Reclaimed Stanley Park trees used in ceiling

LENA SIN
Province

There’s little doubt that the pièce de résistance of the Gateway North Shore development is the stunning wood-clad ceiling made from reclaimed Stanley Park trees.

Sweeping fan-shaped across the circular dining and living room, it’s hard to believe this is not a custom-built apartment, but a new development on the North Shore.

“It’s so architecturally pleasing,” muses realtor Nicole Castle. “I’ve done 50 projects in the last 15 years and this is the one I’ve been most excited about.”

As a new generation of design-savvy home buyers demand more and more in terms of interior and architectural appeal, developers are having to up the design-quotient without breaking the bank.

In the case of Gateway North Shore, Triman Developments completely exceeded expectations without losing sight of affordability.

“Affordability is so important. You don’t get a second chance in this market,” said Castle, of D’Ovidio Associates, which is handling the sales and marketing.

The smallest unit, at a surprisingly spacious 777 sq. ft., starts at $374,900 while the biggest unit, at 940 sq. ft., starts at $429,900.

As of last Wednesday, 11 of the 21 units were still available.

All the units feature two bedrooms plus den — an unusual layout for today’s market where developers

are going smaller to target the first-time home buyer and keep prices low.

Gateway has bucked the trend, seeing a demand from young families and downsizing baby- boomers, not to mention young professionals who’ve simply

outgrown their one-bedroom pads.

“They’re still affordable and they used the square footage really well. So even if they are smaller units, they still fit in two bedrooms for those young people maybe starting a family or two adults,” says Castle.

Gateway North Shore is located at the intersection of Marine Drive and Hamilton Avenue in North Vancouver. It’s within walking distance to spas, restaurants, transit and across from Capilano Mall, while still close to plenty of hiking and biking.

The four-storey concrete and wood-framed building is move-in ready. Castle explains that Triman, an Alberta-based developer, prefers to sell buildings upon completion so buyers know what they’re getting.

The principals behind Triman are Harold Sicherman and Richard Berman. Sicherman has been in the real estate industry since 1975, with experience developing in B.C., Alberta and Scottsdale, Ariz., while Berman started out converting

heritage buildings in downtown Calgary into new developments.

“[Harold’s] always prided himself on doing one project at a time so he can be really hands-on. That’s why you see all the details. It’s do it right or don’t do it at all,” says Castle.

Although only six of the 21 units feature the Stanley Park wood-clad ceiling, all of the suites feature smooth, flat-painted ceilings. It appears to be a small detail, but most developers would flat-out reject the idea because of

the tremendous cost and work involved.

Other details include motion-activated ambient lighting from underneath the bathroom vanity and built-in cubby holes for shampoo and soap bottles above the bathtub.

To get away from cookie-cutter kitchens, the cabinets are two-tone: Glossy white on top and dark charcoal on the bottom.

All the windows are double-glazed and thermally engineered, while the window blinds are Hunter Douglas — with blackouts in the bedrooms.

“It’s a landmark building with the circular ceiling and Stanley Park roof. The floor plans are all different — it’s only 21 units. The flat roofs and Hunter Douglas blinds — those kinds of touches I haven’t seen anywhere,” said Castle.

[email protected]

The facts

What: Gateway North Shore,

21 condos

Where: 935 W. 16th Street, North Vancouver

Builder/Developer: Triman Developments

Sizes: Two bedrooms plus den, from 777 sq. ft. to 940 sq. ft.

Prices: Starting at $374,900 for 777 and 784 sq. ft; starting at $389,900 for 833 sq. ft.; starting at $409,900 for 878 and 882 sq. ft.; starting at $429,900 for 869 and 940 sq. ft.

Open: Presentation centre and show homes open 12 p.m. to

5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday;

1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Thursday at 935 W 16th St.

More info: www.gatewayliving.ca

© Copyright (c) The Province

The Kettle Creek development near Victoria features detached homes at relatively low prices

Suzanne Morphet
Sun

KETTLE CREEK STATION

Project location: Langford

Project size: 49 homes now selling, up to 600 eventually

Telephone: 250-391-5880

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: kettlecreekstation.com

Developer: Turner Lane Development Corp.

