Vancouver

West Vancouver: Renovation honours architectural legend Barry Downs

Inez Caron May 10, 2024

West Vancouver home gets a contemporary upgrade while honouring late great Canadian architect

Published May 09, 2024 • Last updated 8 hours ago • 4 minute read

This 1966-built West Vancouver home, designed by legendary West Coast Modern Canadian architect Barry Downs, and his professional partner at the time, Fred Hollingsworth, recently underwent a renovation designed by Burgers Architecture – which retained the heritage look and feel of the structure while upgrading the interiors for modern living. Photo by Andrew Latreille

Architect Cedric Burgers wasn’t mincing words: “If you don’t buy it, I will,” he told Tanya and Scott McMillan, at an open house for what would become their West Vancouver home.

The couple had asked Burgers to join them and give his two cents on the home’s potential. And he had learned that the 1966-built house was originally designed by late great Canadian architect Barry Downs.

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“The house was beautifully built for its time; a well-crafted West Coast Modern mid-century house with a flat roof,” says Burgers.

It was 2016, and the McMillans were returning from a stint living in New Zealand with their three children, aged 7, 9 and 10. The home, with its large, open rooms, wide windows and North Shore forest setting, seemed like a perfect place to land.

“We loved the bones, the clean lines and the large windows. It was set in this natural landscape and had a great indoor-outdoor connection,” says Tanya. “We knew it was going to need some work, but Cedric educated us on the history of Barry Downs and his contributions to architecture in Canada. Knowing the history and the relevance, we jumped at the opportunity.”

In the home's two-storey living room, the design team used cedar panelling matching the home's exterior siding for a focal point wall that runs from inside to out. Zinc panelling gave a crumbling brick fireplace new life, while custom-cut window panes slotted into the home's original cherry-stained wood frames. — In the home’s two-storey living room, the design team used cedar panelling matching the home’s exterior siding for a focal point wall that runs from inside to out. Zinc panelling gave a crumbling brick fireplace new life, while custom-cut window panes slotted into the home’s original cherry-stained wood frames. Photo by Andrew Latreille

Large basaltina porcelain floor tiles run throughout the home, the terrace and the pool surround. Photo by Andrew Latreille

Burgers was thrilled to work on a home with such a pedigree, as intent on honouring Downs’ vision as modernizing. Among other upgrades, the project would include structural reinforcements, new flooring and windows throughout, a new kitchen and dining area, layout adjustments, and a new wing accommodating a new primary suite and a pool.

Once draft drawings were complete, Tanya invited Downs himself — who happened to live nearby at the time — over to take a look. “He used to walk his dog around our block,” she says. “We wanted to include his suggestions because we wanted the renovation to feel like it was part of the original design and not an add-on.”

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With this in mind, the house retains most of its original form and profile, with its entry on top and three floors stepping down the hillside. The pavilion-like new addition juts off the bottom floor, while a system of retaining walls replaces a sloping garden at the back to make way for a patio and pool.

A series of retaining walls filled a sloping garden to make way for a new pool and patio, floored in the same porcelain tile as the home's interior spaces. — A series of retaining walls filled a sloping garden to make way for a new pool and patio, floored in the same porcelain tile as the home’s interior spaces. Photo by Andrew Latreille

“I explained to Barry what we were trying to do, and he was very receptive,” says Burgers. Not only did Downs remember the original home, but he was gracious about the proposed changes, writing a letter of support to the District of West Vancouver. The District eventually approved the project — even the setback-exceeding addition — contingent on preserving the home’s heritage value.

Inside, the spaces had been through two renovations since the 60s, creating a sort of esthetic hodgepodge. So, the team’s first step was to peel back these layers, then restore as much as possible to original condition, while refreshing the home for modern living.

The home’s centrepiece, then and now, is the two-storey living room, where floor-to-ceiling cedar panelling, with a charred and stain-rubbed finish, now matches the home’s exterior siding, for indoor-outdoor flow. Zinc panelling gave a crumbling brick fireplace new life, while new custom window panes slotted into original cherry-stained wood frames. The effect is clean-lined, but also textured enough to feel welcoming.

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“We love being there watching movies with a fire going, and nice light. Especially in the winter, we spend a lot of time in there together,” says Tanya.

In the new wing, large windows match the feel of those in the original home, but with modern glass-to-glass corner joins for even wider views; something Burgers imagines that Downs would have done himself, if the technology had been available in his time.

On the home's lower floor, a pavilion-like new addition houses a new primary suite, thoughtfully designed to blend with the look and feel of the original structure, overlooking the swimming pool and the surrounding forest. — On the home’s lower floor, a pavilion-like new addition houses a new primary suite, thoughtfully designed to blend with the look and feel of the original structure, overlooking the swimming pool and the surrounding forest. Photo by Andrew Latreille

Walnut millwork, grey tile and marble counters create a serene setting for the primary ensuite. Photo by Andrew Latreille

An open-plan kitchen and dining room replace tucked-away rooms typical of the home’s era, retaining the original windows to frame the forest view, with large new skylights and a white palette to brighten further.

“When you look through (the home), you’re always connecting to the outside,” says Burgers.

As a result, the house is now very much the forest sanctuary the family envisioned when they first toured it all those years ago, says Tanya. “It’s almost like a holiday when you’re at home,” she says. “In the winter, you see all the snow on the mountains when you’re sitting in the kitchen, and in the summer, it’s like a tropical little paradise.”

The design team wanted to restore as much as possible to original condition, while refreshing and updating the home for modern living. Photo by Andrew Latreille

Downs wasn’t able to visit the renovated home before he passed away in 2022, but Burgers hopes he would have approved. After all, from the front, the structure looks almost as it did in 1966 — except for a row of Douglas fir trees, which were saplings at the time of construction and now tower to 100 feet tall, rivalling the surrounding cedars.

“If this had been a new build, all the trees would have come down,” says Burgers. “But those beautiful trees have grown in and around the house. The roots and foundation have settled into their way of living with each other.” And the house into its next era.

Architectural Design: Burgers Architecture

Interior Design: Marieke Burgers

Construction: Jason Lorenz, Lorenz Developments

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19 major projects in Metro Vancouver completing construction in 2024

Inez Caron January 13, 2024

As 2024 unfolds, nine major projects in Metro Vancouver will start their activity on construction work.

On the flip side, some of the most significant projects under construction in Metro Vancouver, including major projects that began construction before the pandemic, will reach completion in 2024.

