Love it or hate it, Robson Street’s iconic, 42-storey, 1970s, concrete West End hotel with revolving restaurant – the Empire Landmark – could soon be demolished to make way for two new multi-family residential towers and mixed-use podium.
The City of Vancouver posted an application September 23 from local architectural firm Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership, requesting permission to redevelop 1488 Robson Street as a mixed-use project with one 28-storey and one 30-storey tower, with a two- to three-storey podum underneath.
The towers would contain 280 residential units, 58 of which would reserved as social housing and the rest as market units. The podium – see second and third images in photo gallery, above – would contain retail on the ground floor and offices on the second and third floors. There would also be four levels of parking, accessible from the lane, underneath the complex.
The City’s proposal page reads, “Under the site’s existing C-6 zoning, the application is ‘conditional’ so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Development Permit Board.”
The City is holding a community open house for local residents to find out more about the proposed development – and what is bound to be a controversial and challenging demolition – on October 11, 5-8pm, at the Listel Hotel at 1300 Robson Street.
The proposal is scheduled to go in front of the Development Permit Board on December 12 at 3pm.
