A rezoning submission was recently filed with the City of Vancouver for two towers on Alberni Street in the West End. Designed by Heatherwick Studio for Bosa Properties and Kingswood Properties, this will be the design firm's first high-rise project in the country when built.
There are some incredible pieces of architecture in the pipeline in Vancouver and I would now add this one to the list. Below are a few renderings and massing studies taken from Vancouver's Shape Your City website.
It's also worth noting that Vancouver's Shape Your City website allows people to very easily comment on rezoning applications. And as part of that, you are asked to state your overall position on the proposal: Support, Opposed, or Mixed.
This strikes me as a step in the right direction, as I think it's important to reduce the friction associated with participating. Asking people to show up to a community meeting (whether IRL or online) is a level of commitment that is simply too great for most people.
But I don't think it solves the problem that opposition is usually a more powerful motivator than support. And so I'm not yet convinced that we have systems in place which accurately and broadly capture the way that cities and communities are feeling about certain proposed changes.
