New Vancouver City Council approves its first building: a 47-storey tower

New Vancouver City Council approves its first building: a 47-storey residential tower

Artistic rendering of 1063-1075 Barclay Street, Vancouver. (ACDF Architecture/IBI Group)

Two months after its inauguration, the new makeup of Vancouver City Council has approved its first new building resulting from a rezoning application.

On Monday evening, during the second public hearing of this term, City Council unanimously approved Pacific Northern Developments’ proposal to build a 47-storey, mixed-tenure residential tower at 1063-1075 Barclay Street — the northeast corner of the intersection of Thurlow and Barclay Streets in downtown Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood.

Within this architecturally distinct building, there will be a total of 372 homes, including 285 condominium units and 87 social housing units.

You might also like:

The rezoning application was originally submitted in June 2020 and then slightly revised in August 2022 to set aside more social housing, with 27% of the building’s residential floor area dedicated to social housing — up from the 25% requirement under the City’s West End Plan for sites along the Burrard Street corridor. The increase in social housing is accomplished by converting the lowest floor of condominiums.

The social housing component also serves to replace the 40 existing rental homes found on the site.

1063-1075 Barclay Street Vancouver tower

Site of 1063-1075 Barclay Street, Vancouver. (City of Vancouver)

Site of 1063-1075 Barclay Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

The unit size mix is 192 one-bedroom units, 118 two-bedroom units, and 62 three-bedroom units. Nearly 50% of the units are sized for families (two or more bedrooms), exceeding the municipal requirements for such a project.

“What I appreciate more than anything else is the size of these units is so much better than what we see in most projects,” said Green councillor Adriane Carr during the deliberations.

“We hear over and over again that the units are too small, and the vast majority are just for singles. These are family units, and we need them in the city.”

The project’s community amenity contribution (CACs) is an in-kind value of $59.4 million, incorporated into the building by providing inclusionary social housing — an average cost of about $680,000 per social housing unit. The municipal government will own the social housing floors and select the non-profit operator.

Upon being inquired by Carr on the high cost of inclusionary social housing within a high-rise tower, City staff explained that the inclusionary model is a cost-effective way of achieving this tenure of housing, even though the cost of construction is significant. It also removes the costly need to acquire more land.

Mixed-tenure housing of 1063-1075 Barclay Street, Vancouver. (ACDF Architecture/IBI Group)

Artistic rendering of 1063-1075 Barclay Street, Vancouver. (ACDF Architecture/IBI Group)

Typically in such mixed-tenure buildings, the resident amenities are separated, but this project will provide a shared child play area for both condominium and social housing residents.

“I do appreciate the thoughtfulness of the shared children’s play space. To me, it really is significant, and it addresses what we’ve heard in the past about the kind of lack of connections in the populations of these large buildings,” said Green councillor Pete Fry.

The tower’s height will reach 457 ft, which slightly enters the protected mountain view cone from the top of Queen Elizabeth Park. This is permitted under the City’s Higher Buildings Policy, which permits greater height for architecturally significant designs that add to the downtown skyline. But the project is below the 550 ft height restriction for this particular location under the West End Plan.

The upper floors of the tower are also sculpted to reduce shadowing on Robson Street, a block to the north.

Designed by Montreal-based ACDF Architecture and IBI Group, this concept calls for a “tower in the park” that includes generous landscaping, trees, and seating to create a park-like setting. A public plaza is slated for the southeast corner of the property.

This tower’s iconic architecture is defined by its garden-inspired theme, with the intricate system of balconies taking on the shapes of flora and fauna.

“Our design is informed by Vancouver’s natural surroundings, including flora and fauna. We drew inspiration from the shapes of the fig leaf and tulip when sculpting the building and the balconies,” reads the design description.

Artistic rendering of 1063-1075 Barclay Street, Vancouver, depicting how the design reduces shadowing on Robson Street. (ACDF Architecture/IBI Group)

Artistic rendering of 1063-1075 Barclay Street, Vancouver. (ACDF Architecture/IBI Group)

ABC councillor Peter Meiszner complemented the design, calling it “beautiful” and that it “will fit in with some of the older buildings in the West End.”

“I hope this sets a high bar for other projects in the area in terms of the public benefits,” he added. “It’s pretty impressive as it exceeded the requirement for social housing and the size of the units that was referenced.”

The total floor area will reach 330,000 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is over 19 times larger than the size of the 17,300 sq ft development site.

A deep excavation would create 10 underground levels for 357 vehicle parking stalls and over 700 bike parking spaces, but it was suggested during the public hearing the developer may consider requesting permission to build fewer spaces for vehicles.

Other than the $59.4 million in on-site CACs, the developer will also provide $7.7 million in development cost levies and $477,000 in public art.

Artistic rendering of 1063-1075 Barclay Street, Vancouver. (ACDF Architecture / IBI Group)

Artistic rendering of 1063-1075 Barclay Street, Vancouver. (ACDF Architecture/IBI Group)

There are a number of other major building projects in the area. Immediately to the south, across the street, Bosa Properties is looking to build two towers at 1040-1080 Barclay Street — 56 storeys and 59 storeys — containing 1,100 homes, including 365 condominium units 735 rental units.

In July 2022, City Council directed City staff to explore new policies that permit additional density and taller buildings along the eastern edge of the West End Plan, along and near the Burrard Street Corridor. This includes allowing further height intrusions into mountain view cones and allowing more shadowing, which is to be a future decision by City Council. This direction was triggered by City Council’s preliminary consideration of the proposal to redevelop 830-850 Thurlow Street into a 56-storey tower with 443 condominium units, 66 rental units, 43,000 sq ft of retail/restaurant uses, and a childcare facility.

You might also like: