{"id":840273,"date":"2026-08-01T11:34:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T11:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/840273\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T11:34:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T11:34:36","slug":"the-tallest-tower-in-western-canada-could-be-coming-to-vancouver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/840273\/","title":{"rendered":"The tallest tower in Western Canada could be coming to Vancouver"},"content":{"rendered":"

On early morning Monday, July 27, Vancouver city council greenlit a rezoning<\/a> application that will kickstart a $2.8 billion plan headlined by the construction of Western Canada\u2019s tallest skyscraper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The proposal, which comes from Henriquez Partners Architects on behalf of local developer Holborn Group, is for a four-building project: a cluster of three on West Georgia Street and a stand-alone building at 388 Abbott Street.<\/p>\n

With a maximum potential height of 315 metres (1,033 feet), the tallest of the four could very well become the first \u201csupertall\u201d (300 metres or taller) skyscraper to grace Vancouver\u2019s skyline. At 920 rooms, it would also win the record as the hotel with the most rooms in B.C.<\/p>\n

However, with the city council currently reviewing the Higher Buildings Policy<\/a>, it is possible that developers will have to trim down the planned height of their initial build. In that situation, the building would retain its record as the tallest in Western Canada, but would lose its special \u201csupertall\u201d status.<\/p>\n

When concocting a design for the project, Henriquez turned to local wildlife in B.C. for inspiration, specifically the glass sea slug. The diagrid exterior resembles the almost lace-like form of glass sea slugs\u2014visually distinct yet structurally sound.<\/p>\n

\"\"A publicly accessible observation deck will sit atop the tallest tower, including a restaurant and greenery-filled lounge. Credit: @holborngrp\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Beyond the broken records and innovative architecture, however, is an undertaking to address inequities in the community.<\/p>\n

According to the developers, the project \u201cwill create 1,939 new homes, \u2026 70,130 square feet of much-needed conference space, Indigenous-led reconciliation through art and introduce significant public amenities across both sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, Holborn is donating the stand-alone tower on Abbott Street to the City of Vancouver, including the 378 social housing units, childcare facility and Indigenous art gallery it contains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project is designed not only to meet today\u2019s challenges, but to inspire future generations,\u201d said Holborn president Joo Kim Tiah in a July 27 press release.<\/p>\n

Of course, no major project arrives at the table without being greeted by some opposition.<\/p>\n

City council\u2019s final vote was 7-3, with councillors Pete Fry (Green), Sean Orr (COPE) and Lucy Maloney (OneCity) voting \u2018no.\u2019 Maloney cited concerns over rushing the project amidst the review of the Higher Buildings Policy, and also pointed to Holborn\u2019s prior track record with social housing projects. In 2008, Holborn bought the Little Mountain<\/a> social housing site from the city and demolished the existing structures, promising a replacement housing project, which is only now set to finish this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I am a huge proponent of market housing supply and I definitely want the non-profit housing that will be built,\u201d said Maloney, \u201cI\u2019ll be voting against this on the basis that I don\u2019t think Holborn should be rewarded for how they\u2019ve conducted themselves in our city for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Logan<\/p>\n

Logan is a journalism student at the University of British Columbia and an intern at Canada Wide Media. He is happiest when munching on sweet treats from local caf\u00e9s, galavanting along the beach and, above all else, doting on his dog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On early morning Monday, July 27, Vancouver city council greenlit a rezoning application that will kickstart a $2.8…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-840273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}