Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1456977
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | 59 Gateway Residences Park Royal GATEWAY RESIDENCES PARK ROYAL by ROBIN BRUNET P ark Royal, Canada's first shop- ping centre anchored by a department store, has evolved over the decades as an iconic gather- ing space in West Vancouver. Larco Investments Ltd. and Park Royal's lat- est development spearheads a massive plan to evolve the area even further, to be a community within a commu- nity where people can shop, eat, play, and live. The two-tower Gateway Residences Park Royal consists of 298 residential units (including 11 supportive hous- ing), a 37-capacity childcare, 20,000 square feet of at-grade retail space, and a public plaza plus water park. As with any component of an evolv- ing plan, Gateway was a long time in gestation, requiring extensive community consultation and close collaboration with staff to bring for- ward the best proposal possible. "We viewed this portion of the property as the right location for multi-family residential and made our first application to the District of West Vancouver in December of 2012. Through the course of time the pro- posal became more informed and delivered benefits to the community we take pride in," says Rick Amantea, VP, community partnerships and development at Park Royal. To address Gateway and other development applications, the District embarked on a Local Area Plan, which was approved in 2017 – at which point Larco and Park Royal reapplied. "We planned for 18 and 23 storeys, the same height as exist- ing towers nearby," Amantea recalls. "But the LAP allowed for 11 and 14 storeys. Our confidence in this location for residential was con- firmed with a Development Permit issued in 2018 on this basis." The design concept, devel- oped by Dialog, also evolved from spherical to wedge-shaped tow- ers, which played on the geometry of the site and provided a greater aperture between the buildings. The developers' next move was to bring DA Architects + Planners onboard as the architects of record. "As we began working on the project, we assisted Larco in demonstrat- ing to the community, district staff, and later council, that taller build- ings were appropriate for a smart growth development in this particular location," says DA key principal Mark Ehman, adding that Larco and Park Royal presented the district with a new proposal: the same tower design but each five storeys taller, whose 298 homes would consist of a variety of unit types, with no additional under- ground parking stalls beyond the already approved 232 stalls. The proposal was ultimately approved. "West Vancouver badly needs rental units, and the additional residences wouldn't cause an increase in local traffic because the renters would largely rely on local transit instead of cars," Ehman says. DA re-arranged the units to suit Dialog's wedge-shape tower design R EN D ER I N GS CO U RT E S Y D I A LO G/ DA A RC H I T EC T S + P L A N N ER S