This will be a banner year for construction completions — everything from some of Metro Vancouver’s largest mixed-use developments to new civic buildings, and from a new additional SkyTrain station to a new major regional bridge crossing.

In no particular order of importance, here are 19 notable developments and infrastructure projects that will reach completion sometime in 2024.

This is no ordinary ski run lift; the new gondola currently being built at Grouse Mountain will critically provide a new additional ingress and egress link between the base level’s parking lot and the mountaintop.

The new gondola will complement the existing Red Skyride, which is regularly used, and replace the older Blue Skyride, which is only occasionally used and set for decommissioning.

A total of 13 towers will support the new gondola’s ascent up the mountain to reach the peak terminal station, which will be located immediately east of the chalet. The base station will be immediately west of the Red Skyride’s base station. The new gondola will have 27 cabins, each with a capacity for eight passengers.

Work is well underway on building the base and peak terminal stations, and the towers and cable line installation will take place this spring and summer.

Construction first began in 2022, and work is scheduled to greatly accelerate throughout the year, with the system reaching testing by Fall 2024 for an opening next winter. The project’s cost was previously stated at $35 million, making it one of Grouse Mountain’s most expensive capital investments in decades.

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December 2023 construction progress on the base terminal of the new gondola for Grouse Mountain. (Canadian Concrete Pumper)

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December 2023 construction progress on the base terminal of the new gondola for Grouse Mountain. (HD ReadyMix)

Elevation of the new gondola. (Grouse Mountain)

Future configuration of Grouse Mountain’s base area and parking lots. (Grouse Mountain)

New plateau plan for Grouse Mountain, showing the location of the new peak terminal for the gondola immediately east of the chateau. (Grouse Mountain)

In late summer 2023, Tower II of Gilmore Place — a major mixed-use residential, office, and retail development that wraps around SkyTrain Gilmore Station in Burnaby’s Brentwood Town Centre district — became Metro Vancouver’s new tallest building during its construction ascent, effectively dethroning downtown Vancouver’s Living Shangri-La tower.

In 2024, the first phase of Onni Group’s Gilmore Place project will reach completion, including nearly 1,600 homes within three towers, as well as major commercial uses within the base podium levels — about 80,000 sq ft of office space and 272,000 sq ft of retail/restaurant uses, which is comparable to the first retail phase of the nearby The Amazing Brentwood Mall. The substantial retail/restaurant uses will activate a new linear plaza and walking route below the SkyTrain guideway.

The tenants for the new retail/restaurant spaces have yet to be formally announced. Although the first phase will reach completion this year, it will take some time for businesses to furnish their commercial units to their specifications.

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Construction progress on the first phase of Gilmore Place, as of October 5, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Artistic rendering of Gilmore Place integrated with SkyTrain Gilmore Station. (Onni Group)

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

Over the last few years, the disruptive construction process for Capstan Station has tested the patience of SkyTrain Canada Line users in Richmond.

But that is coming to an end, with this new additional station now scheduled to reach completion and open in early 2024 after construction delays. The project cost is $52 million, with the City of Richmond covering $32 million — raised from development fees — and TransLink providing $20 million.

Capstan Station is located roughly midway between Bridgeport Station and Aberdeen Station — specifically at the northeast corner of the intersection of No. 3 Road and Capstan Way. It serves Capstan Village’s emerging high-density residential neighbourhood, with about 16,000 residents living within a 10-minute walk from the station upon the area’s full buildout.

Capstan Station features greatly improved designs and features compared to the original Canada Line stations, including more space for passenger circulation and both up and down escalators.

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July 2023 construction progress on Capstan Station on SkyTrain Canada Line. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Artistic rendering of Capstan Station on SkyTrain Canada Line. (Office of McFarlane Biggar Architects & Designers/TransLink)

Artistic rendering of Capstan Station. (Office of McFarlane Biggar Architects & Designers/TransLink)

Landmark on Robson, replacing the previous Empire Landmark Hotel, will finally reach completion in 2024.

The entire 1400 block of Robson Street has been a construction zone since March 2018, when demolition first began on the 394 ft tall, 42-storey hotel tower with an observation deck. The hotel closed in September 2017.

The demolition of the 1973-built hotel tower, which featured a restaurant observation attraction on its top floor, was the tallest building demolition in Vancouver’s history. Asia Standard Americas is nearing the final lap of its construction progress on a mixed-use development with two towers containing 240 condominium homes, 84 social housing units, some office space, and significant ground-level retail/restaurant uses.

The new retail/restaurant uses will fill a major gap on the Robson Street retail strip, effectively activating the street and strengthening the retail strip with a seamless continuity of storefronts along the length of the entire city block.

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Construction progress on Landmark on Robson, as of September 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Artistic rendering of Landmark on Robson. (PDP London/Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Asia Standard International Group)

Visual progress on building the new replacement Pattullo Bridge across the Fraser River between New Westminster and Surrey is about to greatly accelerate. The segments of the bridge deck over the river will be raised and installed after the tower supporting the suspension cables reaches completion in early 2024.

The BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure anticipates the bridge will open in late 2024, at which point the existing 1937-built bridge will be closed and demolished. The entire project carries a $1.4 billion budget.

The new seismic-safe crossing will have four wider vehicle lanes — two vehicle lanes in each direction divided by a concrete barrier — along with interchange improvements, a new direct off-ramp from the bridge’s southbound direction to Highway 17’s (South Fraser Perimeter Road) westbound direction, and walking and cycling pathways, which are protected by a suicide-prevention barrier.

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November 2023 construction progress on the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

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September 2023 construction progress on the new Pattullo Bridge deck above Highway 17 (South Fraser Perimeter Road). (Government of BC)

Artistic rendering of the new Pattullo Bridge. (Fraser Crossing Partners)

Artistic rendering of the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

In late 2024, Quadreal Property Group and Westbank will open the brand new Oakridge Park shopping mall — the redevelopment of Oakridge Centre in Vancouver.

The majority of the non-residential uses will reach completion by the end of the year, including 1.2 million sq ft of retail/restaurant uses, which is double the size of the previous mall, as well as most of the nine-acre public park on the rooftop of the indoor mall, and a new major City-owned community centre, which contains a mix of spaces such as a 21,600 sq ft Vancouver Public Library branch.

The landlord has yet to make a formal announcement on the broad collection of retail tenants at Oakridge Park, but what is already known is there will be a new 42,000 sq ft grocery store replacing the previous Safeway, and a new 141,000 sq ft, two-storey Hudson’s Bay department store. It will take some time for businesses to furnish their commercial units to their interior design specifications.

