This article is Part 1 of Daily Hive Urbanized’s three-part series unveiling what may be the most ambitious private-sector building proposal in downtown Vancouver’s history. Western Canada could see its very first “supertall” skyscraper, envisioned for the core of downtown Vancouver. Local developer Holborn Group has submitted a new formal rezoning application for a historically and economically significant redevelopment spanning two separate sites. The proposal features four mixed-use towers, including a transformative landmark project of three skyscrapers in the Central Business District on the city block with the Hudson’s Bay parkade and low-rise office buildings and the vacant lot of the former Dunsmuir Hotel SRO. A
fourth tower — a major social housing project next to Woodward’s on the southernmost edge of Gastown — is being offered as a
100 per cent gift to the City of Vancouver . Holborn Group president Joo Kim Tiah and Henriquez Partners Architects managing principal Gregory Henriquez shared their proposed concept with Daily Hive Urbanized in a sit-down interview on Monday.
It would be Canada’s tallest building today
The tallest of the trio of towers replacing almost the entirety of the 500 block of West Georgia, where the parkade is located, is proposed to reach a height of 1,033 ft (315 metres), containing 68 storeys, including a number of high-ceiling floors. By international standards, a “supertall” skyscraper is defined as a tower reaching a minimum height of 984 ft (300 metres). But there are more superlatives and records. If it existed today, this supertall skyscraper at 595 West Georgia St. — mid-block fronting Seymour Street, on the west side of the development site — would be the tallest building in Canada, exceeding Toronto’s 978-ft-tall (298 metres) First Canadian Place tower (not including its radio and television antennas). This also excludes the CN Tower, which is separately classified as a freestanding structure — it is not a “building,” which requires an enclosed structure with floor plates with uses. Technically, as the CN Tower is not classified as a building, this proposed supertall tower in Vancouver would be
Canada’s tallest building with an observation deck . It would also rank as Canada’s third tallest building across all categories — existing, under construction, approved, or proposed, exceeded only by the the Toronto projects of Pinnacle International’s 1,155-ft-tall (352 metres) Pinnacle One Yonge reaching completion in 2027, and Reserve Properties and Westdale Properties’ proposed 1,041-ft-tall (317 metres) 19 Bloor St. West tower. The tower would also feature Canada’s second-highest man-made public observation deck, just behind the CN Tower, and claim the title of the highest public observation deck on the continent west of the Mississippi River — surpassing Seattle’s Space Needle and Columbia Center and Las Vegas’ The STRAT. Globally, it would become the ninth-tallest all-hotel building completed, under construction, or planned. In both Canada and the United States, it would stand as the second-tallest 100 per cent hotel tower, just behind the planned 740 Eighth Ave. tower in New York City. The other two mixed-use towers planned for the 500 block of West Georgia would also be locally notable for their height in their own right. The south and north towers at 501 West Georgia St. would front Richards Street, reaching 889 ft (271 metres) with 80 storeys and 783 ft (239 metres) with 69 storeys, respectively. Both of these shorter towers contain a mix of residential and commercial uses. These shorter towers would still dwarf the 2009-built, 659-ft-tall (201 metres) Living Shangri-La tower in downtown Vancouver, which
lost its title as British Columbia’s tallest building in 2023 to the 708-ft-tall (216 metres) Two Gilmore Place in Brentwood. The project’s second-tallest tower would also exceed
Pinnacle International’s future 850-ft-tall (259 metres) tower at Lougheed Town Centre , and
WPJ McCarthy and Company’s proposed 853-ft-tall (262 metres) tower in Metrotown . Holborn Group is already responsible for Vancouver’s current second-tallest building — the 2016-built, 616-ft-tall (188 metres) Paradox hotel and residential tower. “Every time when I do a project, it has to always be in context of the location and what would be the best use and best development for that site,” Tiah told Daily Hive Urbanized in the interview. “I don’t go and say, ‘Hey, I want to be the tallest tower because I want to.’ It has to make sense. It has to really be the best fit for that location. And that’s why when we took all that into consideration, that’s why I told Gregory, ‘if not here, then where?’ Because this site makes the most sense to do that.” Reflecting on the moment, Henriquez said, “I thought that was really profound. And it sounds very simple on the surface, but this is a part of downtown that needs rejuvenation,” adding that Burnaby and Surrey are also seeing taller buildings approaching a comparable height. Typically, the tallest buildings in a major metropolitan region are located in its primary city centre, rather than in the suburbs. “If Vancouver was to do a tall building, if not where, then here. So this is a whole discussion around that in terms of the increase of height and density that’s occurring at all the public transit nodes in Vancouver,” said Henriquez. This Hudson’s Bay parkade development site is immediately adjacent to SkyTrain Expo Line’s Granville Station and near SkyTrain Canada Line’s Vancouver City Centre Station. According to the proponents, the project is supported by 12 different policies and strategies of the City of Vancouver, including the Employment Lands and Economy Review, Vancouver Economic Action Strategy,
Hotel Development Policy , Sustainable Large Development Policy for Rezonings, Higher Building Policy, and the
2024-revised protected mountain view cone guidelines . Following the 2024 revisions to the view cones, this proposal does not intrude into any view cones, except for the wide-spanning View Cone 3.0 emanating from the peak of Queen Elizabeth Park, which is generally discretionary. As well, under the 2024 changes, there are new exceptions provided for large development site areas in the city centre — so-called
“Exceptional Downtown Sites” of at least 1.98 contiguous acres — to enter into view cones 3.0, 12.2, B, and D. Not including the separate social housing site, the main development site at the Hudson’s Bay parkade’s city block is 2.54 acres, exceeding the minimum requirement for this exception.
The supertall tower would have a total of 920 hotel rooms, including 680 traditional short-term stay guest rooms within the upper levels of the building and 240 long-term stay suites within the bottom third of the building. Tiah says he has not reached out to any potential hotel operators, but he anticipates there will be interest from hotel chains following today’s public announcement for the project. This single building alone would make a significant contribution toward narrowing Vancouver’s hotel room shortage, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the 10,000 additional rooms needed in the city over the coming decades, according to Destination Vancouver. Achieving another record, this hotel would also become British Columbia’s largest hotel based on the number of hotel rooms, exceeding the 746-room Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel. Henriquez shared that a previous concept of the project included office space for the supertall tower. However, due to persistently weak office market conditions, that has been removed in favour of more hotel uses and enabling smaller floor plates. Beneath the hotel’s short-term stay levels, there would be a five-storey podium, entailing 70,000 sq. ft. of meeting and conference space over three levels, including three 8,000 sq. ft. ballrooms. Destination Vancouver has also noted that there is a growing shortage of major conference spaces, especially those integrated into hotels. Situated between the conference centre and the ground-level hotel lobby and cafe/lounge, the entire second floor is dedicated to the lobby of the public observation deck, with the attraction’s entrance prominently located mid-block on Seymour Street. From the public observation deck lobby on the second floor, two dedicated elevators would transport visitors to the observation deck at a height of over 1,000 feet (305 metres). When factoring in the site’s land elevation of approximately 108 feet (33 metres) above sea level, visitors would be taking in panoramic, 360-degree views of the cityscape, Burrard Inlet, the North Shore Mountains, and beyond from an elevation of over 1,100 feet (338 metres) — nearly the height of Burnaby Mountain. But this attraction is
no ordinary public observation deck . Mounted atop this supertall tower for the public observation deck is a jewel-like, fully-enclosed glass dome, providing a very high ceiling interior space for a lush green sky garden, multi-level observation areas, and a one-of-a-kind restaurant. Altogether, the preliminary conceptual design calls for about 30,000 sq. ft. of observation deck space, including both the public and back-of-house areas. Vancouver residents would be able to access this public observation deck for free by booking online. Tourists visiting this attraction would have to pay an admission fee.
