Innovative movable screens will give downtown highrise
BARBARA GUNN
Sun
The outdoor spaces attached to the 999 Seymour apartments above Nelson Street, the southfacing apartments, will be enclosed by a series of movable sun screens and fixed glass panels that will provide residents with privacy and allow them to control the brightness and temperature of their homes. Bottom, balconies and screens as imagined by the maker of the show-home model.
The 999 Seymour show home illustrates what what the new-home project’s developer is calling ‘virtually seamless transitions’ between decks and balconies and adjacent kitchen space, something made possible by full-height sliding glass walls and polished concrete flooring — inside and out. Developer and designer have specified mostly Miele appliances for the 999 Seymour kitchens and 3/4inch-thick slabs of grey quartz for countertops and backsplash
As in the 999 Seymour kitchen, bathroom counters will be topped by quartz slabs, and the stainless steel basins will be undermounted. Cabinets will have either wood veneer, or a high-gloss white finish, and the glass shower enclosure will have porcelain mosaic tiles. Some bathrooms will have a feature wall of polished concrete.
A patio or a deck, a balcony or a porch, all builders and developers assert, can be an extension of a homeowner’s interior living space. When the Townline Group makes the claim, it’s truly telling it like it is.
That’s the case, at least, at the Townline new-home project that will be starting to take shape at the downtown northwest corner of Nelson and Seymour. Named for its street address — 999 Seymour — the 21-storey highrise will have an innovative outdoor feature that Townline president Rick Ilich believes may be a first for a highrise.
“No, I haven’t seen this anywhere,” says Ilich in describing the interactive, movable, aluminum sun screens and fixed glass panels that can be used to enclose the homes’ deep, covered deck spaces. “I haven’t seen it… In a highrise environment, it’s very unlikely it’s around.”
The movable screens, which will be installed in the majority of units, and in all of the homes with the south-facing Nelson Street exposure, are perforated, to permit the entry of air and light. When closed, they will afford residents some privacy. When open — homes will have four or five screens that can be shifted about in any number of configurations — they’ll give the exterior facade a look that’s constantly changing.
“This gives the individual who’s living on the fifth or 10th or whatever floor a sense of privacy,” says Ilich. “They can physically step out onto their deck at night, have their glass of wine or their cigar or whatever they might do, and manipulate the screens to close off their private environment… [But] they also add this great animation from the pedestrian level as you drive up or down Seymour. These are always going to be moving.”
Additionally, says Ilich, the screens will allow homeowners to regulate the sunlight exposure in their units, which are not air conditioned.
“They act as great solar screens,” he points out. “When you look around the city of Vancouver, on the west wall, 99 per cent of the highrises have the venetian blinds shut. They’re doing everything they can to block out the heat… We’ve created these extra deep balconies to shade the windows. Plus, we’ve created these solar shades that you can move around.
“So they’re serving two purposes. It’s all about a sense of livability, both for reducing solar heat gain, and for creating privacy.”
That livability is sure to be furthered by the decks’ gas fireplaces, an optional upgrade that Townline is including in the homes’ purchase price for a limited time.
“As much as we definitely think it will enhance their experience living in the home, we’re saying, ‘Look, we’ll give you these fireplaces for a certain time frame.”
The 999 Seymour project is the latest — and the last — of the veteran developer’s six-project foray in downtown Vancouver known as Metroliving.
It’s a vision, says Ilich, that was created by a company intent on seeking out the city’s “forgotten sites” for urban infill.
“The development community, over the years, went to the… big open parking lots, the larger, easier-to-assemble sites. And we focused on all the little leftovers… Our commitment in this Metroliving brand was really all about enriching the pedestrian experience as they walk by our projects, our infills.”
This particular “leftover” was a surface parking lot since 1999. Before that, it was home to a one-level billiard hall.
The project’s architects had asked the city to rezone the site for a higher density mixed-use, and saw that density almost doubled.
As part of that agreement, the developer will make a so-called Community Amenity Contribution of about $4 million, part of which will be directed toward the redevelopment of the old Woodward’s site.
“It is a city process,” explains Ilich. “They have a formula that says, ‘We believe in what you’re doing architecturally and such… but what’s in it for the neighbourhood?’
“The net gain for the developer is simply the ability to do what’s right for the site. The community gets [a] benefit out of that, having the structure and new residence in the neighbourhood, but they also get other benefits.
“It’s quite a unique and
innovative process that the city has come up with.”
And it’s the neighbourhood — and not just the homeowners — who will find something special at 999 Seymour, suggests Townline’s president.
A three-storey green “living wall”, for instance, will be installed in the lobby of the project, a feature designed to appeal as much to passersby, as residents.
“They’re definitely going to experience this as they walk [by] and see this great 24-7, 365-day-a-year green wall,” he says.
The neighbourhood will also be able to take advantage of the retail offerings at 999 Seymour: Some 20 per cent of the overall space has been allocated for retail and office.
It’s the residents, however, who will enjoy the homes.
The outdoor spaces — some units will have open terraces, rather than decks — are separated from the interiors by what Townline calls “virtually seamless transitions”: fullheight, sliding glass walls, and polished concrete flooring that extends inside and out.
“The whole window system and the treatment of floor materials is to give you this great option of flexibility,” says Ilich. “It was a challenge and a big deal to us to get the threshold between the indoor and outdoor spaces virtually invisible.”
Exposed concrete feature walls will lend a contemporary, urban feel to the interiors. The linear kitchens will feature stainless steel gas cooktops, quartz slab counters and cabinets in one of three finishes.
The project, says Ilich, is somewhat of a standout in the Townline portfolio.
“Yes, I would say it is. And I say that cautiously because we do a lot of heritage restoration, which has its own unique hot buttons… .
“But this is, as a modern highrise, without question, it would be the most innovative building that we’ve dealt with to date.”
And that, says Ilich, is largely because of the units’ capacity to the flexible.
“People have been talking about flex rooms and flex space in residential development for years, but I haven’t heard [of] anybody applying it to highrise urban housing.
“And we’ve clearly done that.”