Additionally, in lieu of a traditional food court, it was announced in 2022 that the internationally renowned Time Out Market food hall chain will open Time Out Market Vancouver at Oakridge Park in late 2024. With 69,000 sq ft over two levels, it will be the world’s largest Time Out Market location.

The opening of the massive new shopping centre is expected to make ripples in Metro Vancouver’s retail landscape. Oakridge Centre fully closed in 2020 to enable an expedited construction process.

The development also includes a new additional entrance into SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station through a new underground retail-lined corridor between the indoor mall and the station’s ticketing concourse.

As for Oakridge Park’s towers, there will be over 3,300 homes for over 6,000 residents — a mix of strata condominiums, secured purpose-built rental housing, and social housing — and 800,000 sq ft of office space. These residential and office uses will reach completion between 2024 and 2028. Oakridge Park’s tallest tower will be a 52-storey tower with 100% rental housing uses, and it will be the tallest building within Vancouver outside of downtown.

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September 2023 construction progress on Oakridge Park. (Wesbridge Steelworks)

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November 2023 construction progress on Oakridge Park. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

oakridge park oakridge centre mall 2022 rendering

2022 artistic rendering of the revised design of the Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) redevelopment. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Westbank/Quadreal Property Group)

Previous conceptual artistic rendering of the new indoor mall at Oakridge Park. (Revery Architecture/Westbank/Quadreal Property Group)

Metro Vancouver is at the start of a new building boom of civic-spearheaded community and recreational centres, with many of these upcoming projects located within Burnaby.

In early 2024, after experiencing major construction delays, the Rosemary Brown Arena complex will reach full completion and open in South Burnaby. It is located immediately adjacent to Byrne Creek Community Secondary School and the new Southgate City residential neighbourhood.

It features two NHL-sized ice rinks, with each rink featuring about 200 spectator seats. The City of Burnaby allocated a budget of $50 million for the project, which was originally scheduled for a Summer 2022 opening.

rosemary brown arena burnaby october 2023

October 2023 construction progress on Rosemary Brown Arena. (City of Burnaby)

As a replacement facility for Canada Games Pool and Centennial Community Centre, the City of New Westminster will open təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre in Spring 2024, after experiencing some construction delays.

This includes a 50-metre lap, eight-lane competition pool, two diving platforms up to five metres high, a 25-metre leisure pool with a lazy river, a fitness gym, two gymnasiums, and various multi-purpose fitness rooms, as well as multi-purpose activity rooms and a childcare facility.

Construction first began in Spring 2021. The project is budgeted at $107 million.

New Westminster təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre construction december 2023

December 2023 construction progress on təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre. (City of New Westminster)

The Granville Bridge Connector is scheduled to reach completion by Fall 2024 at a cost of $19 million. Two vehicle lanes on the west side of the bridge have been removed to accommodate dedicated wide pedestrian and cyclist pathways, which are separated from vehicles by a concrete barrier.

On-bridge traffic signals will also be installed for where the pedestrian and cyclist pathways cross over the Howe Street on-ramp and the Fir Street on-ramp. At the southern end of the bridge, a direct connection will be established with the Arbutus Greenway’s pathways.

This is intended to be the interim design of the active transportation connector, as a potential future project will install permanent materials and other features.

Current work on removing the bridge’s north loops and building a new replacement street network on the downtown side is also expected to reach completion in late 2024.

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Construction progress on the Granville Bridge Connector with the installation of the new permanent concrete barriers protecting the pedestrian and cyclist pathways, as of November 11, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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Artistic rendering of the complete final design of the Granville Connector’s pedestrian and cyclist pathways on the Granville Bridge. (City of Vancouver)

Existing configuration of the Granville Bridge (top) and the Granville Connector’s configuration changes for Granville Bridge to accommodate pedestrian and cyclist pathways (bottom). (City of Vancouver)

The PNE’s new ThunderVolt launch roller coaster for Playland is scheduled to reach completion and open in Summer 2024. This is a flagship ride for the attraction and represents the amusement park’s first step towards its redevelopment and expansion into a theme park. It is being built at a cost of $16 million, which includes extensive theming and landscaped areas.

It uses new state-of-the-art linear synchronous motor (LSM) technology. The future ride is already earning some international attention.

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Construction progress on Playland’s new launch coaster, as of October 31, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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November 2023 construction progress on Playland’s new ThunderVolt launch coaster. (PNE)

Artistic rendering of the new ThunderVolt launch roller coaster at Playland. (PNE)

The full completion of the B6 office tower in early 2024 represents the conclusion of downtown Vancouver’s current office building boom cycle, which first began before the pandemic.

BentallGreenOak has built a 403-ft-tall, 33-storey office tower with 562,000 sq ft of premium AAA-class office space. Microsoft will occupy approximately 400,000 sq ft across about 20 floors. Much of the remaining space was set to be occupied by WeWork, but that has since been cancelled.

According to Graham Construction, B6 features the largest sloped roof in North America at that height.

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June 2023 construction progress on the B6 office tower. (Graham Construction)

2019 artistic rendering of 1090 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/BentallGreenOak)

Later in 2024, Electronic Arts will reach completion on 300,000 sq ft of additional space across two new office buildings at its sprawling Burnaby campus. The new buildings will accommodate up to 600 employees, with other tech tenants joining EA. Construction first began in late 2021.

In early 2023, project contractor Turner Construction indicated it is looking to add childcare, retail, food service, amenity spaces, a swimming pool, and tech-related educational partnership programs — all in support of EA.

Ever since the project was approved, EA’s office space needs have decreased, and there is a desire to add amenities and services that support employees. In 2021, EA also took over the former MEC headquarters office building in Vancouver.

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Artistic rendering of the EA Burnaby campus expansion at 3700 Gilmore Way, Burnaby. (DIALOG/Electronic Arts)

Quadreal Property Group’s The Post redevelopment of the former Canada Post building in downtown Vancouver reached substantial completion in 2023, but the innards are still a work in progress.

Amazon will reach completion and full occupancy on furnishing the office interior of its South Tower by early 2024, at which point the company will then shift its attention towards furnishing the North Tower.

This is the single largest office building in downtown Vancouver, with 1.1 million sq ft of office space leased entirely to Amazon to provide space for up to 6,000 office employees. Amazon has a policy requiring office workers to come into their workspace most of the week.

In February 2024, the 45,000 sq ft flagship Loblaws City Market grocery store will open at The Post, becoming the first major commercial retail tenant to do so. This will be followed by the opening of other prominent retail/restaurant businesses as the year progresses, providing the Central Business District with a new major node of activity. This includes the opening of The Post’s major publicly accessible retail atrium on the Homer Street side of the building.

