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Yesterday we profiled the early work of Concord Pacific between the years of 1995-2003. Today we continue presenting the buildings of the Beach Crescent community completed after 2003, other Concord communities during the more recent period of 2004-2011, and present a few projects in the planning and vision phases for the future.
Beach Crescent, 2004-2009 completion
Architects: Hulbert Group International, Inc., Busby + Associates Architects, James KM Cheng Architects Inc., Arthur Erickson Architectural Corporation
Emporis listing can be found here.
Standing tall beside the towers of Azura 1 and 2 presented yesterday, are the towers of Park West 1 and 2. These make use of gently curving faces, as well as sections of dark brown precast brick.
All four towers of Azura and Park West are set in behind the elegantly modern townhomes lining the half-circular Beach Crescent roadway. Clear delineation is made with steps leading up to the individual homes, and the use of a short stone wall and green hedges. The townhomes are clad with prominent vertical precast segments resembling lightly coloured limestone panels. The large windows are inset, with minimal black spandrel sections. The second floor is horizonataly marked by one long balcony, which in my mind resembles second floor balconies typically found on old Victorian London townhomes.
On the west side of the park rise ICON 1 and 2 with park side townhomes. ICON is an acronym which stands for 'Inside Comfort, Outside Nature'.
King's Landing rises on the east side of the park, and also has townhomes lining the waterfront trail.
Silver Sea is one of two architectural stand-out projects of this community. Only 9 storeys tall, and sitting on a small, oddly shaped lot, this building seemingly steps back every so slightly with each successive floor. It features large triangual corner terraces, and prominent metal sun shades. This is one of the few residential buildings that I've seen which make use of these types of shades which one is more likely to see on commercial buildings.
The Erickson, the namesake building for its late famous architect Arthur Erickson, has a prominent place on this community's waterfront. It features a gracefully undulating tower which reaches upwards to the 18th floor. From some vantage points, this building and its balconies appear like they're swaying in a gentle harbour breeze.
Lined with waterfront townhomes, this project features what the City calls a semi-public walkway. The front doors step up from a semi-public walkway that is physically separated from the public walkway/bikeway by glass railings. A second glass railing a few steps up marks the separation from semi-public to private terrace space. The townhomes' modern features consistently use glass railings at all levels, glass overhangs to cover the second floor balconies, and modern use of marble cladding.
More interesting facts obtained about this project form Emporis: Each unit has an elevator opening directly into the living room. The project, despite its prominent waterfront and downtown location, also features two- and three-car garages.
Spectrum, 2007 completion
Architect: James K M Cheng Architects Inc.
Emporis listing can be found here.
This community was one which I did not actually get a chance to see up close in person. It is notable for its use of bold, vertically coloured panels which highlight the buildings' proportions. The complex integrates a full-size Costco store into its basement level.
Townhomes line the base of the four towers on three of the streets. They use similarly coloured panels to delineate individual properties, and what looks like long narrow terraces on the second floor with an overhang between each unit.
What's interesting from both a design and engineering point of view is that the landscape makes it seem like the townhomes line up perfectly at ground level. In fact, if one looks at the following image from bellow the Dunsmuir Street Viaduct, the 'ground level' townhomes actually meet the street level high up in the air at the raised sections of both the West Georgia Street Viaduct and the Dunsmuir Street Viaduct. They are, for all practical purposes, effectively built at what is the second floor of the entire complex above ground level, and immediately above the Costco warehouse.
A site as constrained as this one, adjacent to two imposing viaducts which otherwise might have been considered a liability to its development potential, suddenly becomes a great asset when you consider how the complex integrates a large warehouse retailer immediately beneath the high density neighbourhood above. Urban development and architecture critic Trevor Boddy wrote about this in a 2007 Globe and Mail article about the challenges of the site and the model this development could hold for the future. The Costco store fronts directly onto Expo Boulevard beneath the two viaducts which, depending on how you view the site, occupies either the ground floor, or the first basement level of the entire complex. From an engineering point of view, this site posed tremendous challenges to building these towers over large transfer beams that could allow for barrier free loading zones to support up to five delivery trailers. The entire development has parking space for 1393 vehicles, and at Costco's request, also includes extra wide parking spaces able to accommodate SUVs. The store is a massive 144,725 sq ft in size, and would also be Costco's first store in a downtown core. The space which they occupy is also owned outright by the company, not leased as is typical of podium level retailers. Is this, as Trevor Boddy would contend, an emerging model for an eco-dense future? Give his article a read, and decide for yourself.
Coopers Quay, 2008 completion
Architects: Hancock Bruckner Eng + Wright, Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden, IBI/HB Architects, Walter Francl Architecture Inc.