Approximately half a kilometre northeast, at the secondary site of
388 Abbott St. , Holborn Group and Henriquez Partners Architects are also
proposing a 402-foot-tall (122-metre), 38-storey social housing tower . The project would replace a surface parking lot at the northeast corner of the intersection of West Hastings Street and Abbott Street, directly east of the Woodward’s complex — also designed by Henriquez Partners Architects — on the southernmost extent of Gastown. Henriquez noted that this social housing tower project aligns with the City of Vancouver’s new approach of considering new policies that
enable taller affordable housing towers within and near the Downtown Eastside . There would be 378 units of social housing, a 6,900 sq. ft. childcare facility for 37 kids, and a 5,140 sq. ft. Indigenous art gallery. This standalone social housing tower would be built to a turnkey standard, at which point it would be
gifted to the City of Vancouver as an in-kind community amenity contribution (CAC) from the Hudson’s Bay parkade redevelopment. Including both the new turnkey tower value and land value, the City of Vancouver would be on the receiving end of a property
worth over $224 million under its ownership. And this figure does not even include the value of any of the various major on-site public benefit offerings at the main development site of the Hudson’s Bay Parkade. To unlock this substantial social housing CAC, the proponents are looking to achieve strata market ownership condominium housing as the primary use for the south and north towers of the Hudson’s Bay parkade project site — a total of 1,561 homes, including 1,288 condominium homes and 273 secured purpose-built market rental homes. The south tower would have 640 condominium homes and 273 market rental homes, while the north tower would contain 648 condominium homes. The provision of 378 social housing units in the Gastown tower is equivalent to 20 per cent of the floor area of the strata market ownership condominiums at the Hudson’s Bay parkade site. The proposed market condominium housing density is required to cover the costs of the social housing component.
Two new additional SkyTrain station entrances, restaurant pavilion building, retail space, and public plaza
The vertical density of the three main towers — rather than a horizontal configuration that would require a larger footprint — supports the inclusion of a substantial 17,000 sq. ft. privately-owned public plaza, offered as a public benefit. This plaza would be prominently located at the northeast corner of the intersection of West Georgia Street and Seymour Street, providing open public space between the three towers and doubling as a mid-block pedestrian connection. The existing north-south laneway bisecting the city block would be preserved, but it would undergo a pedestrian-friendly public space upgrade integrated with the plaza’s design. Henriquez explained that they are unable to completely close the laneway; while most of the vehicle loading would occur within the underground facilities, the laneway — which includes a dedicated drop-off zone — is needed for the coach buses that can be expected for the substantial hotel and public observation deck attraction. As well, the laneway is required to service the retained 1926-built, eight-storey office building at 570 Dunsmuir St. — a small lot at the northwest corner of the city block that Holborn Group does not own, but would be orphaned by their project redeveloping the rest of the block. Embedded into the plaza surface’s sweeping lines are playful water spray geysers, activated during the summer months to symbolize the historic stream that once flowed through the area before being buried for urbanization. The plaza is also envisioned as a multifunctional space, purposefully designed to accommodate public events and gatherings. Moreover, the plaza would see foot traffic activity throughout the year from highly active uses that frame the public space, including 30,500 sq. ft. of retail uses within the ground levels of the north and south towers, and a pavilion building with a 6,500 sq. ft. landmark restaurant space with 250 seats over two levels, including ample outdoor patio opportunities that spill out onto the plaza. Also contributing to increased foot traffic through the public plaza and enhancing overall accessibility is the addition of a new street-level entrance to SkyTrain’s Granville Station, located at the southeast corner of West Georgia and Seymour streets. This entrance would be seamlessly integrated into the design of the restaurant pavilion building. As the station’s fourth street entrance, it would include escalators and a staircase, with a new underground passage tunnelling beneath Seymour Street to connect with the existing main ticketing concourse beneath the Hudson’s Bay department store. This concourse would be expanded to accommodate significantly more fare gates, improving passenger flow and capacity. The station would also gain a smaller, less prominent fifth entrance through the hotel tower’s interior — an elevator-only entrance directly from the hotel lobby to reach the new underground passage below Seymour Street. Granville Station currently has street-level entrances on Granville Street and Seymour Street — its original access points embedded within the historic Hudson’s Bay department store building — as well as a third entrance on Dunsmuir Street, integrated into the 2006-built The Hudson mixed-use residential tower. The Dunsmuir Street entrance was delivered as a CAC by that project’s developer, and it notably introduced additional escalators and the station’s first elevators, addressing long-standing accessibility issues to the platform levels. Holborn Group’s inclusion of additional subway station entrances represents another significant public benefit of the project. There would also be replacement public parking capacity within the project’s underground parkade, offsetting the loss of the existing parkade. Henriquez shared that due to a legal agreement with the property owner of the Hudson’s Bay department store building, they are required to incorporate 500 public parking stalls — in addition to the parking to support the new complex’s uses. However, they intend to minimize the amount of parking, given that this is a highly optimal transit-oriented development that promises to make a significant investment in improving the accessibility and usability of the subway station.
