1608 W Georgia - 1616 West Georgia Street

There is a new and improved design for the significant redevelopment of the White Spot restaurant property on West Georgia Street on the border of the West End and Coal Harbour areas.

A newly-submitted rezoning application for the 2/3 block-sized parcel at 1608-1616 West Georgia Street shows two residential towers with a height reaching up to 385 ft. with 38 storeys.

The redevelopment is being pursued by China-based property owner Carnival International Holdings Ltd., which acquired the site for $245 million from Shato Holdings, owned by BC’s Toigo Family, in 2017.

The new architectural concept is by Connecticut-based Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, which notably designed Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers, London’s One Canada Square, Hong Kong’s IFC, New York City’s World Financial Center, San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower and Transbay Transit Centre, and the original design of the Eatons Centre building in downtown Vancouver, and the major corporate offices of Microsoft and Sony Pictures Imageworks, IBI Group is also involved in the project as the architect of record. The proposal calls for 455 strata residential units, with 200 located in each of the towers, and 55 within a four-storey podium that connects the two towers.

Height limitations restrict the project from being twin towers; three view cones cross through the site, and the western tower’s rooftop structure is restrained to reduce the shadowing on some of the perimeter trees on Marina Square Park, located one block north of the development site. The redevelopment’s landscaping is described as a “tower on podium” or “tower in the park.” Overhead bridges span the courtyard to connect the podiums and towers.