Frances B
Sun
VANCOUVER – The Woodward’s redevelopment project got unanimous approval from Vancouver’s urban design panel Wednesday, with one member praising the architect and developer for their bravery and dedication.
“I want to applaud the developer for taking this on because it takes a lot of courage,” said Peter Wreglesworth.
An architect himself, he said project architect Gregory Henriquez’s design — which includes four separate buildings, a public plaza and a mix of about a dozen uses — shows a real commitment to social design and is clearly a “labour of love.”
The $280-million project, which was spearheaded by the previous COPE-Vision city council, will see developers Ian Gillespie and Ben Peterson build more than a million square feet of space. It will include both social and market housing in two towers, a School for the Contemporary Arts for Simon Fraser University, a public plaza, two major stores, a daycare, offices, a renovated heritage building that will be used by non-profit groups, and space for smaller stores.
Panel members said the design presented good solutions to a complex, rich project and said they were willing to give it some flexibility in order to help the difficult economics work.
They approved the 121-metre W tower, a flat-iron building with greenery growing up it, which will intrude two metres into one of the city’s view cones, and the density on the site.
The development, which is expected to help revitalize the Downtown Eastside, is also challenging financially because it is being built at a time of rising construction costs on the edge of the city’s most troubled and drug-dominated neighbourhood. The last city council agreed to put $13 million into the building in order to help the developer, who will finance the rest of the project.
Panel members did express concerns about several aspects of the project, especially the public space at the centre of the four buildings, the low level of retail or activities on the street side of the project, and how well the innovative “living wall” of greenery on the W tower will work.
Architect Nigel Baldwin said he was worried that the public space, part of which will be a glass-covered atrium, will struggle because it doesn’t have enough connections with the buildings surrounding it. Others said they thought it was crucial that the public space be open all the time, not gated as currently proposed.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