Emporis listing can be found here.
The four buildings of Coopers Quay show an architectural evolution in design currently underway. No longer limited with pale-toned spandrel, this project makes use of bold, solid colours in a tapestry of shades. After having spent time walking through the previous communities featured in this and the previous article, I found the design of these buildings rather refreshing. Colours include black, yellow, orange, and red. The aluminum panels immediately reminded me of Tridel's Rêve building with it's use of black and red panels, immediately drawing ones attention.
Coopers Lookout features a linear arrangement of three distinct sections: a waterfront mid-rise tower, a middle low-rise mid-section, followed by a high-rise building in the back.
Coopers Pointe features a single tower with two personalities. The front (waterside) is conservative. Black and grey spandrel, but with angular balconies and distinctive pointed rooftops. The back side features prominent use of red cladding, curved window sections, and some townhomes at street level.
The towers of Mariner 1 and 2 also follow the similar split personality of Coopers Pointe. The waterfront sides feature a lot of conservative looking spandrel and clear glass. The back sides feature use of bold red panels.
One interesting design feature which does not show up easily in my images is the way that Concord integrated its elevator core with the external environment. This red panelled vertical wall is actually covering the concrete elevator core, and the column of windows in fact looks into one of the elevators themselves. Passengers ascending to higher floors no doubt get fantastic views of the False Creek area, and pedestrians observing the bottom half can watch as the elevator rises through the core. A rather small detail, but an interesting one nonetheless. For a residential tower, it was a rather unexpected but pleasant surprise at first sight.
Notable among these towers are the way that the mechanical elements at the top of the buildings are cleanly integrated into the architecture, making them more consistent and coherent with the overall design of the building.
Nelson, in planning – two towers with 3 sky bridges
Architect: James K M Cheng Architects Inc.
Emporis listing can be found here.
Nelson is Concord Pacific's latest project. Conceived as two pairs of towers, each pair featuring three sky bridges and sitting on what looks to be a roughly triangular shaped podium. One pair of towers will sit directly across Smithe Street from the other. Nelson has some similarity to CityPlace's Parade because of the sky bridges, and Luna with its use of translucently coloured glass panels at balcony edges. Designed by James Cheng, this project is currently in pre-sales. There weren't many renders that I was able to find for this project, but Concord Pacific is using this one on their website.
Concord 2020 vision for the False Creek area.
Emporis listing for what looks to be part of this community.
If the scale of Concord Pacific's developments thus far were not impressive enough, Concord still has a huge swath of land awaiting development. An area that looks to be at least the size of our CityPlace, it is expected to be the home of another 7500 residents, perhaps about 1.8 million square feet of commercial space, and approximately 20 towers. Because this is still just a long term vision, not too many reliable renders are available, but the following have surfaced on www.vancitybuzz.com in the past year. Have a look at what might be expected to come this decade. What do you think of this bold vision for the future?
Recent Concord, by the numbers:
- 4 communities planned, completed, or in progress during this period
- 1 community in future vision
- 24 buildings completed
- 7 architectural firms involved
The following is a list of the architects who worked on various projects, and how many towers they were involved with:
- James K Cheng - 8
- Hancock Bruckner Eng + Wright - 5
- Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden - 3
- Hulbert Group International, Inc. - 2
- Busby + Associates Architects - 2
- Lawrence Doyle Young & Wright Architects Inc. - 2
- IBI/HB Architects - 1
- Walter Francl Architecture Inc. - 1
- Arthur Erickson Architectural Corporation - 1
Something to think about:
Over a decade ago, intense controversy brewed over a proposed suburban styled Home Depot devleopment in Toronto's Lower Donlands, a site which Home Depot backed away from and which was eventually sold to developers 3C Lakeshore Inc. Home Depot had a second opportunity to move to the downtown core, this time into a more urban friendly development on Queen West at Portland Street, but eventually backed out again. More recently, similar controversy developed over an initial proposal for a four pad, low rise hockey facility, again setting off a chorus of disapproval at its predominantly suburban layout and design. Public outcry eventually led to a very urban but expensive stacked proposal which never got off the ground. Might there still be a future place for a large warehouse style retailer, or perhaps a more urbanized hockey pad layout in Toronto's downtown core, using the mixed-use stacked example of Concord's Spectrum as a starting point for discussion? Are there other examples of large, predominantly suburban facilities, that can adaptively become more urban simply by stacking them above or below other types of uses in a mixed-use development complex? Might this strategy have produced a more favourable result in the case of the stacked ice rinks? Have your say below.
