The buildings are up, the hoardings are down – a new urban look for Pacific Boulevard from Cambie Bridge to BC Place:
Here’s roughly what it looked like before – way before, from the look of the stadium roof:
Note the new bike/ped way between the bridge and condo:
Coolest new feature: the swimming pool bubble in the courtyard of the condo:
But why the use of so much dark gray in an already light-constrained space?
The dark gray looks great.
You need a darker colour to highlight the curves of the balconies on the Smithe side.
The alcove with the pool faces south – it won’t be light-challenged, and when you are inside the suites, you don’t notice the outward facing spandrel much. It’s also glass, so it’s reflective.
It’s a nice departure from the all to prevalent “light blue-green” spandrel used on every recent cookie cutter condo tower in the city.
There are lots of examples where the architects failed to provide sufficient contrast between elements on a building – and the supposed design elements end up muddled.
The latest is Telus Garden – lots of ubiquitous light blue-green glass and spandrel.
The Charleson is shaping up the same way. The Mark is a notable disaster.
The rose coloured reflective! glass of the neighbouring casino is also shaping up to provide a distinctive facade next door.
Beautiful. How many are foreign owned and slapped with a 15% tax ?