UBC Campus and Community Planning unveiled plans at a public information session on Tuesday for five new buildings of student housing on the Vancouver campus, with nearly 1,000 beds.
The Pacific Residences development will be constructed around the existing Gage Towers student residences, along Wesbrook Mall and Student Union Boulevard. Building heights will be 10, eight and seven storeys.
The buildings will contain 935 new beds, part of UBC’s plan to build 6,000 new student beds over the next 10 years. Units will include studio units and “quad units,” where four students share one central kitchen and two bathrooms, along with a shared living room.
The buildings will be clad in two to three tones of masonry brick, breaking up the façades.
Renderings: New student residence buildings at UBC
New courtyards and landscaping will be provided between the development and the existing Gage Towers student residences.
Student Union Blvd. will also be upgraded with new paving, sidewalks and landscaping, with the goal of making it more pedestrian friendly.
Approximately 200 underground parking stalls will more than replace the small amount of surface parking lost as a result of the development.
Building One on the western end of the site will be used as a hotel during the summer when students are away, and will house a small café on the ground floor. A fitness centre will be located in Building Two.
The development plans also hint at a potential future 18-storey building at the southern end of the North Parkade, but it’s just a concept for now.
The Pacific Residences development will achieve LEED Gold certification and the architects have performed future climate modelling to ensure continued building performance as the climate changes.
Architects are Hotson Architecture Inc. and Ryder Architecture (Canada) Inc. The landscape architects are Connect Landscape Architecture and PFS Studio. Construction should start in June 2019, with completion anticipated by August 2021.
Just around the corner, UBC is putting the finishing touches on the Exchange Residence, a 650-bed student housing building located alongside the UBC bus exchange. It is scheduled to complete this summer.
Editor’s note: Peter Meiszner is an employee of the University of British Columbia.
