Michelle Hopkins
Sun
Two outside walls between bedrooms and the city beyond is one of the noise-suppression measures in the Locarno homes. Another is air conditioning, which permits households to keep their doors and windows closed, even on the warmest days.
LOCARNO
Project location: west Kitsilano, Vancouver
Project size: 21 apartments
Residence size: 654 sq. ft. – 1,013 sq. ft.; 1 bed, 1 bed + den, 2 bed
Prices: studio, $429,900; 1 bed, from $495,900; 2 bed, from $629,900
Developer: Jericho West Developments Ltd. and Pantheon Developments Ltd.
Interior design: Lot 30 Design Studio
Sales centre address: 2020 Alma
Hours: by appointment
Telephone: 604-671-1025
E-mail: [email protected]
Occupancy: December
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The Locarno new-home project is a residency opportunity in one of Vancouver’s original suburbs and most sought-after neighbourhoods and above an intersection, Fourth and Alma, that has figured so prominently in the aspirations of so many of us.
The prospects from the building are quintessential westside Vancouver: older, mostly detached residences on mostly big lots, most demonstrating decades of green-thumb pursuits, all fronting on tree-lined streets.
To the west is the West Point Grey neighbourhood and, beyond, the University of B.C. campus. To the east, north and south is the Kitsilano neighbourhood, the North Shore mountains always ensuring the newcomer is never lost.
Locarno‘s co-developer, Eric Fefer of Jericho West Developments Ltd., says the size of the Locarno apartments is appealing to professional couples or singles and neighbourhood residents who were downsizing.
The design of the building was aimed at sound-abatement. On school days, 306 eastbound buses and 319 westbound buses cross the intersection. Further, on a rainy Friday, more than 2,000 vehicles cross the intersection in the morning rush and 3,800 in the afternoon rush. “This is definitely an extremely busy intersection,” comments Wendy Stewart, a communications director for the City of Vancouver.
Locarno has been outfitted to minimize and even eliminate some of the sound, says Ken Chong, organizer of the Locarno sales and marketing campaign.
“All the windows along Alma and West Fourth are ‘thicker’ windows, and act as great sound buffers . . . as well, being that it is a concrete building, makes it an important factor in reducing the noise,” he says.
“It is the concrete and the two walls of glazing between sleeper and traffic, coupled with windows panes, which are generally double the thickness of standard window panes, that really cuts down on the noise level.
“The ‘air conditioning’ also works very well if it’s hot out and noisy out.”
For those environmentally conscious buyers, Locarno delivers with features such as: geothermal heating and cooling; LED lighting; and low-E windows. (Low-E glass stands for low emissivity glass, a technologically advanced, insulating glass that improves energy efficiency by reducing the transfer of heat or cold through windows).
“This is the first really sustainable project in this neighbourhood,” developer Fefer says. However, sustainability does come with a cost, but costs that will be covered in a few short years, Fefer says.
“The premium for the geothermal is about $15 per square foot, when you include the mechanical distribution throughout the building,” he says.
Those who are familiar with the Locarno location — the southeast corner of the intersection — might remember that it used to house a pharmacy, owned and operated by the Stearman family until the 1980s. George Tha then bought the property and the business, Fefer says.
“He only operated the pharmacy for a few years before he retired and rented the space out to various tenants, including the first-ever Plum Clothing store.” In the late 1980s, a fire destroyed the store and the lot remained vacant for years.
“George then grew the first community garden on the site and then after his death, his children sold us the property in 2006,” says Fefer.
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