weeks ago from a group that includes Vancouver billionaire Jimmy Pattison. Three other real estate companies are close to building significant new office space as well.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...rticle1789120/

[Edited by admin]

[Yume-sama]

Must see renders now

If only this was one combined 65 storey tower lol

[Locked In]

That's fantastic news! Can't wait to see renders and get more information.
Given the major office-tower announcements over the last month or so, how about one week SSP-moratorium on whining about the resortification of Vancouver.

[Metro-One]

hehe, I'll stop once I see a few of these projects actually completed, we have been seeing proposals for years now with no movement, but this one to me seems the most solid!

[giallo]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Must see renders now

If only this was one combined 65 storey tower lol

Hehe. I thought it WAS a 65 storey tower at first.

I jumped out of my seat when I read Henriquez is the architect. I'm very excited to see the renderings of this project.

[jlousa]

Wow I'm shocked. That this has been made public already. And yes the renders will be incredible.

[Hed Kandi]

..

[mezzanine]

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.

[mr.x]

“It’s stunning,” said one person closely involved in the project. “It doesn’t look like any office building you’ve seen.”

I can't wait!

One can only wonder what other projects are still behind wraps.


But doesn't it seem premature to say that the tide is now turning in favour of office developments? Considering all of the residential-only developments we've seen during the last decade (or two even), office has a long....long way to go...

[Alex Mackinnon]

These new announcements are making wonder when work is going to get going on Metrotower 3 again?

[GeeCee]

Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon

These new announcements are making wonder when work is going to get going on Metrotower 3 again?

I don't think it'll be anytime soon.. there's kind of a glut of office space in Burnaby, especially with the large vacancies at the Still Creek office space getting even worse if this project gets off the ground with Telus moving downtown.

Then again, I don't really know much about towers and office space. I'm more interested in transit stuff.

That being said, RENDERS!

[officedweller]

It'll be interesting to see what it looks like - "not like any office tower you've seen" may be a bad thing.

Mind you, if a single tenant is driving the development, then you aren't as restricted in design since you don't have to market the building to potential tenants. Windows could be made smaller, etc.

My concern would be for a "busy" facade (i.e. cluttered with the latest and greatest "green" features).

[whatnext]

Will there be increased employment downtown as a result of this proposal? From what I've heard, Telus' employment growth has all been in the Phillipines!

[Yume-sama]

I bet it's somehow animal shaped to fit in with the Telus theme. Maybe we need our own ugly elephant building!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_Building

[squeezied]

So what's going to happen to the current head office in Burnaby? I'm guessing opperations will be shifted to the new tower? yes?

[Mike K.]

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

[Stingray2004]

I'm sure it's gonna be a great project but the office component is only 22 stories? Whatever happened to the office building glory days of the 1970's and into the 1980's?

[red-paladin]

Originally Posted by Stingray2004

I'm sure it's gonna be a great project but the office component is only 22 stories? Whatever happened to the office building glory days of the 1970's and into the 1980's?

Telus is the only company in 'The Boot' in Burnaby. Probably they want to be the only tenant in this new building too. Also, even if they wanted to build a larger building and share it, they'd have to wait for most of the other space to be leased out, and it sounds like that would take longer than they want to wait.

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by Stingray2004

I'm sure it's gonna be a great project but the office component is only 22 stories? Whatever happened to the office building glory days of the 1970's and into the 1980's?

I recall jlo mentioning that it's quite a fat building, so... short and fat. A lot of square feet for Telus. Correct me if I'm wrong ?

And it does stand to reason that Telus would be the *only* tenant.

[jlousa]

I think there is definitely some confusion surrounding two completely different proposals on the table. I can't offer any details yet as I'm not even sure this was supposed to be public already.