Gregory Henriquez juggles diversity, density and drama as major project nears completion
KELLY DECK
From Friday’s Globe and Mail
March 20, 2009 at 12:07 PM EDT
”There is a gargantuan new residential and commercial development on the site of the old Woodward’s building in Canada’s most troubled postal code, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The project is an exciting attempt to, in a single stroke, remake a depressed community. As it happens, for the past three years, the project has been going up just down the street from my office, and as it’s climbed above the Gastown skyline, its ambitions have intrigued and inspired me.
Of the development’s 536 suites, about 40 per cent are going to non-market housing, which means the place will be an admixture of the advantaged, less advantaged, students (the property will house Simon Fraser University’s new Centre for the Contemporary Arts), shoppers and workers (at the drug and grocery stores, non-profits and other retail units).
The man behind the master architecture plan is Gregory Henriquez. Not only will his vision reshape the atmosphere of the Downtown Eastside, his ideas of integrated development may become a model for cities worldwide.
I caught up with Mr. Henriquez recently to tour and talk about the project…”
Read the full article at
The Globe and Mail
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Canada’s Slum: The Fix
www.theglobeandmail.com/thefix/
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Georgia Straight: Vancouver suburbs won’t go modular
By Pieta Woolley
Modular homes as affordable housing solutions burst into public consciousness here this winter with two independent proposals. The first, released January 23, was a pro bono paper led by Vancouver architect Gregory Henriquez. It suggests temporarily solving Vancouver’s homeless crisis by building 982 temporary housing units on eight city-owned lots, from Kitsilano to Crab Park. On March 9, development consultant Michael Geller sent a commissioned feasibility study to the province on 64 modular homes to be built on one of the 12 Vancouver social housing sites.
Read the article and discussion at
straight.com
‘We desperately need at least 500 units of interim housing available within the next year, so that people can begin to transition out of the shelters and into more stable housing. We have two clear options:
1.
Modular housing: Creative proposals from Gregory Henriquez and Michael Geller could create temporary, portable units of housing. These can be built quickly, and the city has land available, enabling people to move into their own place while new housing is being completed.
2.
Leased private SRO units: Essential upgrades could be made to keep them habitable and safe, and by leasing buildings the city avoids capital costs and can transition tenants into permanent housing with minimal cost.’
Read the rest of the article at
The Vancouver Sun
Read about ‘Stop Gap Housing’ at
Henriquezpartners.com