A design inspired by B.C.’s coastal marine life, with heritage retention
This redevelopment of the Hudson’s Bay parkade city block has been many years in the making. Tiah highlighted that his company had
previously privately held an international design competition for the project , and it resulted in two previous preliminary design concepts created by two different architectural firms. However, the City of Vancouver’s previous urban planning leadership rejected two separate pre-application enquiries, effectively preventing the submission of a formal rezoning application. To move the project forward, Tiah began working with Henriquez in November 2023. Each of the three design iterations — Henriquez’s included — introduced additional height to the proposal. Henriquez’s firm is also particularly known for its design work for the adjacent Telus Garden and the
new Oakridge Park mall . Henriquez remarked that his team “learned a lot” from the earlier efforts by the project’s other two design firms, which, while offering “some very beautiful conceptual ideas,” were ultimately “more conceptual.” In contrast, Henriquez’s team developed a thoroughly resolved proposal tailored for the City’s consideration, culminating in the submission of the formal rezoning application on May 2, 2025. The design now under review and consideration is inspired by the glass sponge reefs found off the coast of B.C. — the largest concentration of the species in the world. Henriquez says he came up with the idea after visiting the Vancouver Aquarium early on in the design process. “I found this tidal pools where you put your hands in and you fill all these things, and they had the sea sponges in there. And we held them up and we thought like, ‘Oh my God, these are amazing,'” he said. “One of the amazing things about the glass sponges is it’s a perfect metaphor for our aspirations for sustainability on this planet, given the challenges we face with global warming. They provide shelter for marine life, rockfish and shrimp, and they store carbon on this ocean floor. They filter out bacteria and fertilize the ocean. They’re amazing contributors to the health of the ocean.” Inspiration from these white-coloured reefs, which are very ductile and tall, has been applied to the facades of the three main towers in different ways. Most unique is how it has been applied to the supertall hotel tower as an exoskeleton that wraps the exterior of the tower. This steel diagrid-pattern exoskeleton serves a critical structural function — not only is it an aesthetic feature, but it also supports the tower itself, eliminating the need for internal structural columns aside from the elevator cores. By transferring the building’s weight to the exterior frame, the design significantly increases usable hotel floor space, enhancing overall efficiency. “This gives you flexibility in the floor plate. If you wanted to put columns in, a building of this size would reduce your net to gross substantially. You wouldn’t be able to fit many hotel rooms,” Henriquez told Daily Hive Urbanized during the interview. “If you look at some of the taller buildings in the world, their amount of usable space sometimes struggles. That’s why the exoskeleton is the answer for this because we wanted to make sure that we had all the elevators we needed to service the hotel, the public observation deck, and the conference centre, and then also at the same time provide some lobby area that isn’t filled with a gazillion columns.” The exoskeleton also performs well under seismic dynamic testing, delivering the same seismic load response and meeting the same seismic code requirements as a more conventional structural design with internal columns. Henriquez is collaborating closely with the New York City office of global engineering firm Arup, renowned for its structural solutions for iconic supertall towers around the world, including the International Commerce Centre, which is Hong Kong’s tallest building, and the recently completed Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, which is the second tallest building in the world. As for the different glass sponge reef architectural expression of the south and north residential towers, which have internal columns, the undulating shape and pattern of the protruding balconies is reminiscent of the reefs. Furthermore, the base podiums of all three towers and the restaurant pavilion building — featuring solid white masses with large spaces and glass-enclosed openings — further contribute to this reef-inspired look. There is just one deviation to the reef-inspired facades — the heritage art-deco brick facade of the 1929-built, six-storey Randall office building fronting West Georgia Street, part of the base podium for the south tower, would be retained and restored. Working with Gordon Grant, an Indigenous consultant with the Musqueam First Nation, the proponents will collaborate with local Indigenous artists such as Thomas Cannell and Susan Point to add First Nations public art to the heritage facade, the south tower’s base podium, and the restaurant pavilion building.