Occupancy: Immediate

– – –

“Condominiums on the ground” is how Les Bjola describes the houses he’s building on a reclaimed gravel pit in Langford on Vancouver Island. It’s the local developer’s latest project in the West Shore community and will see 600 small homes built over five years.

“If you have someone that was interested in living in an 800 to 1,000 foot condo, then they’ll absolutely love living in an 800 to 1,000 foot house with windows on all four sides and their own little yard,” raves Bjola about his small homes.

While the 48 homes going up in the first phase bear some resemblance to ”wartime housing” — the small, inexpensive homes built in large tracts in towns and cities across Canada during the Second World War to accommodate military families and returning vets — Bjola has put a lot of thought into making this new neighbourhood as attractive as possible.

“Just because it’s small, doesn’t mean it’s not ‘wow,'” he says of the houses that sit on lots that are smaller than many people’s homes. “Think of some of the cutest houses you’ve ever seen. I bet most of them are small.”

Bjola points to details such as a window box, a porch railing, decorative posts and ‘knees’ – the pieces of wood that connect a porch to the rest of the house. “It takes so little to dress up a small house.”

Bjola’s original designs — there are half a dozen to choose from — range from one level and one bedroom and bathroom, to two levels and two bedrooms. Some have lofts, some have basements, some have attics.

Compared to wartime housing, they all have an open design, more closet space and fewer small rooms. The focus is on the kitchen, which is the biggest room in these homes.

Small homes come with a small price tag, or at least smaller than average. Homes in the first phase range from $249,000 to $329,000, including GST.

And just because they’re relatively inexpensive doesn’t mean they’re lower quality. Kitchens have granite countertops, tile backsplash, double steel sinks and wood-laminate cabinets.

The homes will meet BuiltGreen standards with features such as double glazed windows, extra insulation and additional vapour barriers to make them as energy efficient as possible while still being affordable.

“We’re doing all the things that are logical in a small house,” Bjola says, admitting it’s tough to be both sustainable and affordable. “We’re not doing solar heating because that’s a huge cost.”

However, he is investigating geothermal heating to see if it’s feasible in the second phase of 32 detached homes.

Homeowners also have the opportunity to upgrade their homes with features such as an electric or gas fireplace, a built in vacuum, skylights, potlights in the kitchen and granite in the bathroom. Exterior finish options include a covered porch and carport.

The homes are proving popular. In just two months, 42 have sold to a range of people aged 25 to 70, about half of whom are previous or current home owners. Derek and Tracy Tangedal, who already live in the West Shore with their two children, bought one for an investment.

“We were so impressed with the thought and design behind Kettle Creek Station. There is something here for everyone, whether you are young or young at heart. The proximity to lakes, trails, City Centre Park and shopping is invaluable,” the couple says.

Buyers are spending in the range of $500 to $3,000 on upgrades, but so far most have not chosen to spend an extra $3,000 for a front porch. Bjola says he’s not surprised they haven’t proven popular. “Quite frankly, we didn’t think they would be,” he says, citing “price point” as the reason.

Knowing that most buyers are declining to add a front porch is disappointing to Avi Friedman, a professor of architecture at McGill University and consultant to the Kettle Creek Station project.

Friedman is a pioneer of the small and affordable home movement in North America and is recognized as an expert in creating liveable communities. He believes front porches make for friendlier neighbourhoods.

On other projects he’s seen, developers did not give buyers a choice; front porches were part of the design, “and they are beautiful,” allowing people to talk with neighbours and exchange greetings with passers-by. Friedman suggested front porches be mandatory on the homes at Kettle Creek Station, too.

“But I learned in life, you know, the builder has to know the market more than I do … they deal with customers all the time.”

Bjola isn’t concerned that his project will suffer as a result of people not buying into the idea of porches. In fact, he believes if everyone chose the same look, it would be boring. “I don’t like sameness … if every single house has a porch, I don’t like it anymore. But if 30 per cent have porches and 30 per cent have carports and 30 per cent have nothing, then I’ve got kind of an interesting mix.”

