Pacific Metropolis

Hotel Georgia at the DPB

Three months after new design plans for the Hotel Georgia were unveiled last December, the developer finally went before the Development Permit Board last week.

The project aims to renovate the Hotel Georgia, and also build a 48-storey mixed-use retail, office and condo tower to the north of the hotel.

The DPB approved the project, but with some conditions. (Link to pdf of the Committee report here).

Most notably, the City would like to see improvements to the building's architectural design, as planners said that 'further refinements to aspects of its detailed sculpting and treatment and its top are needed.'

Specifically, it would seem that the Urban Design Panel liked the lower part of the building's integration with the Hotel Georgia, however they wanted to see a better design at the top, which they said would benefit from 'further simplification.'

Among some of the other interesting information in the report:

• The new tower will in fact be Vancouver's third tallest, once it's completed
• At its highest point, the building will come in at 516.6 feet
• Among several 'green' elements of its design, the building will use geothermal heating

As for the renovations to the Hotel Georgia, 'the ballroom will be rebuilt, bringing back the historical details', while 'the original revolving door will be reinstated on Georgia Street.'

So...it would seem that we'll be getting a revised building design in the weeks to come.

Even though it will most likely consist of minor refinements, here's hoping that the architects try a little harder, and come back with something that's a significant improvement over the current version.

Convention Centre Cost Overruns

As any PR person will tell you, when you want to publish good news, put out a release on Tuesday morning. If you want to bury a story, release it on Friday - preferably late in the afternoon.

So it should come as no surprise that the latest bad news about the Convention Centre expansion project came out last Friday.

(Link to Vancouver Sun article here).

Essentially, the project is now set to cost about $800 million, 'more than 40% over its original budget' of $565 million.

Furthermore, the completion date has now been pushed back from November 2008 to March 2009, although this will still allow enough time to set up the international broadcast centre for the Olympics.

The two main factors behind the cost overruns and delays - escalating construction costs due to the current building boom, and unforseen soil problems with the waterfront pile-driving.

Now, not to excuse what appears to be the fault of poor contingency planning, but there seems to be another side of this equation that is going under-reported - that is, the same economic boom that led to rising construction prices has also contributed to increased government tax revenues.

Put another way - we can better afford these cost overruns today, than we could when the project was initially announced five years ago.

Should BC taxpayers be concerned about the cost overruns? Yes. Should they be as upset as some will insist they should be? Probably not.

Whitecaps Stadium

The Province is reporting today that the City's planning department has endorsed a report that would relocate the proposed Whitecaps Stadium to where the Seabus terminal is today.

Apparently, this move would resolve some of the main concerns about the Whitecaps' initial proposal.

The report goes to City Council on February 1st, which will subsequently determine whether the stadium proposal should 'proceed to a separate rezoning process.'

Pending Council's approval, more detailed design plans would need to be submitted and further public hearings would have to be held.

Coal Harbour Week

To kick off our look at Coal Harbour construction over the next few posts, take a look at this video from last July, via Chrispitality.com.

Although the choice of music strikes us as a little odd (perhaps a reference to the endless pile-driving?), the film provides some decent shots of the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion site, plus a short preview of the Fairmont Pacific Rim construction site.

This second, more recent video takes a look at a few other hotel-related construction projects around Vancouver, including the Shangri-La.

And for the fun of it, if you haven't seen them before, check out Chrispitality's bed jumping videos.

NY Times on Vancouver Planning

Vancouver was recently profiled in the New York Times, with a story on our 'zoning policy that worked too well.' (Link to full article here).

Besides providing a nice pic of the Pomaria and Elan developments, the article lets slip a couple interesting pieces of information.

For one, it sounds as though the City may be contemplating the relaxation of some view-cone height restrictions, in order to encourage more office space to be built downtown. And it looks as though the Bay Parkade site will be the first test of that new policy direction:

Planners are considering several options, including raising the limits on building height, offering incentives to developers, and capping residential construction.

The article goes on to say:

As part of a proposed deal with the city, Mr. Lim would be allowed to increase the residential density of his Bay Parkade site...in return for expanding the commercial component. But Mr. Lim also said he 'would like some flexibility on height'.