With 185,000 sq ft of retail/restaurant space, The Post provides downtown Vancouver with its largest net gain of retail/restaurant uses in more than two decades.

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Construction progress on Loblaws City Market at The Post, as of December 14, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Construction progress on the retail atrium at The Post, as of December 14, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Westbank’s The Butterfly Tower became the new third tallest building in Vancouver in 2023 during its construction ascent. The tower is expected to reach full completion later in 2024.

The visually striking tower in downtown Vancouver is designed by Revery Architecture and is one of the last projects influenced by the late Bing Thom. It contains about 330 upscale condominium homes and boasts a high degree of amenities, such as a 50-metre length swimming pool in a glass-enclosed space.

As part of the project, there is also a six-storey building with 61 social housing units, and a heritage restoration and expansion of the 1911-built First Baptist Church.

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Construction progress on The Butterfly tower in downtown Vancouver, as of July 3, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Fall 2023 construction progress on The Butterfly’s swimming pool (left) and an artistic rendering of the final product (right). (Westbank)

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April 2023 renovation progress on the heritage First Baptist Church as part of The Butterfly tower construction project. (First Baptist Church)

The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is scheduled to reopen to the public in June 2024.

Since late 2021, there has been major construction to rebuild the museum’s iconic Great Hall, which has been completely demolished for a new seismic-safe design that carries the same appearance as Arthur Erickson’s original landmark design. The 1976-built museum has been temporarily closed since January 2023 to accelerate the pace of the redevelopment and other building improvements. This rebuild carries a budget of $30.5 million.

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Before (top) and after (bottom) in the seismic redevelopment of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. (UBC)

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UBC’s Museum of Anthropology’s new replica taking shape; construction progress as of August 12, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

By the end of 2024, the UBC Student Recreation Centre North will reach completion and open for student use.

This is a significant four-storey fitness and recreation building located at the western end of Student Union Boulevard, and immediately north of the Life Building (former Student Union Building).

There will be 101,000 sq ft of uses, including cardio and weightlifting areas, an indoor run/roll/walk track, three gymnasium courts, and multi-purpose rooms. The project carries a $67.5 million cost.

UBC pursued this project as there is a major shortage of such on-campus facilities; UBC has some of Canada’s lowest ratios of recreation space for a major university campus when compared to its student enrollment. This new facility complements the adjacent 1995-built Student Recreation Centre located just to the east, and it will be integrated with the 8,000 sq ft fitness gym in the basement of the Life Building.

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September 2023 construction progress on the new UBC Student Recreation Centre North. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

2023 revised artistic rendering of the new UBC Student Recreation Centre North. (SHAPE Architecture/UBC)

Built on the footprint of the Brock Hall Annex, the third building of the UBC Brock Commons student residence is unique for both its size and range of mixed uses. It will reach completion by Summer 2024.

This 13-storey building, called “Brock Commons South,” contains roughly 90,000 sq ft of non-residential uses in its lower levels, entailing classrooms, academic, and office spaces for the Faculty of Arts, gathering and socializing spaces for students, two childcare facilities, food outlets, student services, and the new offices of the UBC vice president of students. Within the upper levels, there will be much-needed student housing — a total of 282 student housing beds.

The 2017-built, 18-storey Tallwood House with 404 student housing beds was the first building of Brock Commons and the tallest mass timber building in the world at the time of its completion. In Summer 2023, Brock Commons’ second building, called “Brock Commons North,” reached completion with 316 student housing beds. The 2023/2024-built buildings carry a combined cost of $165 million.

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UBC’s Brock Commons North (right) and Brock Commons South (left), as of August 12, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

UBC Brock Commons South, as of August 12, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Artistic rendering of UBC Brock Commons Phase II. (HCMA Architecture + Design)

Layout of UBC Brock Commons’ South Building. (HCMA Architecture + Design)

As the name of the building suggests, the Gateway Building will be located at the highly prominent northwest corner of the intersection of University Boulevard and Wesbrook Mall — on the former footprint of the administration building, just east of War Memorial Gymnasium and south of the diesel bus loop.

This will consolidate and expand the teaching, research, and administrative spaces of UBC’s Faculty of Applied Science’s School of Nursing, Faculty of Education’s School of Kinesiology, the campus’ new Integrated Student Health Services, and some of the operations of UBC health.

The six-storey, 267,000 sq ft building will be built out of mass timber. With a budget of $190 million, this is one of UBC’s single most expensive building construction projects to date. Construction began in late 2022, and it is expected to reach completion by late 2024.

August 2023 construction progress on the UBC Gateway Building. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

2022 revised artistic rendering of the UBC Gateway Building. (Perkins&Will/UBC)

As a partnership between UBC’s Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Applied Science, the new School of Biomedical Engineering Building will reach completion in late 2024, with occupancy scheduled to begin in early 2025.

The five-storey, state-of-the-art research and innovation building is being built on the former footprint of the D.H. Copp Building on University Boulevard, immediately south of the trolley bus loop. This 156,000 sq ft is a hub for combining engineering with medical sciences to design new high-tech solutions for healthcare. The construction cost is pegged at $139 million. Construction first began in Summer 2022.

UBC School of Biomedical Engineering Building August 2023

August 2023 construction progress on the UBC School of Biomedical Engineering Building. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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Revised 2022 artistic rendering of the UBC School of Biomedical Engineering Building. (Patkau Architects/UBC)

Vancouver Art Gallery launches design of new 5m building with ceremony, donation and new acquisitions

Vancouver Art Gallery launches design of new $295m building with ceremony, donation and new acquisitions

Inez Caron October 9, 2023

A “ground awakening ceremony” for the Vancouver Artwork Gallery’s (VAG) lengthy-awaited new building on Friday (15 September) commenced auspiciously, with the announcement of a C$5m ($3.7m) donation from the Djavad Mowafaghian Basis. The money campaign for the new gallery, developed by Herzog & de Meuron and scheduled for completion in 2028, is now only C$55m ($40.7m) limited of its C$400m ($295.7m) fundraising intention.

Despite the fact that the initiative for the new gallery commenced in 2004 underneath the leadership of then-director Kathleen Bartels, recent director Anthony Kiendl tells The Art Newspaper that the 19-yr journey is not abnormal for an institution that will work on a “collaborative model” with local communities. “Look at [the Los Angeles County Museum of Art] or M+ in Hong Kong,” he says, “they’ve both taken about 15 a long time.”

