Del Jones
USA Today

Shoppers and the retailers they frequent at malls, such as J.C. Penney and Macy’s, will barely notice Thursday’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by mall operator General Growth Properties.

But repercussions could soon ripple to other mall operators and to the distressed commercial real estate market in general.

General Growth Chief Operating Officer Thomas Nolan said Thursday that it would emerge as a leaner company. But once debt-free, it could be in position to slash lease rates and draw tenants away from other malls, just as airlines have emerged from bankruptcy reorganization in the past to slash airfares and cause distress to healthy competitors.

“This bankruptcy will drive down the values of mall assets in the United States,” Dan Fasulo, of real estate research firm Real Capital Analytics, told Bloomberg News. “It’s going to put, I believe, more supply on the market than can be absorbed.”

It was the largest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history, according to BankruptcyData.com, although less than one-twentieth the size of last year’s $639 billion filing by Lehman Bros.

General Growth, a real estate investment trust, accumulated $27 billion in debt from a mall buying spurt that built it into a mall operator second in size only to Simon Property. General Growth operates more than 200 properties in 44 states. It owns Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, the world’s largest open-air mall.

Nolan said company malls had a 92.5% occupancy rate at the end of 2008, one of the highest in 15 years, and that the company had no difficulty making its debt payments until the credit crunch hit in October. It remains able to make payments, Nolan said, but could not refinance loans that came to maturity.

Nolan said that the company’s “head count” is always under evaluation, but that there would be no layoffs associated with the bankruptcy reorganization.

The company has secured $375 million in funding from Pershing Square Capital Management to get it through reorganization. Nolan said the goal was to keep the company intact, but it would consider selling some malls. Simon Property is in good position to pick up some malls “on the cheap,” Fasulo says.

Even before the filing, General Growth had attempted to sell some malls and found it difficult due to the collapse of the credit markets, CEO Adam Metz said.

General Growth’s stock closed at $1.05 Wednesday, down 98% from its 52-week high of $44.23. Its shares were halted and then suspended by the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Contributing: Associated Press

No short- term renting under the current law

JEFF LEE
Sun

Vancouver council will decide today whether to relax laws governing temporary accommodation in residential zones during the 2010 Olympics.

The move, if adopted, would likely see upwards of 1,000 applications from homeowners who want to rent two or more rooms for 30 days or less. Currently, the city does not allow such short-term rentals in residential districts.

The catch will be that anyone wanting to set up such “ bed and breakfast” lodging will also have to apply for a business licence.

Coun. Geoff Meggs said Monday he’s in favour of the zoning bylaw relaxation because it would create extra rooms for visitors without endangering current rental housing.
Under the proposal, houses for Olympic rentals cannot have been occupied by a tenant or boarder after Sept. 1. “ The idea is to take the pressure off our existing stock of rental housing,” Meggs said. “ We’re actually trying to expand the stock of housing during the Olympics by protecting units that already have renters.”

A report to council notes that there are virtually no hotel rooms available in Vancouver during the Games. Vanoc has reserved 80 per cent of the 12,000 hotel rooms in downtown Vancouver and many hotels are withholding the remaining stock. About 350,000 ticketed spectators are expected, creating intense pressure for renters. It says residents wanting to rent a single room for one or two people don’t need a business licence. But renting multiple rooms or an entire unit would require a licence, which staff want to set at $ 150. That’s higher than the $ 108 now required for long-term rentals, which staff say is necessary to recover the costs of the application program.

But Meggs said he had already heard from homeowners and other councillors who say the proposed fee is too high. “ We’re not throwing away the rule book. But let’s be pragmatic. Lots of people are not going to bother applying for a business licence,” he said. “ The risk they run is if their neighbours get fed up with people coming to and from the garage and make a complaint, they could be shut down and face a fine.”

Council will also vote on a recommendation to allow the Vancouver Organizing Committee to park its fleet of 800 buses on a piece of industrial land in south Vancouver.

James R. Healey
USA Today

General Motors  is teaming with Segway, the scooter company, to develop a battery-powered vehicle to cut urban congestion and pollution.

The companies plan to announce the partnership Tuesday in New York, where they are testing a prototype of the partially enclosed, two-seat, two-wheel scooter. The venture is called Project PUMA, for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility.

The companies hope to recruit partners, such as cities or colleges, to set up Puma travel lanes, like bicycle lanes. They’d be used to test the vehicles and their on-board wireless communicators designed to keep them safely apart and even operate them while drivers do other tasks.

The Pumas also could be operated manually. Not intended for highway use, they would hit about 35 miles per hour and go up to 35 miles on a charge.

“There’s no technology that has to be invented here. It’s really just putting the pieces together,” says Chris Borroni-Bird, director of the project for GM.

Nonetheless it could take years to get to market. “It’s not going on sale anytime” soon, he said.

The partnership with Segway began about 18 months ago, predating GM’s emergency survival loans from the government.

GM is developing the electronic wireless systems for safe, autonomous operation. Segway is responsible for the self-balancing, electric, two-wheel chassis. The prototype has “training wheels” front and rear, helpful at stoplights. Pumas would use lithium-ion batteries, like those Segway uses in its stand-up scooters.

Though being unveiled in New York, the Pumas might appeal most in densely packed cities in places such as India and China, Borroni-Bird says. There they would seem a big step up from bicycles. Americans, who are used to cars, might not take them as seriously.

He forecasts energy consumption equivalent to 200 miles per gallon of gasoline. That falls to about 70 mpg adding in fuel to generate electricity used to charge its battery.

Four great locales to sample in the U.S. Southwest

Barbara Braidwood and Rick Cropp
Province

Enough rain, wind and snow. Pack away that heavy coat and hat. What you need is sunshine and blue skies in the warm dry desert air where everyone but a curmudgeon will find true happiness.

Will it be the invigorating glitz of Las Vegas, the panoply of world class activities in Phoenix or the mellower pace of desert mountain cities of Palm Springs and Palm Desert?

Las Vegas

You know about the gambling, world-class shows and noshing. But here’s a highlight you may not know about: Las Vegas (www.visitlasvegas.com) boasts the world’s largest chocolate fountain (Guinness World Records says so) spanning nine metres from ceiling to floor.

It’s at the Jean-Philippe Patisserie (www.jpchocolates.com) at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino and circulates 950-kilograms of chocolate at a rate of 115 litres per minute.

We certainly don’t tend to think of museums in Las Vegas, but there are some unusual ones that are worth a gander. Pack your pockets with coins for the Pinball Hall of Fame (www.pinballmuseum.org) so you can try your hand at being a pinball wizard.

The Atomic Testing Museum (www.atomictestingmuseum.org) relates the beginning of the atomic age when dozens of bombs were tested nearby.

Meanwhile, the Neon Museum, (www.neonmuseum.org) preserves the area’s neon signs. The boneyard tours will show you some fantastic examples of the craft.

And then there’s Liberace Museum & Foundation (www.liberace.org). Need we say more?

If you love to haggle, this could be your best time to visit Las Vegas. Grab coupon booklets or attraction flyers at the airport or at your hotel. After you pick what you want, perhaps a helicopter flight for lunch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon with a finishing flourish of a low altitude flyover of the strip (already slashed from $390 US to $287 US in an ad we saw), call and ask if there is a better rate. Ask about any standby discounts or mid week or even weekend discounts.

Hotel rooms are as cheap as $30 US and ask for any complementary incentives. For instance, the Venetian has a credit for shows, gaming or the spa while several other hotels have restaurant or cabana credits.

Pop into a pawnshop. Right now they have the largest stock of luxury items ever.

Walking the strip, gazing at the incomparable architecture and peeking into the interiors of the hotels, is some of the best free entertainment around.

