City of Vancouver rejects building many had panned as the ‘origami tower’ in Gastown
Posted January 29, 2015 6:19 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The developer behind a controversial project in Gastown dubbed the “origami tower” will have to go back to the drawing board.
The City of Vancouver’s design panel has rejected the Waterfront Tower.
Local architect and developer Michael Geller has been opposed to the project from the very start and is pleased by the decision.
“Indeed. A number of people said to me, ‘Thank you for speaking up and saying the things that we were concerned about and were thinking. I think it is good that can have now, at broader conversation, and not just about this site… What is happening in the downtown?”
“How big is too big? How much respect should new buildings show for old buildings?” he wonders.
Geller had called tower an “amorphous geometric blob.”
He says of particular concern for the design panel was the location of the building, situated between two heritage buildings including the 100-year-old CP rail station.
Also opposed to the project is former city planner Ray Spaxsman, who has referred to the tower as a “martian landing.”
