Plans for a ‘green’ project with West Coast design still in haggling stages
Frances Bula
Sun
False Creek is busy with building work, but plans for the Olympic village are unsettled with construction to start in six months. Photograph by : Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER – It is supposed to be a symbol of Vancouver: Cutting-edge environmentally; unique West Coast design; an inclusive place for this multi-faceted city.
But the Olympic village and first phase of housing in southeast False Creek are currently undergoing a turbulent ride with an as-yet uncertain outcome.
For two months the city and Millennium Properties, the developer that paid a record $193 million for the land, have been wrestling to balance economics, marketing, environmental design, an attempt at affordable housing and incredibly high expectations — while facing a looming deadline for a project that will ultimately cover eight city blocks. Construction has to start in six months.
IN THE MEANTIME:
– Experts say it will be a miracle if any of the market housing can be sold for less than $1,000 a square foot — the current price of luxury condos in Coal Harbour.
– The city and the developer are coming to difficult grips with the design. The city wants something that says Vancouver and sustainability. Millennium is anxious to have something it can sell for top dollar in the international market and doesn’t want something that has sustainability “painted on the side,” according to one of its architects at a painful and, at moments, explosive meeting last week.
– It could set a new standard in Vancouver and perhaps North America for an environmentally planned neighbourhood. Millennium has committed to everything the city required and a LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) gold standard. But the city’s head of sustainability, Tom Osdoba, says it still remains to be seen whether Millennium is going to throw itself into the last phase as aggressively as it could.
And, says Tom Osdoba, the city has had to repeatedly prod the developer, whose architects don’t have the expertise in green buildings that some other firms in town do, to bring in a stronger team of experts on sustainability. Millennium has done that, but questions remain about how that’s going to translate into the final design.
As for the “modest market” housing, the one-third of housing that was supposed to be for Vancouver’s middle-income residents, it’s not going to be one-third. And the 100-150 units out of the 1,100 are only going to happen because because city staff are preparing to ask council to allow an extra 90,000 square feet of density — worth close to $20 million at the price Millennium paid — to make it economically possible to build them. That’s in spite of what everyone agrees is an all-out Millennium effort to find creative solutions and to kick in some of its own profit. That potential deal got only narrow approval from the urban design panel, in a 4-3 vote, and is raising concern from some critics that it will mean altering the feel of the development as more density is shoehorned in.
Millennium’s team says all of this is to be expected in a project of this significance and magnitude.
“When we trust someone to make that much of an impact, there’s always controversy,” says Bob Rennie, who is planning the sales of the market condos for Millennium. “But in 17 years with Millennium, they’ve always taken the high road.”
The city’s southeast False Creek project manager, Jody Andrews, agrees the last two months have been filled with passion and debate.
“I think it’s actually very healthy. There’s been so much action and so much debate,” he said.
And he emphasizes that Millennium has met the city’s requirements for a “green” project and is now looking at ways to exceed those standards.
Meanwhile, city staff, the design panel that has to give approval to the project before it can go ahead, and politicians are waiting to see if Millennium is going to meet the high expectations.
This site has been debated and discussed for 10 years as Vancouver’s world-leading model of how to build a sustainable neighbourhood.
“There’s a general feeling that even with all the difficulties, we’re ultimately going to get there. The question is how painful will it be,” says Osdoba. “But in order for this to be a great project, the developer really has to embrace pushing very hard on sustainability. That still remains to be seen.”
Millennium representatives say they’ve gone beyond the call of duty in sustainability and they’re perplexed by the attitude that they haven’t gone quite far enough. They’ve brought in green experts from Seattle and Victoria, as the city had suggested, and incorporated sustainable elements that are way beyond simple green roofs or recycled building materials, they say.
“It’s been complex, but we feel like we’re basically there,” said Hank Jasper, Millennium’s project manager.
The biggest debate at the moment is over the design.
At last week’s urban design panel meeting, the city’s senior urban designer, Scot Hein, told Millennium’s architectural team that he and the panel need a clear idea about how the look of the buildings is going to express contemporary Vancouver and the project’s leading-edge environmental aspects.
“We are seeking buildings that promote sustainability in their architectural response,” said Hein, adding that the city is also looking for buildings that are “true to place” and reflect the city’s West Coast architecture, “specifically our tradition of responding to special light, view and landscape opportunities.”
Panel member after panel member commented that they couldn’t see how the buildings’ designs were reflecting environmental ideas.
“The character sketches we’ve seen, they’re divorced from the sustainability,” said architect John Wall.
“They are divorced,” responded Roger Bayley with Merrick Architecture, one of three firms that will build the 12 residential buildings in the project. “Our client wants a product he can market. He doesn’t believe sustainability has to be painted on the outside of the buildings.”
Project manager Jasper echoed that in an interview Sunday.
“You can mix sustainability and great design. You don’t need sod walls and 30-foot trees on the roof to make it sustainable.”
That’s why the architect Millennium has chosen for its most prominent building on the waterfront is Robert A.M. Stern, a New York-based architect with an international reputation. The buildings he has done here for Millennium, like City in the Park in Burnaby, and in New York for others are generally neo-classical looking and aimed at a very high-end market. In this week’s New York Times magazine, a penthouse in the 15 Central Park West building his firm designed is advertised for $20 million US.
Hein says Stern’s style is going to be a tough sell to the city and the urban design panel.
“That character is not expressive of sustainability in Vancouver. And if you try to marry sustainability to another style, that’s a tough marriage.”
Hein said it’s part of the city’s job to work with Millennium on recognizing that it can sell buildings that say “green.”
“I just think Millennium needs to get their heads around West Coast and expressive green buildings and do their version. We need to demonstrate that they can achieve high-quality buildings but also express sustainability ethics.”
He would like to see Millennium make more use of Vancouver’s pre-eminent architect, Arthur Erickson, who is currently slated to design only the community centre. Millennium is committed to using Stern as the architect for the waterfront residential building.
How that fundamental difference of opinion between the city and Millennium is going to be worked out is anyone’s guess at this point.
But, as architect Peter Wreglesworth commented at the end of last week’s urban design panel meeting: “Let’s just get the elephant on the table and we’ll take our licks. If your client wants to do something that is going to be a problem, let’s get it on the table.”
He acknowledged that everyone on the panel understands what Millennium’s dilemma is.
“I think we all know there are huge economic challenges to this project. I don’t think there will be a square foot that will be on sale for less than a thousand dollars.”
FACTS:
WHAT’S BEING DEVELOPED:
An Olympic athletes’ village of 250 units that will become social housing, along with about 750 high-end market units and about 100-150 “modest market” units.
Where: The centre portion of what’s known as southeast False Creek, a parcel of 20 hectares of city-owned land and five hectares of private land that stretches from Science World to the Cambie Bridge. Millennium is developing what’s called 2A, which is six hectares.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