There was a perception of equally aid and celebration at the ceremony, the place civic, provincial and federal politicians rubbed shoulders with To start with Nations dancers and art environment cognoscenti, marking a substantial milestone on what has been a extensive and winding road.

After the VAG’s 2004 grasp planning method determined that the gallery wanted extra exhibition and storage room for its collection—which features just one of the world’s most significant collections of functions by Emily Carr—the museum sought the approval of Vancouver’s town council to create a new gallery. The preferred web page at Larwill Park—currently a parking lot—is 7 blocks east of the neo-classical Edwardian-period previous courthouse designed by Francis Rattenbury in 1913 and renovated by Arthur Erickson in 1983 (as element of his 3-block Robson Sq. undertaking) when the VAG moved in right after relocating from an earlier locale. In 2008, the metropolis council—which will proceed to lease land to the VAG as for every present arrangements—changed the internet site to the Plaza of Nations right before reversing its final decision in 2013.

In 2014, the VAG chosen Herzog & de Meuron as the project’s architecture business (with Vancouver’s Perkins and Will as the govt architects) and the Swiss firm’s layout has transformed significantly considering that then. Its recent incarnation features a woven copper facade in homage to conventional Musqueam (the To start with Country of the region) weaving techniques—conceived in consultation with Native artists—as well as expanded outside room.

At first destined for completion in 2020, there was speculation that the project would in no way see the light-weight of working day thanks to lack of funding and other challenges. But the fundraising campaign was reinvigorated in 2019 by a present of C$40m ($29.6m) from the philanthropic Chan family members as a consequence, the new making will be named the Chan Centre for the Visual Arts. At the time, it was the biggest private donation to arts and society in British Columbia, but was surpassed by a donation of C$100m ($73.9m) from the Audain Basis in 2021—the biggest cash donation to a Canadian general public art museum to day.

With web page remediation and development on the new developing to commence this autumn, the VAG has released a last fundraising exertion dubbed “The Make Up”. Concentrating on big moves like focused space for the Institute of Asian Art, a multi-reason Indigenous Local community Residence, a condition-of-the-artwork theatre, public outdoor spaces, committed artist studios and a doubling of exhibition place to 80,000 sq. ft, the campaign hopes to elevate the remaining $55m from a mix of non-public, company and government funding.

Adding to the feeling of momentum are the VAG’s new hires: Eva Respini, who will direct the curatorial eyesight for the new gallery, and Sirish Rao, the new director of general public engagement and studying.

At Friday’s ceremony, champions of the new VAG setting up promised C$88.2m ($65.2m) in new tourism earnings and a “modern cultural hub” in the coronary heart of Vancouver, next to the Vancouver Public Library and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, bordering Vancouver’s historic Chinatown and Gastown neighbourhoods.

Real to the area’s unique Musqueam operate as a meeting web site, Kiendl states, the new creating also guarantees to be a cultural crossroads for various artists and an illustration of “reconciliation in action”. A moving ceremony by the spouse and children of the late Beau Dick, the Kwakwaka'wakw Northwest Coastline artist and Chief, marked the VAG’s acquisition of 17 masks from his Undersea Kingdom collection. The masks were being prepared for Documenta shortly ahead of Dick’s untimely death in 2017 and the acquisition by the VAG—which started making a considerable collection of common and present-day Very first Nations art in the 1980s—bodes very well for the new making.

The potential building’s weaving-influenced façade, Kiendl adds, “embodies a Coast Salish worldview, generating a blanket or veil that will secure the building and its inhabitants and collections”.

Spotlight on new design talent at IDS Vancouver

Inez Caron September 14, 2023

Three designers tell us about their work and big plans for the future

Published Sep 13, 2023 • Last updated 10 hours ago • 3 minute read

Geoin mug sets by Li Ting Wang. Photo by IDS Vancouver /jpg

The Interior Design Show(IDS) Vancouver runs from Sept. 21 to 24 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. It’s a great place to check out new and up-and-coming design talent alongside established brands.

The Prototype exhibit is about shining a light on emerging designers, even if they’re not selling commercially yet.

Postmedia sat down with three designers participating in Prototype to hear about their work and big plans for the future.

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Daisy Kim

Daisy Kim, a recent design graduate, says everything she’s made up until now has been about experimentation — not commercially motivated.

The series Kim is exhibiting at IDS is called Goanoori. Born and raised in Vancouver, she has a Korean background and says her last memories of Korea are of her grandmother’s house in Busan, South Korea. These memories inspired her Goanoori collection.

“The word ‘Goanoori’ focuses on the notion of centrality, to maintain your centre wherever one finds themselves in the world. It reminds me to stay grounded in who I am and what I do, and I can only hope it sends the same message to others,” she says.

Goanoori series by Daisy Kim. Photo by IDS Vancouver

Kim says her design practice has been a vessel that allows her to reconnect with her cultural heritage and carry “the weight of tradition.”

She wants to create spaces that are filled with a sense of joy:

“I centre on the emotion of ‘laon,’ meaning joy in Korean, and the ‘nanoom,’ the sharing of that pleasure,” she says. “My design practice helped me touch base with my background as well as keep me grounded with my cultural duality.”

Adrian Heim

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Adrian Heim launched Heim Furniture in spring of 2022 while completing a fine-furniture program at Camosun College.

“I design and build solid wood furniture one project at a time in a small workshop in Victoria’s Rock Bay neighbourhood,” he says.

Heim grew up on a farm in South-Eastern Quebec and began making things with wood as a teenager. He had access to some tools and a basic understanding of how to use them from watching his father. Heim built his first bed and side table while in high school.

Reading chair by Heim Furniture. Photo by IDS Vancouver

Heim completed a bachelor of fine arts at the University of Victoria, thinking he’d go on to study architecture, but found what he really loved doing was making furniture people could use.

Heim says he initially heard about the Prototype exhibition from people who had taken part.

“I submitted an application with my lounge chair, which is a flagship product of mine, and I was lucky enough to have been invited to show it this year,” he says.

Li Ting Wang

Li Ting Wang is a ceramics artist based in Vancouver. She graduated from Emily Carr in 2021.

Most of her work is installations and sculptures, and she focuses on the “unity of negative spaces in ceramics and sculpture.”

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“Early in the practice, I combined clay and wood to explore the relationships between internal and external and reconstruct their coherence in the forms,” says Wang. “After I graduated from university, I started practicing the skills for making functional ware and continued integrating the idea into the form of daily use objects like mugs and vases.”

