Even with sky-high land costs in the City of Vancouver not all developers are relying on multiple lot assembly in order to build mixed use projects. While traveling around East Vancouver you notice various multi-family developments making it work on smaller lots, some as narrow as 33′.
4376 Fraser Street
3401 Fraser Street
6555 Victoria Drive
3939 Knight Street
Simple but effective none the less. No doubt the metrics work due to the less desirable arterials when compared to the Westside, but nice to see some basic effort in materials and ornamentation. These buildings have more architectural interest than some of the newly proposed downtown condo towers.
Great observation Scot – something I and I expect others have overlooked. Given the criticism, particularly in Chinatown, of block-long frontage assemblies, this shows that there are alternatives.
Agreed. Good examples of modest density often missing from an ongoing conversation tinged with moral panic.
A good exploration Scott. Agreed, arterials are terrible places to front onto with condos, but their prices will reflect that. That is, until the city fathers, mothers and planners allow them to turn the corner and proceed off-arterial for at least a block intermixed with fee simple attached single-family homes where heritage and character homes do not prevail.
These buildings also afford continuous sidewalk retail, and that commercial space is usually designed for flexiblity in storefront widths. If the zoning, architecture and site planning could be allowed more creative exploration, I’ve always thought the upper arterial side could be office space instead of resdential.
I’d love to see more of this type of smaller scale development. There are also a few examples along Kingsway east of Knight. I’m curious to see if these are more likely to support the type of local small business start-up retail that adds to street character but typically doesn’t end up in the larger developments for which the formula is typically bank branch, large chain pharmacy and/or grocery store, while most of the other smaller storefronts sit empty for a LONG, long time (as at King Edward Village or the Eldorado).