Bjola stresses he won’t allow someone who’s only interested in the least expensive, least attractive house buy a high profile lot because then, “the whole world has to live with it.”

And he’s taking care to make the streets themselves visually interesting, with trees planted every six metres and a curving sightline with different elevations. “There’s nowhere in the subdivision where you go in and see this long line of houses.”

One of the biggest challenges, according to the developer, was finding a a designer creative enough to take on the project. “We’ve gone through a whole generation here where the only thing you had to do was build bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger and now we’re saying, ‘No, no. Smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller.'”

Will Peereboom of Victoria Design was up to Bjola’s challenge. The local architect has been featured in Architectural Digest magazine and a number of homes he has designed have won awards from the Canadian Home Builders’ Association.

Peereboom says the smaller the house, the harder it is to design. He compares it to putting together a jigsaw puzzle. “Every bedroom requires a doorway and a closet and a window and a place against a wall to put the bed along, so those are all the pieces of the puzzle for that room and you’ve got to put it together.”

Peereboom was constrained by the fact that the kitchen appliances that come with the homes are standard size so they take up proportionately more space than they would in a large kitchen. Smaller appliances are on the market, but they’re double the price.

Part of the onus in making these homes work will be on the homeowners themselves. “You’re obviously not going to go for your big chaise longue in a place like this,” says Peereboom. “You’re going to go for lighter area furniture.”

The idea of an affordable housing development was wholeheartedly supported by Langford’s city council. Acting mayor Denise Blackwell welcomes the 45 acres donated as parkland and the future creation of a commercial area. “We really like it because it provides a more complete community by providing commercial services and the kind of amenities that are within walking distance.”

Transportation has always been a problem in the West Shore, where commuters face a bottleneck trying to drive to Victoria. But Kettle Creek Station is beside an existing rail corridor.

Langford and other communities are pressuring the Capital Regional District and provincial government to upgrade it to light rail transit. “Concentrate development along that corridor,” Blackwell says of Langford’s strategy. “Then if we build it, they will come,” she laughs.

The response from the market to the first phase has prompted Bjola to move up the second phase, to this fall from next spring. Some of the second phase homes will be even smaller, just 400 square feet.

“Think about a bachelor pad with a loft,” he says. “For anybody who’s living in Fort Victoria [an RV park] in a fifth wheel, this would feel like a mansion.”

Suzanne Morphet is a freelance writer on Vancouver Island and co-author of The Vancouver Island Book of Everything.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

The Waterfront, among other hotels in the chain, is into beekeeping in a big way and is earning a sweet reward for its efforts

Kim Davis
Sun

Like a passionate wine maker describing the bouquet of his latest cabernet, Graeme Evans of the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel enjoys talking about the sweet elixir his hotel’s resident bees are producing.

“Right now they are pulling in a licorice-flavoured honey,” he says. “A little while ago they were bringing in a spicy honey, and earlier in the year they were producing a lavender honey.”

He says he believes the best honey is yet to come, though. “It is a dark amber, licorice-flavoured honey that comes from a variety of plants.”

Started in 2008 as part of the Fairmont chain’s decision that each hotel would adopt an environmental program, the Vancouver’s Fairmont Waterfront is one of a growing number of institutions that have added beekeeping to their amenities.

INTERNATIONAL ACCLAIM

It was over 25 years ago that Jean Paucton got the idea of keeping bees on the roof of the Paris Opera House, where he worked in props. In the heart of Paris, Paucton cares for five hives of honeybees. He is not alone either.

The Eiffel Park Hotel began beekeeping three years ago, after turning one of its terraces into a site for several hives. The reported 330 pounds of honey the hotel’s bees produce each year is given as gifts and served at breakfast.

In 2005, the National Apiculture Association in Paris began one of the largest programs in the world aimed at encouraging beekeeping in cities, and now more than 300 known colonies in the French capital.

In Tokyo, beehives dot the rooftops of department stores in the trendy shopping districts such as Ginza. In Chicago, bees hold court on the roofs of city hall and the Chicago Cultural Center in Garfield Park Conservatory. In Washington, D.C., several hives have taken their place in the White House’s new vegetable garden.

