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We all know that buildings don't always turn out like the renderings. Last-minute changes and real-life materials can all cause discrepancies between the vision and reality of a project. In our Flash Forward Friday feature, we take a look at how different projects stack up.
Like with Vancouver House, Westbank took on the complex task of developing a site constrained by an elevated roadway when they built what is now known simply as 6th and Fir. The cramped Burrard Slopes lot — defined by the Granville Street Bridge off-ramp — wasn't an immediately obvious candidate for urban infill, but in the time since its 2013 completion, the 14-storey building has become a paradigm that represents the realities of building in an increasingly dense and cosmopolitan metropolis.
The Henriquez Partners Architects-designed building makes use of its location by instituting a curved northwestern wall that orients views back towards the downtown core. A series of protruding boxes, outlined in black trim but left bare in its concrete walls, delineate the building's balconies and break down its massing. Wood soffit, acoustically rated window glazing, and vegetation absorbs the noise from the adjacent traffic. The 47-unit property features a yoga centre, outdoor gardens and artist studios, a dramatic shift from the four-storey building that had previously been proposed for the site by Arthur Erickson and Nick Milkovich.
With the exception of the exterior articulation between the windows, which utilizes a much lighter spandrel than the harsher demarcating lines suggested by the rendering, the finished project closely matches the illustrations used for marketing. The overall massing and sculptural forms of the rectangular boxes were executed according to plan.
The stairs and elevators are pushed to the east side of the building, creating an asymmetrical core that morphs the building into an elliptical or orthogonal shape, depending on the vantage point. Henriquez, remarking to the Globe and Mail, proudly stated 6th and Fir as "the most beautiful residential building I've designed."
We will return in the near future with another comparison!
