[Downtown Victoria] The Mondrian | Condos | 10 storeys | U/C

[Rob Randall]

Cook/Johnson condo project tries again

By Robert Randall • Published on Thursday, December 23, 2010

Proponents of a new condo building at the northwest corner of the Cook Street and Johnson Street intersection are hoping the third time’s a charm when a new design goes before city council in the new year.

The new owner is teaming up with architectural firm deHoog & Kierulf to present a fresh design for the site, the third since the lot at 1048 Johnson was targeted for redevelopment four years ago.

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[Baro]

5:1 density!! Me likey!

[G-Man]

Sounds good to me. I do remain a little concerned about the lot next door. But perhaps a SoMA type building could go in there.

[Dylan Leblanc]

I hope a "podium tower" isn't a bad thing. The previous design was perfect.

[Mike K.]

The original proposal looked like this:

[Hotel Mike]

Wow. That might really pick up that area. Then there's the huge lot on the other side of Cook next to the medical centre. I wonder if this would be a catalyst for more happening there.

[gumgum]

Fingers crossed!

[aastra]

Why do they always seem to want to go back to the drawing board? The original renderings looked really good.

[gumgum]

^The previous design was an office. I don't think the previous entity would make a decent condo.

[Rob Randall]

I don't remember an office component.

Originally Posted by Mike K.

The original proposal looked like this:

To clarify, that is the second version. I don't have an image of the very first one circa 2005 but it was quite different. I believe both versions were modified after much feedback, including Design Panel recommendations so it wouldn't surprise me if there were a half dozen iterations floating around. That photo depicts Kwan's design that resulted after people said the building should be more modern and broken up and with a corner entrance. I think Corazon and Juliet may have influenced it as the renderings for those popular buildings may have been around at the time.

Harris Green guidelines recommend staggered setbacks to encourage a terraced look to towers but developers and architects prefer straight-sided buildings for various reasons. De Hoog will propose a straight-sided tower pulled back from the podium that will satisfy the setback requirements.

[Rob Randall]

This is what I've heard from developers and architects on why they dislike setback rules designed to create terraced towers.

1. They dislike the ziggurat look
2. More deck area exposed to the elements (waterproofing concerns)
3. Different sized floorplates make design and construction expensive

[gumgum]

I could have sworn this was originally office.

[Dylan Leblanc]

No that was residential. The developer may want to update the design of the building though to better reflect what type of units and price point the current market demands.

[amor de cosmos]

what if the cook st village went all the way to RAP? :dancingbanana:

[G-Man]

Well North of Pandora it would stop because that is North Park Village.

[amor de cosmos]

really? I didn't know it had a name

[Phil McAvity]

I'm still trying to figure out why the original design was nixed.

[jklymak]

^ It wasn't - it just didn't get built because of the economy.

[concorde]

As I recall Fred Rohani and company bought the property. He built the Aria and many other projects in town. His dad built the tower at 747 Fort St

[Kapten Kapsell]

Originally Posted by concorde

As I recall Fred Rohani and company bought the property. He built the Aria and many other projects in town. His dad built the tower at 747 Fort St

A condo sales centre is going into the vacant storefront of the Aria (next to Armeni Jewelers); the original plans to lease the space to a nail/tanning salon fell through.

If Alpha Developments is planning to build the proposed tower at Cook/Johnson then it is highly likely that the condo sales centre under construction at the Aria is associated with this new project.

[Kapten Kapsell]

OK- it looks like the project will be called The Mondrian and its address will actually by 1090 Johnson Street.

Alpha Developments has announced the project on its website:
http://www.alphadevelopments.com/newprojects.html

[amor de cosmos]

Originally Posted by BCguy75

OK- it looks like the project will be called The Mondrian

like this painting? that would be slick maybe the bright colours wouldn't work so well in victoria though

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by jklymak

^ It wasn't - it just didn't get built because of the economy.

That makes sense now, thanks.

Doesn't Harris Green have higher height limits than 10 stories though? I mean there's View Towers, The Manhattan, Regent Park, etc....

[Rob Randall]

^I believe those all came in before the current guidelines (+ - 10 years ago.)

The Manhattan, for example was allowed to build that high because density transfer and a covenant was placed on the neighbouring two-storey office tower. Recall this prevented what would have been the 7-Eleven tower at Quadra/Yates.

The Regent's Park tower was allowed because they built that huge semi-public garden space connecting View with Yates.

The history of View Towers can be found elsewhere in this forum.

[jklymak]

^ Aren't the new guidelines for much taller buildings? Why don't the developers push for that?