Aside from Mr. Lim's comments, the main thrust of the article focuses on the need for more downtown commercial development, as vacany rates for Class A office space have now fallen to 3.3%.

And finally, one other interesting bit of information: it appears that the Holborn Group is now calling their 1153 West Georgia project, 'Vancouver's Turn'.

Let's hope that they rethink their marketing on that one.

Roof Collapses at BC Place

Olympics Cancelled

Stadium to be Razed, Replaced by Condos

Bob Rennie a Suspect

Just kidding, of course. This is, after all, only a blog. For real, fact-based coverage, go check out the Vancouver Sun here.

Global's got some cell-phone video coverage here.

Some even better YouTube coverage, via the Vancouverite.

2007: The Year Ahead

In looking back at our coverage of Vancouver development in 2006, we've decided to go with the start of construction work at the Woodwards site as the biggest story of the year. Besides the sheer size of the project, the transformative effect that the Woodwards development will have on the Gastown neighbourhood will be substantial.

Other noteable runners-up include the announcement of the Gateway Project, the proposed downtown Cultural Precinct, the proposed Whitecaps Stadium, and the awarding of the Olympic Village development contract to the Millenium Group.

It's worthwhile to note that construction on the Convention Centre Expansion and Canada Line began in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

So what will be the biggest Vancouver development-related story of 2007? We've got a few guesses that we thought we'd throw out there:

1. A new, iconic dowtown office tower will be announced, in answer to the city's growing need for more office space
2. The completion of several downtown residential projects will flood the real estate market with heavily-discounted condos by year's end
3. The topping-out of the Shangri-La building
4. The start of construction on 1153 West Georgia
5. The completion of the Link Building and Phase I of the YVR terminal expansion

Any other thoughts, rumours, or suggestions out there? We'd love to hear them.

See you in the New Year

We're hanging up the keyboard for the holidays, with plans to return in the new year - on January 3rd, to be precise.

In the meantime, for those who still want to get their Pacific Metropolis fix, we're going to sign off by recommending our three favourite posts of 2006, which you can find below:

• The Changing City
• Space Shuttle to Land at YVR
• Boo-Ya!!!

In the new year, we'll be continuing our coverage of several major construction projects throughout the city, such as the Shangri-La, the Convention Centre expansion, the Olympic Village, and the Canada Line, to name just a few. 

We're also looking forward to venturing outside of downtown Vancouver, to have a look at some of the development that's going on in other parts of the GVRD, as well as in select regions of the province.

In closing, we'd like to extend our warmest wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our readers. Here's to a happy and prosperous 2007!

1133 West Georgia

The developers of the 59-storey 'twisting tower' at 1133/1153 West Georgia met with the Development Permit Board on Monday night.

As was expected, the Development Permit Staff Committee recommended that the building be approved, as did the Urban Design Panel. For a copy of their full report, click here (link to pdf).

Among the latest information that was confirmed by the report is the following:

• The building will indeed top off at 600 feet, making it Vancouver's second tallest building after the Shangri-La
• There will be a total of 163 residential units and 150 hotel suites, in addition to office and retail space
• The proposed Palm Court is no more, however it will be replaced with a public plaza on West Georgia Street, which will be integrated with the building via the hotel lobby and a restaurant
• The developer is aiming for Silver LEED certification

For more information on this project via links to our previous coverage, click here or here.

New Hotel Georgia Unveiled

Or...at least an early version of it, since the building plans still have to be reviewed by the Development Permit Board this coming February. The plans were first submitted to the Urban Design Panel on December 6th.

As the Province reported yesterday (link to article here), the Hotel Georgia is set to temporarily close its doors on January 2nd. It will undergo a three-year renovation, after which it will reopen as a 247-room luxury boutique hotel, hopefully in time for the Olympics.

Of perhaps greater significance is the 48 storey (479 feet) mixed-use tower that's set to go up behind it. The new building will include 156 condos, plus a substantial 60,000 square feet of office space.

According to the Province article, it's not certain that the tower portion will be finished by 2010, which suggests that the approval process might still take some time.

For another look at the project, go to Delta Land Development's website here, click on 'Upcoming', and then 'Hotel Georgia'. Our previous coverage of this property can be found here.

Thoughts/comments on the design? This will be Vancouver's fourth-tallest building once it's completed.