Here in Canada at least two other Fairmont hotels, the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto and the Fairmont Algonquin in St. Andrews, Science World and most recently the new Vancouver Convention Centre have embraced beekeeping.

A COMMUNITY SERVICE

“I thought if we released grizzly bears into the downtown core people might get upset,” jokes Evans when talking about the Fairmont Waterfront’s decision to adopt beekeeping. “I started learning about bees,” he says, “and found out that they are literally the cornerstone of our civilization. Without them, 90 per cent of our crops would fail and our entire civilization would crumble.”

Evans says that after reading about the irony of rapidly expanding agriculture in the face of declining bee populations, he saw the bee project as an opportunity to not only do something for the environment, but also to educate guests about the life and importance of bees.

“Guests have had a marvellous response to the fact that you can walk by a quarter of a million bees on the [rooftop] deck and have no issues.”

Evans jokes that people often come to hear about the bees and watch the weekly checking of the hives expecting he or beekeeping guru John Gibeau of the Honeybee Centre will get stung, but usually they go away disappointed. Visitors and guests have also been excited to learn that the honey produced is used in the hotel’s restaurant. “People want to know if they can buy it, where they can get it,” says Evans.

URBAN DWELLERS

Not only are urban bees spared many of the hazards that their rural counterparts face — bears, skunks and agricultural pesticides — they also enjoy a greater variety of vegetation, and the benefit of an urban centre’s warmer temperatures.

The urban biotope may be completely artificial, but there are dozens of different species, with at least something in bloom during much of the year.

This good life is producing healthy bees and impressive harvests. In a recent New York Times article, Paucton said bee losses in the French countryside have been as much as 50 per cent, while the number in the city doesn’t approach five per cent.

Some years, he says, he doesn’t lose any in the city. “The harvest is worse and worse in the countryside,” he is quoted as saying. He attributes the losses to the pesticides large agricultural companies typically use.

With conditions in their favour, urban bees are keeping busy and offering up a bounty in response. Paucton reported that his city hives produce more than 990 pounds of honey a year, several times more what rural French beekeepers typically expect.

Here in Vancouver, Evans reports that, though highly dependent on the weather, the hives at the Fairmont Waterfront are producing on average 30 to 40 pounds of honey a week.

BEE WISE

Aside from holding together civilization and producing a tasty treat, Evans feels that bees also have a poignant lesson to offer people regarding the practice of sustainability. “One bee doesn’t really produce a lot of honey,” he says. “It’s because there are hundreds of thousands of bees acting together to produce such amazing numbers. That’s what we need to do. Everyone needs to do one thing for sustainability, and as an entire group we can have a massive impact.”

He says that “individual efforts may be small, but you can’t discount them because the minute you take them away the hive collapses. Everyone needs to do their part.”

HONEY TASTING AND MORE

On Aug. 25 the Fairmont Waterfront invites the public to join hotel staff for several hours of beekeeping activities, including an extraction demonstration and honey tasting. For details visit fairmont.com/Waterfront on the Internet.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

DAMIAN INWOOD
Province

While Olympic athletes will be staying in luxury False Creek condos worth as much $5 million next year, they won’t get to play with the high-end kitchen appliances.

Some of the frills that the units will eventually boast have been put on hold for now, Coun. Geoff

Meggs said Thursday.

“All the kitchen appliances are in, but they’ve been walled off with very sturdy wheatboard enclosures, so it would be very difficult to damage them,” said Meggs, who oversees the Olympic file.

“The athletes don’t need to cook, because they’ll be eating cafeteria-style.”

Meggs said the handover to VANOC, the 2010 organizing committee, of the 1,100 suites at the False Creek athletes village has already begun. By tonight, 215 of the suites will have been signed over.

“It’s a phased handover, so as rooms are finished, VANOC goes in and checks them over and, if they’re acceptable, they lock them off,” he said. “As they go through, they sign off and say, ‘Yes, we’ll take it.’

“So the handover’s already started, but it has to be completed by November — and it will be.”

Construction crews “have closed the gap” on deadlines, he said.

Some design features have been modified or postponed until after the Games, he added.