Don’t miss the evening version of water, music and light at the Fountains of Bellagio (every 15 minutes). We think it’s still the best free show in town.

PHOENIX

Yes, you can golf, shop or watch professional sports until you can’t stuff in another hotdog or hit the culture trail of art galleries and theatres until your eyeballs hang on your sunburned cheeks.

But a different view of Phoenix (www.visitphoenix.com) comes from the air, the fringes of the city or even from underground.

When you need a break from all the good food, sports and golf, take a balloon ride, dig up a little history, drive out, way out, into the desert or climb a mountain.

Phoenix really did rise from the remains of another civilization, and traces of the 3,000-year-old Hohokam people — who disappeared around 1500 — remain. Beneath the downtown Phoenix Convention Center are the remains of about 40 Hohokam pit houses (www.phoenix.gov/ PUEBLO/museum.html) and hundreds of items recovered during the construction are on display.

Afterwards, go to the nearby Phoenix Museum of History (www.pmoh.org) for a view of the city’s history up to the present day. Unlike Canada, where trees and brush so often obscure your view, with any elevation at all in Phoenix you can see for miles.

The city has mountains on two sides and a hump in the middle called Camelback Mountain. Camelback’s sheer red sandstone cliffs can be circumvented or challenged with trails to the top (350 metres above the desert), where there is a spectacular outlook. The easy trails at the bottom are a stroll for anyone with a good pair of walking shoes, but the top is a bit of a struggle.

Mountains at the edges of the city are higher and offer much more diversity, from really easy to death-defying trails. The North Mountain Visitor Center has exhibits illustrating the Sonoran Desert‘s richness as well as maps of hiking trails snaking around the more-than-600-metre mount.

Ballooning provides a little easier way for the whole family to attain nearly the same altitude. Arizona Ballooning (www.arizonaballooning.com/Maps/maps.htm) and Hot Air Expeditions (www.hotairexpeditions.com/general.htm) can take you up for a bird’s eye view.

PALM SPRINGS

AND PALM DESERT

The valley that holds Palm Springs and Palm Desert (www.VisitPalmSprings.com or www.palmspringsusa.com) and other small towns is surrounded by wilderness desert with hundreds of visible trails meandering up the hills and mountains. It may seem impossible to get lost if you stroll close to the valley bottom, but take care if you are going to tackle the snow capped peaks. Some soar to more than 3,500 metres and as soon as you enter the forest, landmarks disappear.

Another way to see the desert with a bit more range is to take a tour with Desert Adventures (www.red-jeep.com). Their trademark red jeeps offer tours of the San Andreas Fault and nearby Joshua Tree National Park and their adventure drivers will regal you with tales of Native American history and culture, old mining lore, ethno-botany, geology and the tours will bestow panoramic vistas.

We loved the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens (1-760-346-5694; www.livingdesert.org). There is a trolley system to take you through the nearly 5,000 hectares, but walking over a crest to find the head of a giraffe poking above the trees is a thrill you won’t want to hurry through. Some of these animals, living in gargantuan cages among the cactus and cliffs, are the last of their species.

Palm Springs has long been a playground for millionaires and movie stars. The valley has pockets of ritzy shopping and art galleries, but for our money the best shopping is in the second-hand shops. Whether it is restless décor syndrome or funky furniture fads or ancient movie stars leaving entire estates to be liquidated, Palm Springs has some of the most unusual second-hand goods anywhere.

One-of-a-kind, custom-made doodads and clothes are even more bizarre or fashionable depending on your predilections. The store Modern Way (1-760-320-5455, http://www. psmodernway.com/page6a.html), has some good examples.

On Saturday and Sunday mornings the College of the Desert Street Fair (1-760-776-0152; www.codstreetfair.com) is filled with such items as hand-tooled belts, feathered sun hats, soaps, jewellery, food, handbags, paintings, metal work and semiprecious stones. Go early. By 11 a.m., the place is jammed. (If the parking lineup is long, leave your car across the road from the college in the residential area.)

