Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/218643
Location 975 and 999 21st Street, West Vancouver, B.C. Owner/Developer Kiwanis Seniors Housing and Community Services Society of West Vancouver Architect VIA Architecture Inc. General Contractor VanMar Constructors 1046 Inc. Development Consultant Innovative Housing Consultants Inc. Structural Consultant Glotman•Simpson Consulting Engineers Mechanical Consultant MCW Consultants Ltd. Electrical Consultant Nemetz (S/A) & Associates Ltd. Landscape Architect PWL Partnership Landscape Architects Inc. Total Area Total cost $45.3 million (including land) four-storey structure of 63,543 gross square feet. Terrace – 78 units, five storeys, 72,805 gross square feet; Kiwanis Court – 86 units, three storeys, 73,898 gross square feet; and Kiwanis Manor – 77 units, four storeys, 75,990 gross square feet. "The apartments have been designed for residents with mobility challenges and contain many user-friendly features," says Kovacs. Kiwanis Garden Village p64-67Kiwanis.indd 67 lumic photo Cypress – 63,543 gross square feet Terrace – 72,805 gross square feet Features include five-foot turning circles at apartment entries and in bathrooms and kitchens; accessible heights for wall switches and plugs; heavy-duty pocket doors with D-pull handles; and grab bars at the toilets and in showers. In addition, each new building will have a common amenity space. VanMar Constructors 1046 Inc. is the general contractor for the project. Project manager Mike Denbok says construction on both Cypress and Terrace began in July 2012. He adds that the project presented VanMar with a number of challenges. "We weren't working on an empty lot," he says. "We had to work around the buildings that were already occupied and keep access open to them." Because of West Vancouver's high design standards, the top floors of both buildings were stepped in from the edges of the floors below in order to make the buildings more attractive. But to do that required the use of structural steel in the frame. "The buildings are not standard boxes," said Denbok. "The stepping and the use of steel beams and columns within the wood frame made everything a little more complicated for us." n december 2013 /67 13-11-15 4:01 PM