1266 replies to this topic

[Caramia]

YAY!!! I hope they keep the community gardens on the roof!

[spanky123]

You are running for council Rob so what is your take?

In general do you favour requests to drop amenities in order to help developers through "difficult times" or are you of the "deal is a deal" opinion?

[aastra]

It sounds like they want to cut the residential element. Are the residential buildings the amenities to which you refer or do you know more than the article tells us?

[aastra]

It seems like it was only yesterday when residential buildings were the scourge and amenities were demanded in order to offset their horror.

Oh, wait. It was yesterday.

[Rob Randall]

You are running for council Rob so what is your take?

In general do you favour requests to drop amenities in order to help developers through "difficult times" or are you of the "deal is a deal" opinion?

My feeling is that the amenities asked of the developer were fairly modest so retaining them shouldn't be much of a financial hardship. However, these amenities were primarily tied to the residential component, and now that that component is gone (or drastically reduced) the goalposts have changed.

This project was a real ordeal for the DRA. We invested a lot of time and effort meeting with the developers, the architectural team and City Hall over the concerns residents had with the project.

I know there has been some criticism directed at the previous developer and to be sure, he made some miscalculations. But Schucht and his son were sincere in their efforts. The DRA had unprecedented input into this project, allowing us dialogue directly with the main project architects over some of the most critical issues, including height, massing and the design of the public space. Many hours were spent is a true dialogue that was frank and wide-ranging--not merely one side telling the other how it should be. This relationship ran from conception right to the demise of the Radius project.

Townline also has a tendency for openess and productive dialogue, but they like to keep their architects close to the vest so we don't expect we'll have the same privilege the Schuchts allowed us. However, the DRA has a long-standing relationship with Townline. We've spent several years discussing various projects with Rick Illich and his staff and we've also built a very open, no-bullshit relationship with their team.

The most important factors to keep in mind as the project restarts is:

-The tenant mix. Is residential still involved? I would like to see at minimum, several family-friendly townhouses as well as retail and office (including Goverment services and an educational component).

-Quality of the public space. We spent a lot of time poring over this (including multiple invocations of Christopher Alexander's Pattern Language!) and feel the design of the open areas are critical to the success of the design.

-Quality of workmanship. Another area we spent a lot of time debating with Merrick Architecture. Where and where not is concrete appropriate? How should it be finished? What about brick and stone? How do we achieve a timeless look that won't be dated?

-Height and density. How much is enough?

[G-Man]

This is good news. I shouldn't expect them to back out of the plan for parking as the parking is already all dug out.

I am happy to hear they will go ahead with the office building first. Also imo there can't be too much height or denisty in this area.

[aastra]

So is there going to be public parking beneath the Hudson and beneath Radius?

[G-Man]

That is a good question maybe they will scale back the parking at the Hudson sites and sell the excess parking at the Radius.

[Mike K.]

Also imo there can't be too much height or denisty in this area.

Agreed. What's the problem with height and density here?

[Rob Randall]

The DRA felt that a certain amount of density was necessary to jump start life in this area. The revised massing was derived from the desire to create more livable residential (better light, sun and view access). Our input resulted in a substantial change in the massing which seemed to please all involved. As long as quality public space was preserved in the courtyard, the density drove the massing. Classic form follows function. We also wanted this building to harmonize with Hudson, creating a distinct visual beacon separate from south Downtown.

[seymour201]

FYI Sales office is up for lease

[Rob Randall]

First off Radius has not officially transferred hands, Townline only has options to buy the property. Secondly, all the liens on the Radius still exist. Thirdly, the trailers are still on these jobs because the contractors are in no rush to move them as they have no jobs to move them to. One contractor even told me, he didn't want to pay to disconnect the power and move the trailer to their yard, they would rather store it there for free.

Remember that the Radius land included the brick and glass ScotiaBank building on Douglas and Fisgard. I don't know why that building (which was never intended to be demolished) was included in the lot consolidation. But I suspect they used it to make their density numbers seem smaller.

Now Townline wants the building gone from the Radius parcel. The DRA has to examine this and send our opinion to City Hall (pretty straightforward--no-one has raised any objections). It brought the overall Floor Space Ratio down so the revised parcel with have a higher FSR ratio; I'll have to check but I think it goes from 4.5:1 to 5.2:1 or something. The Radius' massing remains the same, but the elimination of the old building boosts the overall density. I hope I'm making sense here. For example, if Townline managed to buy and rehab Red Hot Video and the rest of the Douglas St. storefronts and incorporated them into the Radius project without building on them the FSR would plummet.

Townline says they are committed to keeping the residential component but that they will phase* Radius and work on the commercial/office first.

*Note to VHF; I hope this news doesn't faze you.

[Mike K.]

Good stuff.

[Caramia]

That is exciting that they will keep the residential. I hope they are able to bring it onto the market at the lower end, as was originally intended.

[Mike K.]

Keith Vass of Vic News reports that the Radius parkade will be completed and a potential re-start of the office component may start as early as Spring 09.

"“Our current thoughts are that we will move forward, fill in the hole, obviously, get the parkade done and probably move forard with the office component first and postpone the residential tower … until the market starts to improve,” said Bob Pearce, director of residential development for the Vancouver-based Townline Group."

The article also notes a Summer 09 start for Gateway Green.

[G-Man]

I read that as fill the hole with a parkade. Not with fill.

[Mike K.]

Yeah, my wording wasn't very good Nice to hear that Townline plans on taking steps to complete the parkade.

[seymour201]

Saw a couple of guys in the hole this morning, one in a cherry picker and hte other was walking around the Blanshard street side near caldonea. couldn't see wha tthey were doing, but someone is paying attention to it again.

[VicHockeyFan]

Saw a couple of guys in the hole this morning, one in a cherry picker and hte other was walking around the Blanshard street side near caldonea. couldn't see wha tthey were doing, but someone is paying attention to it again.

They are just putting new plastic down the walls where their is soil (mostly on the east side of the pit) to stop it eroding in the rain etc.

[VicHockeyFan]