Thursday evening, make your way to Villagefest (1-760-320-3781, www.villagefest.org), an open-air market on Palm Canyon Drive (between Amado and Baristo Streets). The road closes to car traffic and vendors set up booths with arts and crafts and food. Wander around and then plant yourself for some unmatched people watching.

Barbara Braidwood and Rick Cropp (RickandBarbara@telus. net) are Vancouver based writers.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Marisol Bello
USA Today

A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.

Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.

The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.

Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.

Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. Merchants, hurting because customers have cut back on spending, benefit as consumers spend the local cash.

“We wanted to make new options available,” says Jackie Smith of South Bend, Ind., who is working to launch a local currency. “It reinforces the message that having more control of the economy in local hands can help you cushion yourself from the blows of the marketplace.”

About a dozen communities have local currencies, says Susan Witt, founder of BerkShares in the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts. She expects more to do it.

Under the BerkShares system, a buyer goes to one of 12 banks and pays $95 for $100 worth of BerkShares, which can be spent in 370 local businesses. Since its start in 2006, the system, the largest of its kind in the country, has circulated $2.3 million worth of BerkShares. In Detroit, three business owners are printing $4,500 worth of Detroit Cheers, which they are handing out to customers to spend in one of 12 shops.

During the Depression, local governments, businesses and individuals issued currency, known as scrip, to keep commerce flowing when bank closings led to a cash shortage.

By law, local money may not resemble federal bills or be promoted as legal tender of the United States, says Claudia Dickens of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

“We print the real thing,” she says.

The IRS gets its share. When someone pays for goods or services with local money, the income to the business is taxable, says Tom Ochsenschlager of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. “It’s not a way to avoid income taxes, or we’d all be paying in Detroit dollars,” he says.

Pittsboro, N.C., is reviving the Plenty, a defunct local currency created in 2002. It is being printed in denominations of $1, $5, $20 and $50. A local bank will exchange $9 for $10 worth of Plenty.

“We’re a wiped-out small town in America,” says Lyle Estill, president of Piedmont Biofuels, which accepts the Plenty. “This will strengthen the local economy. … The nice thing about the Plenty is that it can’t leave here.”

 

Building features 46,450 metres of meeting space — and 60,000 bees

Lena Sin
Province

It seems fitting that B.C.’s latest architectural landmark boasts neither height nor avant-garde boldness.

Rather, Vancouver‘s new convention centre holds bragging rights to 60,000 bees on its roof — and a flourishing sea life below its floors.

After four years of construction and a budget that ballooned to $882.3 million — nearly twice the original budget of $495 million — the convention centre officially opened to the public yesterday.

More than 26,000 people showed up for the open house on a sunny Saturday, and many seemed impressed, despite the cost overruns.

Standing in what is now Canada‘s largest ballroom, complete with five-storey-high ceilings, Thomas and Jessy Scaria decided the waterfront centre was money well spent.

“It’s a beautiful showcase of Vancouver. You’ve got the beautiful landscape, the mountains and the sea,” said Thomas. “You hear a lot of other people saying [the money] could have been spent on other issues, but a city has to showcase itself. They did a good job.” With 46,450 square metres of meeting space, the new convention centre is triple the size of the old one next door.

The site will serve as the broadcast centre for the 2010 Olympics.

And it already has 180 events booked, including 57 international conventions that could not have come to Vancouver without the expansion. The conventions are booked through to 2016.

It will take an estimated nine years to recoup costs, based on spending by out-of-town conventioneers.

Despite the global recession, Warren Buckley, president and CEO of PavCo, is confident of the centre’s ability to compete for contracts.

He said that no one has cancelled bookings as a result of the recession.

“We’ve had no cancellations. We’re blessed, candidly, because the Olympics moves in here in the fall and takes over our space until the spring of 2010, and will actually take us through what we’re hoping is . . . the [difficult] economic time period,” said Buckley.