Wang says she got an invite to apply for Prototype through one of the show curators finding her work on Instagram.

“After I saw his message, I applied without any hesitation,” she says.

Check out the full IDS lineup

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Fed grants .5M in the direction of mass timber making building in Vancouver

Fed grants $3.5M in the direction of mass timber making building in Vancouver

Inez Caron July 23, 2023

Staying energy-productive, owning inherent fire resistance, and with an potential to sequester carbon dioxide, mass timber has revolutionized Canada’s construction marketplace. Mass timber will aid condition the long term of reduced-carbon development although helping to build and reinforce Canada’s bioeconomy by using revolutionary products and solutions and types to make a far more sustainable developing sector.

On July 5, Taleeb Noormohamed, Member of Parliament for Vancouver Granville, on behalf of Minister of Pure Assets Jonathan Wilkinson, announced a $3.5-million contribution to the development of 2150 Keith Generate, an modern hybrid mass timber professional office environment developing in Vancouver’s Untrue Creek Flats neighbourhood. The contribution will be manufactured by way of the Environmentally friendly Development Through Wood (GCWood) Program that supports tasks and activities that enhance the use of wooden as a very low-carbon design material in infrastructure projects.

“To attain our local weather goals, Canada should lessen emissions in our making sector. By utilizing mass timber, we can improve efficiency and weather resilience in our communities though also decreasing emissions. Supporting projects like 2150 Keith Push demonstrates Canada’s determination to building and deploying impressive procedures and supplies in our building and structures sector. This will aid careers and financial option throughout the state and support to battle climate transform,” Wilkinson stated.

That includes a distinctive honeycomb-shaped exterior, 2150 Keith Generate will be 10 storeys tall and around 15,000 m2. It will be produced with sophisticated mass timber programs using prefabricated cross-laminated timber panels and glue-laminated timber columns, braces and beams. Because of to its wood braced-body process on the exterior, the design and style gets rid of the want for an inside concrete main, thereby minimizing its environmental affect. The replicable shape of its exoskeleton style also would make it perfect for much more sustainable, charge-economical and inexperienced development. The developing is the tallest braced-frame mass timber job or developing in North America and will employ an impressive seismic resistance method. Furthermore, the setting up is focusing on a bare minimum LEED Gold certification with construction predicted to be total in 2025.

The challenge is also supported by the province of British Columbia by the NetZero Power Ready System and a $500,000 contribution from the Mass Timber Demonstration Program (MDTP). The MTDP offers funding for incremental prices in the design and development of buildings that reveal emerging or new mass timber or mass timber hybrid setting up techniques and building processes.

The Federal government of Canada carries on to aid innovation and developments in mass timber design in Canada. With the greater availability of new developing elements on the market place, mass timber has the opportunity to aid a substantially additional sustainable building throughout the state. This implies lessen emissions and a lot more resilient communities, all although furnishing jobs and financial option throughout the forest solutions and building benefit chains.

“The DIALOG design crew is grateful for the economical aid from Organic Methods Canada that has pushed the development of progressive layout and development methods that are inexpensive, replicable and an important element of a sustainable upcoming,” said Justin Tompson, senior architectural technologist, associate, DIALOG.

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Development commences on Vancouver condo building without having struggling developer

Inez Caron July 13, 2023

Community developer Peterson Team has provided renewed self confidence in its sizeable condominium setting up advancement at the northwest corner of the intersection of Kingsway and Earles Street in East Vancouver’s Norquay neighbourhood.

Development officially started final week on the 10-storey Frame constructing at 2751 Kingsway, addressing some potential uncertainty homebuyers experienced previously this calendar year when Each day Hive Urbanized was 1st to report on Coromandel Properties’ huge financial problems to the extent that the company contemplated insolvency in courtroom.

Coromandel was earlier a husband or wife on Frame, which was their most sophisticated upcoming challenge. Even so, Peterson states they now have full manage moving ahead.

“While in the beginning a co-growth, in February of this year, Peterson Group assumed comprehensive management of Frame, a significant residential venture bringing above 200 residences to Vancouver’s most perfectly-related corridor at Kingsway and Earles Avenue,” explained Peterson Team in a assertion to Daily Hive Urbanized.

“We are pleased to be moving ahead with this project as supposed, with building underway.”

Frame 2751 Kingsway Vancouver construction

Official groundbreaking ceremony of Frame at 2751 Kingsway, Vancouver, in late June 2023. (Peterson Team)

Frame, made by GBL Architects, will have 217 condominium households and almost 20,000 sq ft of retail/restaurant areas.

Court docket documents submitted by Coromandel in February reveal the troubled business beforehand experienced a 35% stake in Frame, with Peterson holding the remaining 65%. It was also pointed out that pre-sales on the condominiums starting up in Spring 2022 attained a adequate number of models to fulfill TD Bank’s approval of the project’s original design funding.

Body is now predicted to get to completion in late 2025.

The project’s locale is properly-served by repeated general public transit providers, which includes the buses together Kingsway and Earles Road, and it is a 10-minute walk from SkyTrain 29th Avenue Station.

“We see the prolonged-term likely of the Norquay Village Neighbourhood Centre Approach and evolution of the Kingsway Corridor,” said Brendan Yee, director for growth for Peterson Group. “The vibrancy of the neighbourhood is what will get us most fired up as Frame is situated at the centre of an evolving new retail hub and potential local community plaza.”

Artistic rendering of Frame at 2751 Kingsway, Vancouver. (GBL Architects/Peterson Group)

Creative rendering of Body at 2751 Kingsway, Vancouver. (GBL Architects/Peterson Group)

Creative rendering of Body at 2751 Kingsway, Vancouver. (GBL Architects/Peterson Team)

Vancouver home furniture retail outlet shares top rated color developments for 2023

Inez Caron April 14, 2023

Brougham Interiors shares its insights with Vancouver homeowners on this year's most well known colour palettes

Furnishings color developments steadily change about the several years, and 2023 is shaping up to provide some pleasant new selections. You can count on furnishings outlets in Vancouver to showcase some heat and stunning colours that glimpse both of those complex and calming.

The crew at Brougham Interiors is enthusiastic to do the job with the color palettes attaining attractiveness between Vancouver homeowners.

1. Warm, Earthy Tones

Much more and extra, folks are craving interiors that heat their hearts. As you store for furniture in Vancouver, you can experience several shades of brown this calendar year. Designers speaking to Vogue magazine emphasized how considerably brown is rising as a hotter different to the greys that have dominated for yrs.