“Some of the plaster trim and fussy stuff like that is going to be done later,” he said.

Temporary carpet tiles will be laid for the athletes and then replaced with hardwood floors. The tiles will be recycled at city facilities.

Sponsors such as RONA will be providing furniture, which will be taken out after the athletes leave.

“The community centre won’t be completed to the level that was at first envisaged, but to a level that VANOC’s satisfied with,” he said.

VANOC is paying $30 million to use the $1-billion development — 1.5 million square feet on 4.5 hectares — to house 2,800 athletes and officials during the Games.

“At a certain point in November, they’ll seal the site off and it’s VANOC’s to do what they like with,” Meggs said.

“They have to put in security and lay in all kinds of other things like cooking, logistics and transportation.” [email protected]

© Copyright (c) The Province

$1m left in kitty after construction

Province

When builders of the Olympic Village here hand the keys to 2010 Games organizers weeks from now, there will be more than $1 million still left in the bank from construction.

“I suspect there will be between $1 million and $2 million left,” Eric Martin, chairman of the Whistler 2020 Development Corp, which built the $161-million village for the resort, said Thursday.

That’s heady news in a time of recession — and given that the construction took place in one of the hottest markets in history.

Martin, who along with other WDC board members got $1 a year in salary, said there were significant challenges along the way.

At one point, the resort contemplated building a temporary village instead of the new neighbourhood that’s scheduled to become affordable housing after the Games.

“It was a tremendous challenge, but I think we had a very good business plan,” said Martin, who works at Bosa Development.

Unlike Vancouver’s athletes village, the Whistler plan called for many contractors to be used — ensuring the risk was spread out.

The village will house 2,850 Olympic and Paralympic athletes, officials and coaches in new

duplexes, apartments and townhouses on the 40-hectare site.

The homes are nestled near the Cheakamus River, just south of town. Built to green standards, they will use heat recaptured from the nearby waste-water treatment plant.

The site also includes a $34-million Athletes Centre, made up of a 100-room lodge and 20 townhomes, which will be used after the Games to house visiting teams as they train and compete at the resort.

VANOC, the 2010 organizers, contributed $37.5 million to the village project. The balance was financed through the resort, which will recoup its investment by selling off many of the units after the Games. So far, 90 per cent are sold.

The site will be expanded at Games time to include several huge tents that will house the medical clinic and the 24-hour dining hall to feed up to 1,200 people at a time. As a sponsor, McDonald’s will have a restaurant in the facility, though many other foods will be available.

The furnishings have also been selected, including the beds — the No. 1 concern to athletes.

“We probably tested 100 different mattresses before we found one that we felt was comfortable,” said Nejat Sarp, vice-president of villages and services for VANOC.

Athletes will also get a cozy goose-down duvet and 240-thread-count sheets — “what you would find at a four- or five-star hotel,” Sarp said.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Patrick Langston
Sun

Whether you’re a young, first-time buyer moving into a 500-square-foot condo, or older and downsizing from a sprawling suburban home, everyone faces the same challenge: how to decorate so you don’t feel like you’re being squashed into a shoebox.

If your condo is still at the design stage, says Ottawa designer Anna Riopelle, ask the builder about installing pot lights in a decorative bulkhead to reduce the number of lamps you’ll need.

When it comes to flooring, avoid using multiple materials which create visual stops and starts: Continuity gives a sense of spaciousness. Using neutral-coloured paint will also add to a spacious feeling, although doing one wall in a deep colour can make the wall seem to recede. Ask your paint store for suggestions.

“Huge, huge is investing in an organization system for the bathroom, kitchen and bedroom closets,” says Riopelle. Install-them-yourself systems help you pack maximum clothes, pots and pans into minimal space without it looking like a jumble sale.

Riopelle also suggests a Murphy bed, which folds up and out of the way into a cabinet or closet. For window treatments, she says, go with continuity as well. By giving a clean sweep to the walls, it enhances the feeling of space.

The key is to minimize clutter, according to the pros. If you’re downsizing, that likely means turning a hard heart on some of those memory-laden knick-knacks and endless family photos. Try grouping a selected number of them for display and put the rest in storage for future rotation.