Perched on the edge of Burrard Inlet, about 40 per cent of the glass and concrete structure is suspended over the harbour. Underneath, “stair-step”-style frames were installed around the waterside perimeter to encourage growth of sea urchins, starfish, barnacles, mussels, kelp and sea lettuce.

Meanwhile, the six-acre green roof is the largest in Canada, with 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses and several beehives installed to house a colony of bees.

Allan Garr, a Vancouver journalist with a passion for gardening and beekeeping, is now the convention centre’s beekeeper.

Jaime Galley of Vancouver was delighted with the West Coast-inspired design.

“I think the space is absolutely fantastic and it’s unlike anything else in the city,” she enthused.

“There’s definitely a natural inspiration with the interior. Like the beautiful wood mosaic walls and exposed wood beams and green roof — it’s just great.” “I’m very impressed,” agreed friend Philip Ma. “From every angle you look, you can see the harbour view . . . It’s a big, big improvement over the old one.” – The open house continues today, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Vancouver Convention Centre is at 1055 Canada Place, near the Waterfront SkyTrain station.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Facility has 60 new gatherings booked that would have been too big for the old building, president says

Bruce Constantineau
Sun

The Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre expansion that began life as a $495-million project officially opens today as an $883.2-million facility with more than triple the old centre’s meeting space.

Featuring Canada‘s largest green roof with 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses spread over more than two hectares, the new centre will offer conventioneers about 500,000 square feet of meeting space and a 55,000-square-foot ballroom with five-storey ceilings and unique North Shore mountain views.

Cost overruns aside, PavCo president Warren Buckley said the investment was needed to keep Vancouver from losing more international convention business due to a lack of meeting space.

“We began losing business 10 years after the original centre opened [in 1986] because we couldn’t attract the kinds of conventions that wanted to come to Vancouver,” he said in an interview.

Buckley said about 60 new conventions that would have been too large for the old centre have already booked into the new space, with most occurring between now and the end of 2012. He said 2011 and 2012 are shaping up to be the largest Vancouver convention years on record.

About 100 international meeting planners are in Vancouver this week to view the new facility.

Buckley said the global recession hasn’t kept meeting organizers from planning new conventions in three or four years, when the economy is expected to be in better shape.

“We have not lost any conventions that are on the books,” he said. “Some have asked for help on things like [cutting their costs] on opening receptions. They have sharpened their pencils, but haven’t walked away.”

The original convention centre on the east side of Canada Place will shut down between the end of April and September this year for a $36.2-million renovation.

Buckley said the new facility is essentially complete, although certain pieces of artwork and signage won’t be installed until the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee vacates the facility after the 2010 Games next year. The convention centre will serve as the International Broadcast Centre during the Games.

The American Bar Association will hold the first major international convention at the new facility, when 1,700 delegates use the centre from April 16 to April 18.

The largest conference booked so far is the Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques meeting in 2011, when 25,000 delegates are expected to spend about $30 million in the city.

A public open house will be held at the new centre on Saturday and Sunday between 10 a.m and 4 p.m.

Funding sources for the new centre include the province of B.C. ($540.7 million), the federal government ($222.5 million), Tourism Vancouver ($90 million) and convention centre revenue ($30 million).

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

 

Damian Inwood
Province

The city wants to ding Vancouver residents with fines of up to $10,000 if they illegally rent out their homes during the Olympics.

Right now, the maximum fine allowed is $2,000 per violation, but a report going to council Tuesday will ask the B.C. government to amend the Vancouver Charter so that heftier fines can be levied.

The report recommends relaxing bylaws covering temporary accommodation during the Olympic period. Under the proposal, residents would be able to rent one bedroom to no more than two people without a permit. But “owners wanting to rent more than one bedroom must apply to the city to create a B&B,” says the report.

That would require a $150 business licence.

Anyone found breaking the bylaw would be fined $50 per day up to a maximum of $2,000, the maximum currently allowed under the charter.

