Adding a modern addition to an historic building is often a dubious endeavour, particularly if the idea is to respect the old by using an abundance of glass to achieve lightness and evanescence. The result is too often top-heavy.
Here’s the latest attempt at 564 Beatty:
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The result, though it dominates the brick base of the old warehouse and, indeed, looks to be a little top-heavy, is actually better than the rendering (right), originally designed by IBI Architects. Here are some of the original views of the 500-block from Changing Vancouver, the most significant piece of a neighbourhood labelled by some as Crosstown. (It’s also home to the first contemporary lofts at 548, designed by Bruno Freschi back in 1983.)
Ultimately, though, I think the building is a success – for three reasons. It will certainly animate an otherwise dead space between it and the Stadium station, leading to the Beatty Stairs to International Village. It provides a horizontal contrast to the surrounding towers. And it bookends the 500-block.
Bookending was a common practice in the late 19th- and early-20th centuries, seen still today in districts like the Upper West and East Sides of New York. Along the avenues would be taller buildings, appropriate to the wider rights-of-way. And in between, along the narrower streets, would be townhouses or low-rise structures, creating a comfortable composition of varying heights.
Here’s an example from Chinatown, where this overlooked apartment of now decayed magnificence (once the Hotel Statford according to Changing Vancouver) did the job at Keefer and Gore:
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But look – the contrast between high and low has been lost (not to mention privacy and light) with the new parking garage.
That homogenizing infill has not occurred on Beatty (even with some additional upper floors on a few of the lofts). And the new addition at 564 Beatty has effectively complemented the Sun Tower at the block’s northern end, even with a bulkier form, by completing the bookending.
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The block is better for it.
A book-end indeed. For some context, have a look at this photo, providing a view of the plain concrete back-side of the book:
http://imgur.com/lsy9rea
(Photo from the Sun Tower)
Gord – I agree. The desire for an extreme architectural contrast between old and new in such endeavours is indeed a problem, not often resolved as nicely as this. For some reason, many designers continue to believe, as did Mies 80-90 years ago, that a glass facade is light and airy, floating and indeed transparent. This is seldom true, visually speaking.
The newly minted draft DTES plan is full of these kinds of images, where even the noble neoclassic RBC temple on the southeast corner of Main and Hastings is shown in renderings with a glassy box sitting on top of it. One can just make it out if one looks closely.
Gastown, especially on the little stretch of Alexander Street east of Carrall Street, offers a different approach by trying to continue with the appearance of masonry bearing walls for additional storeys with, in my opinion, a happier result that is more in keeping with and respectful to the building’s original character, even if clearly newer.