[taal]

There's a lot of controversy surrounding these; The majority 70%+ is still for sale even in this relatively hot market. The key issue was price, to recoup the cost they were pricing the units at outrageous prices (at least that's what I've been told). Now, prices have nearly been cut in half and there's interest.

Clearly this will be a huge loss to Vancouver (and the rest of Canada) from a financial point of view. There's rumors that all the low income housing have been scrapped just so they can recoup more of their costs - and the money from other sources were justified partly due to the inclusion of the low income housing ... so I think we'll hear a lot more rumblings in the coming years.

Now, for all the negative, how did the development turn out ? I can't say for sure but 'amazing' comes to mind from the following pictures curtsy of SSP ... what do you all think ? Are there any hopes our pan am village will be anything close to this. I think village in Toronto will actually be larger! But I doubt we'll see this quality:


http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=139393&page=7

 

[Hipster Duck]

Emptiness aside, it's a very well-designed neighbourhood with intimate side streets that really feel canyonesque. They seem to have found a perfect balance between the height of the buildings and the width of the streets. The paving and streetscaping materials are also top notch.

I only have one criticism about the Olympic Village and that's that it suffers from public art overkill. The best and most well-loved public spaces in the world are just simple squares, sometimes with a central monument but often with nothing. Why do there have to be podium lights? Or giant birds? Or railway ties creatively cut into benches? Those things just end up cluttering the space. I would say that's my critique of not just this space, but all public space built in the last 10 years in Canada in general: cut out the public art (a lot of it is just noise) and spend that money on better paving materials, instead.

 

[egotrippin]

^Thank you, I couldn't agree more. Like many of Toronto's recently built sidewalks and public spaces, the Olympic Village suffers from a dull mono-chromatic scheme of grey bricks and grey pavers. Why not spend the art budget on more colourful materials, creative arrangements and patterns with stone and brick? It'd look a lot better than what usually amounts to an out-of-place sculpture that has nothing to do with the area.

That said though, they really did a great job with the architecture and scale of the neighbourhood. Hopefully it'll provide a model for similar future development across Canada; this sort of planning could do wonders for the suburban GTA.

 

[taal]

Really ? Looking at the pictures it looks like they got the best from both worlds ... this likely only happened because a lot of public money was involved here - it's a pretty small area for 1+ billion dollars.

 

[junctionist]

Every building looks polished with so many unexpected touches, and there are plenty doses of colour. The cladding materials are varied, from different colours of brick to glass, metal, and even what looks like stone. There are no obvious compromises like ugly mechanical boxes on top of the buildings or for utilities in the streets. How can one complain? There are so many streets with pavers. The roads and buildings are nicely scaled.

So why isn't it selling? Maybe it doesn't feel like a neighbourhood yet. If it's built to look like the essence of an dense, walkable urban neighbourhood, but it lacks the diversity of stores and business that sort of neighbourhood popular, then it may not be appealing to many. I haven't seen it in person, but I am curious about the village's successes and struggles.

 

[taal]

Every building looks polished with so many unexpected touches, and there are plenty doses of colour. The cladding materials are varied, from different colours of brick to glass, metal, and even what looks like stone. There are no obvious compromises like ugly mechanical boxes on top of the buildings or for utilities in the streets. How can one complain? There are so many streets with pavers. The roads and buildings are nicely scaled.

So why isn't it selling? Maybe it doesn't feel like a neighbourhood yet. If it's built to look like the essence of an dense, walkable urban neighbourhood, but it lacks the diversity of stores and business that sort of neighbourhood popular, then it may not be appealing to many. I haven't seen it in person, but I am curious about the village's successes and struggles.

price, apparently they were being listed for 50%+ the going rate; and that's on prime Vancouver land. According to a news story prices have been cut in half now and the units are starting to sell.
Why they priced it so high; I'm guessing they very much overestimated the demand i.e. (I want to live here because it's so polished / because it used to be the Olympic village - and I'm willing to pay double for it).

So in the end this will be a huge flop for the city and any other investors; From a monetary view point; But Vancouver has a great / amazing neighborhood now.