No one will be allowed to rent to Olympic guests if they have tenants after Sept. 1 to prevent short-term evictions.

A property use inspector (PUI) will monitor Internet sites in the lead-up to 2010 and advise property owners of the rules.

“During the Games, PUIs will respond to complaints from neighbours, as well as tenants, for noncompliance with the proposed bylaw,” says the report.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Only 550 rooms still available 10 months before start of sport extravaganza

Damian Inwood
Province

Most Vancouver hotels already have “no-vacancy” signs up when it comes to renting rooms for the 2010 Olympics.

In fact, a report going to city council Tuesday says that a scant 550 rooms are still available, 10 months from the start of the Winter Games.

And, says the council report, that leaves about 210,000 ticket-holders who’ll be needing to find somewhere to stay.

“In terms of managing expectations, there won’t be a lot of downtown hotel rooms available because, if there were, we’d be trying to buy them for clients right now,” admitted Terry Wright, Vancouver 2010’s head of operations.

“It’s more likely [spectators] will be in the suburbs or they’ll be in somebody’s spare bedroom or in a furnished apartment rental.”

City planners are recommending that council pass a bylaw that will control the renting of rooms in private homes during the Olympics.

According to the report, the official online source for spectator accommodation, www.2010DestinationPlanner.com, says no hotel rooms are available in Vancouver next February.

The Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee (VANOC) booked 80 per cent of the 12,000 rooms in downtown Vancouver, says the report.

Simon Pettigrew, general manager of the Four Seasons Hotel, said all of his 372 rooms have already been booked by VANOC.

“As part of putting the Games together we contracted with VANOC for a certain percentage of our rooms,” he said. “We were fortunate that VANOC came back and asked us for more rooms, so we’re 100-per-cent committed over the Games period.”

Stephen Peters, manager of the 503-room Pan Pacific Hotel, said all he has left are 23 suites, running between $2,200 and $14,500 a night.

“With the exception of the suites, all my guest rooms are precommitted and will be occupied,” he said. “It’s very doubtful we’ll see any leakage. You’ve already seen NBC, for example, cut back their Olympic program by 35 per cent, so we’re already keenly aware of what their requirements are. So I’m assured we will run a full house.”

Peters said a colleague told him there are 12 or 13 local condo rental companies that own multiple buildings that still have a lot of inventory.

“I think there’ll be a lot of people leaving Vancouver who’ll take the opportunity to make some money and rent their personal or private accommodation,” he said.

Peters said he’s been told home rentals will go at a daily average price of $300 per room.

“So if you’ve got a four bedroom house, you’re looking at $1,000 to $1,500 a day and you can get a contract for 30 or 45 days,” he said.

Walt Judas, 2010 strategist for Tourism Vancouver, said VANOC still needs rooms for extra workers like bus drivers who don’t live in Vancouver.

He said visitors will find it tough to find anything in Vancouver and will have to go to the suburbs.

“In 2006, people stayed in Milan and commuted to Turin by train,” he said.

Judas said some rooms usually become available closer to the Olympics.

He said it will only become a crisis if thousands of people arrive with Games tickets from outside Canada and the Lower Mainland and can’t find anywhere to stay.

“Then we are in trouble,” he said. “But I don’t think that will happen.”

NDP Olympic critic Harry Bains said VANOC needs to find an “innovative” way to handle the demand.

“They have to make sure that our guests do not go through an unpleasant experience,” he said.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Green roofs are often out of sight and inaccessible, but green walls are visible to all

Kim Davis
Sun

They are eco-friendly, gorgeous, and grab people’s attention, but are green walls social amenities?

“For many people, it is incredible to be on top of a green roof in the city, and I think we have a great opportunity to create the same experience for people with green walls,” says Maureen Connelly of BCIT’s Centre for Architectural Ecology.

