Over 700 ft: Metro Vancouver's tallest tower will transform Gilmore Station

Metro Vancouver's tallest tower will transform Gilmore Station (RENDERINGS)

Artistic rendering of the first phase of Gilmore Place. (Onni Group)

Even more development is coming to Burnaby’s emerging Brentwood area, and this particular development will transform the Millennium Line’s Gilmore Station into a model transit-oriented development.

Local developer Onni Group’s Gilmore Place, spanning a 12-acre industrial-sized city block around the SkyTrain station, will be a mixed-use development with the first phase entailing a 64-storey landmark tower with 643 homes, a 51-storey tower with 510 homes, and a 43-storey tower with 410 homes. These towers in the first phase are immediately adjacent to the station on the westernmost end of the property.

Site plan of the first phase of Gilmore Place. (Onni Group)

Artistic rendering of the first phase of Gilmore Place. (Onni Group)

The tallest of the towers will be over 700 ft in height – nearly 70 ft higher than BC’s current tallest, downtown’s Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver – to become the new tallest building in the province. The facade of this pinnacle tower will have a unique “zipper-like” pattern.

Downtown Vancouver will also lose the title of BC’s second tallest, as the GEC Education Mega Centre tower in Surrey’s Whalley district will be taller than Trump International Hotel & Tower Vancouver.

Residents in this first phase of Gilmore Place will have access to about 71,500-sq-ft of residential amenity space within the upper floors of the podium, with amenities such as a bowling alley, indoor and outdoor pools, steam room, sauna, half-court basketball, children’s play area, golf simulators, karaoke room, outdoor dog run, and even a movie theatre.

Within the podium’s lower three levels, there will be nearly 300,000-sq-ft of office and retail space.

Approximately 1,800 vehicle parking spaces will be created to support the new density of the first phase.

Artistic rendering of the first phase of Gilmore Place. (Onni Group)

Once all of the phases of the redevelopment are complete, Gilmore Place will have about 3,500 homes spread over 2.7 million-sq-ft of residential floor area within a total of seven towers.

There will also be 450,000-sq-ft of retail space and over one million-sq-ft of office space.

“The site will be a complete community within the Brentwood Town Centre,” reads the approved master plan report by the City of Burnaby. “The synthesis of land use, architecture, landscape expression, will result in a contemporary and functional transit integrated development that will act as a spectacular western gateway to the Brentwood Town Centre. The focus of which will be the inter-relationship of office, retail, residential, green space and community uses to complement the surrounding Brentwood Town Centre.”

“It is recognized that redevelopment of this key area requires a concept and vision that delivers not only superior architectural expression, but acts as a model for employment growth, sustainability, urban design, and public amenity for the Brentwood Town Centre,” the report continues.

Artistic rendering of the first phase of Gilmore Place. (Onni Group)

The entire redevelopment will have an interconnected public realm of public plazas, open spaces, covered connections, and new pedestrian-only streets, including a city street extension through the site.

Portions of the existing SkyTrain station below the platform level will be integrated into the first phase, with retail and flex office space surrounding the station.

When Gilmore Station was designed nearly 15 years ago, Millennium Line planners had anticipated a major redevelopment project around the station and provided the station with a design that allowed for the flexibility for integration. This is also why this particular station had a less-ambitious roof design compared to other stations on the same line.

Approximately 12,000 new homes are currently planned for the Brentwood area, with the majority of the units slated for The Amazing Brentwood, which is slated to open its new shopping mall in the spring of 2019.

Artistic rendering of the first phase of Gilmore Place. (Onni Group)

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