Earth tones go beyond brown and encompass reds and oranges. Deep reds on substantial assertion parts of home furnishings like sofas or a pair of lounge chairs have a unique electric power to revive a room's vibe. The reds highlighted in home decor stores in Vancouver retain an Earthy quality with their deep shades of oxblood or paprika.

2. Blue and Inexperienced

If brown or reddish colours usually are not what you had in mind, you can still build a nature-motivated appear with blues and greens. Some home furniture brands have interesting blue upholstery options you can see while shopping for a sofa in Vancouver. Whilst getting ground as a trend, blue has generally been a color with timeless charm.

Discuss to an interior designer at Brougham Interiors about inexperienced to bring the vitality of plant lifetime into your residence. A green sofa can provide as a statement piece in a room, and most shades are well-liked proper now, these as moss or olive.

3. New Neutral Choices

For a whilst now, gray has reigned supreme as the in-demand neutral for home furnishings. Periods adjust, however, and designers and their customers are looking to alter things up a bit.

Cream and beige are beginning to take over as the elegant neutrals. If you continue to want a hint of gray, take into account the color regarded as mushroom. It is really Earthy, neutral, and has a grey undertone.

Own Awareness and Exceptional Selection

Enable us support you build a new seem for your home's interior. We supply in-property consultations and digitally scaled drawings to help you see what operates best in your space. Arrive search our 15,000 sq. feet of furnishings in Vancouver.

For additional details, pay a visit to Brougham Interiors on line or in-store today.

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Fascination Premiums Pressure Vancouver Authentic Estate Market into Stalemate

Inez Caron February 10, 2023

The actual estate sector is in a point out of inertia that will not change right until curiosity fees fall — something that is forecast by some to take place afterwards this yr — forecast marketplace gurus.

In an not known sector, you keep on to gold, and home homeowners are undertaking just that, claims Andrew Carros, chief working officer and taking care of broker at Engel & Völkers Vancouver.

“In Vancouver, we usually have a stubborn and relaxed sellers pool because everybody is aware what they have. It is like men and women who invest in and provide gold. Gold is typically held in instances that are troubled and extra unstable.

Study: Increased Vancouver Property Sales Slide 43% Under 10-Yr Common

“That applies to a great deal of persons who obtain and promote in just the Vancouver industry, and not just individuals coming from somewhere else,” states Carros.

Sellers are not selling and builders aren’t creating a lot new housing. The genuine estate current market commenced to gradual final spring when interest costs begun to climb, but there’d been the expectation that by fall the current market would choose up. It did not transpire. Now, the commonly active spring marketplace will ascertain what lies forward, and the forecast is, not substantially for the to start with fifty percent.

“Are we seeing new products coming onto the sector? No, I consider there is a huge pause likely on around the world everywhere suitable now,” said Carros. “So there’s not as a great deal new advancement. In simple fact, I consider that will be the stabilizing force for our market moving forward, is that there is nonetheless no inventory and devoid of a large amount of stock not much have an impact on is going to materialize primarily based on these adjustments and policies authorities is placing out there,” he reported, referring to the new foreign buyer ban as an illustration.

“We are in a major stalemate, specifically Vancouver — but truly everywhere at this second. No one is aware how to respond or what to do with curiosity fees getting gone up and there staying no stock.

“It’s a pretty confusing sector for folks.”

Rennie Intelligence’s senior economist Ryan Berlin elevated eyebrows on social media this week with a report in which he forecasts a few price drops by the 2nd fifty percent of the 12 months, bringing the Lender of Canada price from its current 4.5% to 3.75%. This is predicated on inflation coming down, he claimed.

“It seems intense, but it’s just a mathematical detail because prices ran up so significantly very last year and we’re not seeing thirty day period-to-month inflation now. The Financial institution of Canada understands this as very well, that it’s overwhelmingly very likely to occur down drastically in the in close proximity to expression, unless of course there is the equal of a new war like Ukraine, an earthquake, COVID 2023, or something we don’t see coming. So [the cuts] are absolutely predicated on inflation coming down.”

They were off about last 12 months, he concedes. Like a great deal of economists, he experienced below-approximated the price of inflation and the Bank of Canada’s response to it.

But Elton Ash, government vice president of RE/MAX Realty Canada, also predicts a drop in the next 12 months.

“We believe that the very same issue, that Q4 this 12 months will see, I forecast, a fifty percent position significantly less than we are today, at 4%. If not by Q4 then absolutely a yr from now, Q1 2024,” claimed Ash.

Berlin’s prediction is only element of his yearly report, which incorporates less pleased information for his market, this kind of as a predicted 13,000 presale transaction rely for 2023 — a tiny fall from 2022 and a enormous drop from 2021, when there’d been 26,000 rental presales.

“So we are way off,” explained Berlin, adding that the presale marketplace almost certainly won’t get going until the next 50 percent of the year.

The presale sector has wound down, exacerbated by inflation and a absence of labour, he stated. As very well, there’s the initial-time customer stress take a look at of about 7 for each cent taking part in a section.

“This is not a rah-rah report. We want to get it right,” he explained.

“When men and women ask what was 2022 like, it’s difficult to communicate about it like a one entity since the 1st fifty percent was so diverse than the next fifty percent. And 2023 will be the same. So when we produce these forecasts, particularly with resale or presale counts, you have got to crack the year into at minimum halves, due to the fact the way we are starting this 12 months, disorders are not very good.

“Regionally we just tallied 1,600 resales, which was one particular of the lowest Januarys on history for MLS gross sales. And I do not see any tailwinds in the quite fast term for transactions, no matter whether it is resale or presale.”

Initially-time consumers are toughest hit in a risky market place. Home finance loan broker Katy Mackenzie stated that it does not aid that the Workplace of the Superintendent of Fiscal Institutions (OSFI) a short while ago introduced proposals to tighten lending rules. OSFI is seeking at raising the anxiety check utilised to gauge irrespective of whether a 1st-time consumer can manage a home finance loan, which is the lender level plus 2%, or 5.25%, whichever is more.

They’re also seeking at the optimum over-all borrowing volume and personal debt servicing rules.

“Typically most creditors glimpse at 44% of your income going to all debt, such as housing, mortgage loan, taxes, heating, strata costs if they use, and other money owed, automobile loans, scholar loans, credit score cards. They’re looking at tightening that revenue to debt ratio so you would qualify for fewer.

If they are wanting at these objects, I just cannot picture they would adjust them this yr, but say they did it for January next year, and you have a presale closing at that time, so now you have a lessened worth, a tighter lending rule, and all you have in location is perhaps a amount keep. That does very little to secure you from changes the OSFI tends to make in regard to lending rules.