Connelly describes being invited to an alley in the Downtown Eastside by the owners of the surrounding buildings. They wanted to know how and what technology she had to green the space.

“As I stood in the middle of the alley and looked around, the only things I could see that weren’t built were some small, concrete-confined street trees. That is what people in the Downtown Eastside are being exposed to,” Connelly says. “We have an opportunity to bring nature back into the urban centre, and to do that across the whole socioeconomic spectrum.”

Connelly talks about how, in dense urban settings, there is far more wall space than roof acreage.

“We have to take the designs and technologies of the roof and apply them to the wall — up the ante of the contribution of the whole building envelope to the ecological balance of the urban centre.”

Biophilic benefits are just some of the attributes that Connelly and her BCIT colleagues plan to research in the coming months. Using data collected from test walls at the centre, as well as from a two-storey living wall that will be installed on the Capital Regional District’s headquarters in Victoria, the Centre hopes to help qualify and quantify the benefits associated with these systems. These include: lower a building’s heating and cooling costs, air purification, noise attenuation, increased urban biodiversity, and water management.

“Vancouver is in the middle of a green wall revolution,” wrote Sun gardening columnist Steve Whysall in his July 4th article last year.

Following on the heels of a number of successful “boutique” green walls, Randy Sharp of Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture says there are more and more large-scale and commercial developments — restaurants, hotels, big-box retailers, and parking garages — expressing interest.

“We have built up the confidence in the design and technology of different kinds of green wall systems at the small scale, and now we are able to apply that to the large scale.”

Geneviève Noel of MUBI, a Vancouver-based living wall provider, says the growing popularity of green walls has been largely due to their accessibility and their visual appeal.

“I think the idea of vertical vegetation is catching on, even more so than green roofs as it is often closer to the public, making it a good opportunity for green buildings to be identified as such,” she says.

Unlike green roofs, which are often out of sight and/or inaccessible to many building users, let alone people passing by, green walls offer a stunning, street-level greenscape.

As Sharp points out, so much of what makes a building “green” — insulation, high-efficiency windows, Forest Stewardship Council-certified lumber — cannot be seen or recognized by most people.

“It is truly green building,” Sharp says. “You are making sustainable methods visible.”

LOW-RISK LEAFINESS

Another key reason for green walls’ rapidly growing popularity is their perceived low risk, particularly as compared to green roofs.

As Connelly points out, living walls can be much like vertical planter boxes. We know how to do it and, when installed properly, should be easy and accessible.

Green facades, where plants are planted at grade instead of a wall system like living walls, are particularly attractive, especially when it comes to cost and long-term maintenance considerations.

Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture successfully used this type of green screening on a parking structure at Richmond‘s River Rock Destination Resort several years ago, and will be installing another one at Hillside Centre in Victoria.

Vancouver-based G-Sky, which offers both living walls and green roofs, is probably one of the busiest providers in North America, with clients ranging from Starbucks and Whole Foods Market to the Vancouver Aquarium.

In the coming months, G-Sky and Sharp will install an 18-metre high living wall at the base of the new Canada Line terminal station at Vancouver International Airport.

LUSH FUTURES

Connelly says large-scale green roofs will likely offer the greatest ecological benefits in the near future, but believes there will be stronger interest in and applications for green walls in the urban core because they are so visually accessible.

“That is where they may have a stronger influence on affecting the change we need in terms of bringing vegetation back into the urban environment,” she says.

Here are few current and upcoming green building projects to check out.

Current: Millenium Water demonstration Centre, Whole Foods Market at Cambie and 8th, Joe Fortes Restaurant. Upcoming: The Flack Block, Westin Hotel in Richmond.

The BCIT Centre for Architectural Ecology holds an open house every third Thursday of the month. Come this spring, they will have one living wall and three green facades for people to see.

BCIT, www.greenroof.bcit.ca

MUBI, www.mubi.ca

Sharp & Diamond www.sharpdiamond.com

G-Sky, www.greenrooftops.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun