Townhouse, condo builder puts focus on design appeal


Saturday, November 5th, 2005

Michael Sasges
Sun

The Camera homes’ living and dining areas — and the kitchens, entries and hallways — will have wide-planked walnut underfoot. Gas fireplaces, too, will be standard. Two colour schemes are on offer. The dark scheme, that finishes the kitchen cabinetry in teak, is shown here. Bosch will supply the cook tops.

CAMERA

Location: Eighth and Pine, Vancouver

Presentation centre address: 1523 West Eighth (at Granville)

Hours: Noon 5 p.m., Sat – Thu

Telephone: 604-733-1574

Web: cameraliving.com

Project size: 77 apartments and townhouses, 10-storey building

Residence size: 1 bedroom + den: 2 bedrooms; and 2 bedrooms + den

Prices: 1 bedroom and den, from $314,900; 2, from $449,900; 2 + den, from $518,900; townhouses from $524,900

Developer: Intracorp

Architect: Ramsay Worden

Interior design: BBA Design Consultants

Warranty: St Paul Guarantee

Construction completion: Winter, 2007

If you were a developer intent on bringing to market a new-home project you wanted to call Camera, wouldn’t you do everything possible to ensure people could never, ever say your creation wasn’t picture perfect?

What you do, firstly, is commission the best of the best locally to get the design right, building and homes.

That’s, of course, what Intracorp did by involving two much honoured and internationally commissioned designers, Ramsay Worden Architects for the building and BBA Design Consultants for the interiors.

The North Shore mountains, English Bay and the downtown towers to the north, and below, and leafy, manorial Shaughnessy to the south, and above, the Camera building will be punctuated by glazing and patios, balconies, terraces and rooftop decks.

Preliminary reviews, let’s call them non-market reviews, are positive: ”well resolved . . . building form . . . fairly consistent with guidelines . . . an attractive project . . . a very attractive project . . . good addition to the neighbourhood . . . (city hall’s Development Permit Board, August, 2005).

Inside, BBA put a lot of thought into ensuring the homes will have the flexibility their owners can use to create space for a home office, a tech centre or, as in the show home, a wine bar, Camera publicist Pamela Groberman reports.

The stone ‘n’ steel content includes a stainless steel refrigerator from a Sub Zero and stainless steel gas cook top and convection wall oven and dishwasher from Bosch.

Composite stone will top the kitchen counters; marble, the vanities.

And for pure luxury, a two-head shower head, from a company called Taju.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

 



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