The biggest blunder in going small, says Riopelle, is keeping the same old bulky furniture. Go with simple lines, she says, and use glass-topped tables for airiness.

Suanne de Boer says to think multi-functional and small-scale when planning condo furniture.

“What people don’t realize is how much room furniture takes up until they actually try to get it in there,” says de Boer, general manager of Ottawa and Toronto’s DeBoer’s Furniture.

To solve the problem, consider compact, two-seat sofas or space-miserly tub chairs, found in many furniture stores. Ottomans with storage space are another smart idea.

An old-style secretary desk with a fold-down work area also offers more storage opportunities.

“Condos often don’t have room for work surfaces,” says de Boer, “so this gives people somewhere they can use their laptop.”

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Smaller-scale mountain venue gets seal of approval from some of its eventual users

Gary Kingston
Sun

Snowboarder Tom Velisek says athletes from around the world will be “blown away” by what they see at the Olympic Athletes’ Village in Whistler.

That’s good enough, joked a Vanoc official, to earn the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

It might be a bit of hyperbole from Velisek, a member of Canada’s national snowboard cross team, who will split his time between the Vancouver athletes’ village and a team-secured private residence.

But after Thursday’s media tour of the nearly completed village — nobody from the 124-year-old lifestyle magazine made the trip — it is clear that the diverse collection of accommodations does have more of a homey, village feel than some of the university-dorm-style “villages” of past Games.

In fact, the village — expected to house 2,800 Olympic and 1,000 Paralympic athletes, officials, coaches and support staff next February and March — will be turned after the Games into a new neighbourhood called Cheakamus Crossing.

Nearly 97 per cent of the 220 apartments, townhouses and condos to be made available as affordable housing for Whistler workers has been sold. Twenty “at-market” three-bedroom condos, at a cost of about $850,000 each, and some single family building lots that start at $475,000 will go on sale soon.

All of that is designed to ensure the resort municipality, whose wholly owned subsidiary Whistler 2020 Development Corp. manages the village, recovers the $160 million it spent turning the old landfill and recycling site south of town into an attractive, sustainable community. There are spectacular mountain views and the Cheakamus River snakes through the nearby forest.

“We came in 3-1/2 years ago, standing in the landfill, a couple of crows flying and the place was just full of garbage and I was looking up going ‘Oh my God, what is going to happen here?” said Nejat Sarp, Vanoc’s vice-president of villages and services. “Sure enough, we’ve created a gorgeous, gorgeous site.”

Work on the village, which also includes the Vanoc-financed Whistler Athletes Centre — a 5,500-square-foot high-performance fitness centre, a 100-room lodge and 20 townhouses — is 95-per-cent complete and on track to be turned over to Vanoc by Oct. 31.

During the Games, the fitness centre will be filled with sport-specific training equipment and open 24 hours. In the front of the building, athletes will be able to relax around pool, shuffleboard and fuseball tables.

Part of the fitness centre will be turned into a gymnastics hall after the Games, when Whistler 2010 Sport Legacies will operate the centre, the lodge and the townhouses.

With terraced streets separating the condos and apartments, paved walking trails and a forested area in behind, the village does, as Velisek suggests, have something of a community feel. During the Games, there will be retail outlets, including a bank, hair salon and grocery store.

But the athletes who choose to stay full-time in the village — Canadian skiers, bobsledders and lugers have secured private residences around Whistler that they will use extensively — will still be sleeping two to a room, with as many as a dozen in some condos.

And some of those rooms are best described as spartan, particularly the ones in the 80 modular units that will be turned post-Games into low-income housing in six B.C. communities, including Sechelt, Chetwynd and Enderby.

Before leading reporters into the modules, Dan Doyle, Vanoc’s executive vice-president of construction, said athletes really only wanted two things — “Internet connectivity [and] curtains on the showers and curtains on the windows. We can provide that.”

As a bonus, while two athletes may share a room, they’ll have their own washrooms. Sarp says Vanoc has done all it could to try to meet athletes’ demands for comfortable beds, the latest in communication technology and privacy — while also creating a level of social interaction.

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