“This is what problems me the most, is that individuals think, ‘I place $20,000 down today and I really don't have to spend taxes or a mortgage or strata service fees for the reason that it completes in 2 many years, and I will have a bigger profits by then. I will help you save a lot more for the down payment.’

“But as they do that, the govt moves the markers in the opposite path.”

What to Assume for Vancouver Island Actual Estate in 2023

Inez Caron January 13, 2023

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STOREYS Personalized Studio

By most steps, 2022 was a tumultuous year for anyone in the actual estate industry and current market. And even though Vancouver Island is somewhat steady, it wasn’t wholly impervious to the ebbs and flows of sector ailments.

“Nobody could predict the fervour and hunger for stock, and the degree of levels of competition for housing, in the 1st quarter,” states Christine Ryan, a Vancouver Island-based mostly Product sales Manager at Sotheby’s Global Realty Canada.

Given that then, property costs have cooled from those significant peaks, even on the durable and steady Island, but Ryan notes that the typical value position has continue to held strong in comparison to this time previous calendar year. A return — instead than a regression — to the suggest, in other phrases.

“If we were being to discount the unprecedented spring market, the return to a carefully appreciating sector is regular of the steadiness of the stalwart Vancouver Island market place,” she adds.

Requested what area of Vancouver Island “won” the yr, from a genuine estate point of view, Ryan identifies the Parksville and Qualicum area about mid-Island, where selling prices have also remained sturdy.

“We observed an inflow of prospective buyers from the Mainland to this location with a regular increase in market place worth,” claimed Ryan. “This location is exceptionally common with substantial internet-worthy of purchasers who can purchase or develop on the ocean for a portion of the charge of an oceanfront household on the Mainland — and ferry, seaplane or helijet to Vancouver in less than 30 minutes.”

Hunting ahead, Ryan says Westshore — north of Increased Victoria — is her select for the area to watch in 2023.

“[Westshore] has observed a momentous transform politically with the incumbent usurped by a new Council for the very first time in almost 30 yrs,” Ryan notes. “This municipality is not unionized and observed a significant boom in progress over the past numerous years. We will see what result the political alter has on industry values in the place.”

Read through: In Uncertain Occasions, Vancouver Island’s Genuine Estate Market place Serves Steadiness

Occur the new 12 months, a number of parts of new laws declared by the Province of British Columbia in 2022 will be coming into influence.

Perhaps the most-discussed is the new three-working day rescission (“cooling-off”) period of time, which the Province introduced in July and will come into effect on January 3. Some buyers are anxious, but Ryan claims the transform is “a case of shutting the stable doorway right after the horse has bolted” and there actually is not a great deal to be anxious about.

“The rescission period of time will make minimal to no change in the exercise of the current market,” she claimed. “With the return of subjects (or thanks diligence) on features, the rescission period will only use to a pretty nominal volume of transactions.”

The very same goes for the federal government’s ban on foreign prospective buyers — at the very least for Vancouver Island — which comes into impact January 1.

“Vancouver Island’s distinctive natural environment and appealing way of life attracts the eye of the intercontinental purchaser, but we are not extremely worried because international purchasers and foreign prospective buyers are not 1 and the similar,” Ryan says. “Many of our purchasers are Canadians abroad, dual citizens, or spouses with Canadian associates [and] there are exemptions to the laws which will further more reduce the impression of the ban.”

Just after a 12 months of raises, fascination fees are also envisioned to amount off a bit all-around the midpoint of the calendar year. So, when the Island has gotten a little bit of snow lately, the forecast for 2023 seems to connect with for sunshine close to the corner.

This write-up was manufactured in partnership with STOREYS Custom Studio.

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Metro Vancouver genuine estate: International consumer ban coming

Inez Caron December 27, 2022

A federal ban on foreigners buying household true estate is set to go into effect in January.

But nearby actual estate brokers and pundits say they’re even now in the darkish about just how the ban will work and what it will suggest to the authentic estate market place on the North Shore.

Due to the fact previous spring, when Ottawa initially announced its intention to ban international prospective buyers, “it’s been beneath the radar,” claimed Jason Soprovich, a West Vancouver actual estate agent who specializes in luxurious residences.

“We’ve been told that it’s coming into impact, and that it is going to impact personal purchases of international customers throughout the total region, and that there will be a moratorium for two yrs, and that it will affect organizations getting capable to obtain as effectively.”

What is a lot less distinct is what the effect will be, he reported.

Affect of international acquiring ban unclear

The federal govt launched the new policies amid attempts to dampen housing prices.

But Andy Yan, director of SFU’s city program, claimed that go has arrive about a ten years as well late. Between 2011 and 2016, foreigner prospective buyers performed an outsize position in some serious estate marketplaces, notably such as West Vancouver, which became preferred with affluent purchasers from China.

At that time, free lending policies governing foreigners intended it was generally less difficult to get a personal loan as a international university student with belongings than it was as a Canadian trying to get a home finance loan, reported Yan.

The consequence was lots of foreigners were being joyful to use regional authentic estate as an financial investment, he said.

Resulting climbing charges are “what transpires when residential assets gets to be a global commodity,” stated Yan.

Likely back again to 2016, overseas potential buyers manufactured up 24 for each cent of West Vancouver real estate purchasers in the months top up to the introduction of the provincial foreign buyers tax.

But as soon as that tax was put in spot in 2016, foreigners have created up a a lot smaller sized proportion of purchasers, reported Soprovich.

For the duration of pandemic selection of overseas buyers fell

As COVID-19 closed borders in 2020 and 2021, foreigners mainly disappeared from authentic estate revenue, he said. The real estate increase of previous yr was fuelled totally by domestic purchasers, stated Soprovich.

Yan reported foreigners have not been dissuaded completely from getting neighborhood real estate. In point, he reported he wouldn’t be astonished to see a spike prior to the ban formally goes into spot.

He extra the two-12 months moratorium is a short term evaluate and may perhaps be meant much more for political appearances than to execute policy objectives.

About nine for every cent of West Van residences international owned

In accordance to figures from the Ministry of Finance, about nine per cent of residences in West Vancouver have some kind of international ownership. In the District of North Vancouver, that proportion was reduce – at about three for each cent. In the Town of North Vancouver, foreigners account for about five for every cent of residential home homeowners.

Foreigners also shell out about 60 per cent of the speculation and vacancy tax.

In West Vancouver, the total paid out – $6.58 million – is the 3rd greatest in the province.

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