I wouldn't bother to look at a condo that's praised by architects, just like I would never buy a piece of clothing from the runway. With the cost of construction days, which developer would risk his project to build something that might appease a few architects, but tack on substantial construction costs? Do architects guarantee the sale of condos? Condos are meant to be bland, as they are no more than an alternative to living on the street.

Architects and engineers rocksLook at COSTCO in downtown Vancouver Imagine think beleive it if you looking for design and color in highrise condo look soon to be build TV TOWER1 and TV TOWER 2 by concord pacific On Robson.

Hey Reductimat: Sorry, I must have missunderstood your comment to westendgirl about the choice between large or small windows being the reason that so much vancouver architecture looks the same.I'd define 'character' as an admitly subjective quality of 'uniqueness'. I associate a lack of 'character' in architecture as meaning one building may not be substantially different in appearance then one next door.I agree with the consensus here though: no demand means no reason to invest the extra money in unique design.

Vancouverites are willing to spend $800,000 on pink stucco monster homes and 1970s Vancouver Specials.Why spend extra money on architects when the market isn't asking for it? Most Bosa buildings look the same because Bosa realized that people don't care what the building looks like as long as the interior is functional. As a result, Bosa uses the same building design all the time. Why not? Why go through the entire building design/permit process again for no reason?That's why we have generations of Vancouver Specials. You can take pre-approved building drawings to City Hall and get your permit. It's a real pain to hire an architect and go through the entire approval process. If it's your own, personal dream home, that's one thing. But if you're a developer pumping them out, then it doesn't make sense.

Digi said:"Even the wall center has a bit of character, but the city kept them from putting dark glass all the way up for aesthetic reasons. Now its a weird mix of black glass half way up then suddenly not for the top half."The original promo material on One Wall Centre promised beautiful platinum glass on the entire tower. It was designed to reflect the sky and almost disappear when viewed from various angles. Unfortunately, after getting his approvals, the developer chose to install ugly dark blue (cobalt) glass presumably to increase the visible mass of the entire three building development. The City would never have approved such a monstrosity and issued a "Stop Work"order. After months of negoitiations the City rolled over for the developer (what's new?). Instead of pressing their original demand for the entire building to be… Read more »

Digi, I fail to see how I implied that highrises either have to have large windows OR character.Actually, it's a pointless discussion when the root of the question lies at this: Define Character. Is it dark glass?

Great TYEE article.There are very few buildings with 'soul' here in Vancouver, and the rapidly built new SFHs and mushrooming condos all lack any such feel.This, in my opinion, significantly decreases the 'ownership premium' for most residential buildings in this city.

Instead of architecture we have trees and mountains, which is great as long as it's sunny and you're by the waterfront. Walk down Nelson, Hemlecken, or Davie on an overcast day and its another story. Sadly, I think reductimat's opinion is pretty typical – why else would people be so willing to spend half a mil on an shoebox in the sky, which has a view to other stacks of identical shoeboxes? The blandness of our architecture (if you can call it that – urban tract homes is more accurate) is just one reason why I could never consider this a world-class city. I love Vancouver simply for its access to the outdoors; its urban core is increasingly resembling a high-density suburb.

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