Public benefits more than offset Dunsmuir Hotel SRO’s demolition
Up until late 2024, there were plans to retain and restore not one but two heritage building facades at the main development site; the exterior of the 1909-built, five-storey Hotel Dunsmuir, located at the northeast corner of the city block, was also intended to be preserved. But it was
quickly demolished over a weekend in January 2025 , following an emergency demolition order by the City after the structure was deemed to be at an imminent risk of collapse. According to the City, there was a very accelerated rate of building decay between February and October 2024. Hotel Dunsmuir, built initially as a tourist hotel, has been vacant since 2013 after BC Housing relocated residents from the building’s 167 SRO units and into Marguerite Ford Apartments in Southeast False Creek. The sudden demolition of the heritage building and the resulting loss of affordable housing capacity, even if only a technical one, drew significant criticism from the public and City officials. When asked, Tiah strongly emphasized that the intention had always been to preserve the facade of the Dunsmuir Hotel, similar to the approach taken with the Randall Building. All three design iterations for the project included the Dunsmuir Hotel’s facade. Even Henriquez’s version retained the heritage exterior — up until late 2024, when structural concerns made the building’s urgent demolition unavoidable. “We always had intended to incorporate it into the redevelopment. But, you know, it’s unfortunate how it unfolded, and the City told us to demolish the building,” said Tiah. During the
December 2024 public meeting , when the City Council approved the City’s chief building inspector’s recommendation to urgently take the building down, some city councillors
suggested the need to have the developer compensate for the loss of the heritage value . Tiah and Henriquez believe the immense CACs and other public benefits offered by this project more than compensate and offset the loss of the Dunsmuir Hotel’s heritage facade, including the provision of the aforementioned new 40-storey social housing tower valued at nearly a quarter billion dollars, the new SkyTrain station entrances, and the large public plaza, as well as the project’s enormous benefits to the economy and tourism, including a world-class public observation deck attraction that offers free visitation for local residents. As is, the estimated total construction cost of this four-tower project across two separate sites is about $2.73 billion. As can be expected, given the scope and cost of this project, its construction process would be phased. They hope the project’s rezoning application will enter public hearing for approval in about a year, which would be followed by a two-year development permit application process. “This is a really serious application, and we submitted it with all of the requirements to the City, which are quite significant for something of this magnitude,” Henriquez told Daily Hive Urbanized. The south and north condominium towers and the social housing tower would be built at the same time, as the project’s first phase. It is anticipated that the City will require the developer to build the condominium and social housing towers simultaneously. If all goes according to plan — including successful pre-sales toward the end of this decade — construction on the first phase could begin around 2030. This phase is expected to take approximately four years to build, with construction on the supertall hotel tower also commencing at some point during this period. The full buildout of the entire development is projected to span 13 to 15 years, placing potential completion in the late 2030s at the earliest. Tiah believes his project, if approved, could serve as a significant catalyst for other major redevelopments in the area, especially the soon-to-be-vacated Hudson’s Bay department store building. In
2022 , Hudson’s Bay Company unveiled their redevelopment proposal for the heritage property, but the plans did not later advance into a formal rezoning application submission. “I think our application is very important, because then, whatever happens to the Bay, they’re going to have more confidence… they’ll be more excited to invest into what happens into the Bay as well. And Nordstrom, too,” said Tiah.
This article is Part 1 of Daily Hive Urbanized’s three-part series unveiling what may be the most ambitious private-sector building proposal in downtown Vancouver’s history.
