User:Tylerhickey/King Edward Village

King Edward Village is a new business and residential development in the Kensington-Cedar Cottage community of Vancouver, BC, Canada. King Edward Village is located on a triangular lot in East Vancouver, which is bound by King Edward Avenue, Knight Street and Kingsway [2]. The development is divided into two phases which are divided by a central courtyard and a new street called Cedar Cottage Mews[3]. The southern building is characterized by a 12 storey tower adjoined to an eight storey building. The north building is characterized by a unique 17 storey triangular tower adjoined to a six storey building. Each building has a distinctive archway for access to the central courtyard. Design of the King Edward Village buildings was completed by the Rositch Hemphill & Associates architectural firm [4]. King Edward Village shares design elements with The Beresford^[1] in Vancouver, another building designed by Rostich Hemphill & Associates. Engineering firm John Bryson and Partners were the structural engineers on this project. King Edward Village will house almost 400 residential units and will have street-level storefronts on three sides, including a TD Canada Trust bank branch. Additionally, a new Vancouver Public Library branch^[2], VPL Kensington^[3], will be located in the development.

Background

The vision and design of King Edward Village was largely fueled by the participation of local community members through the Vancouver Community Visions Program^[4], and subsequently, the Kensington-Cedar Cottage CityPlan Committee.^[5] Part of the site of King Edward Village previously belonged to a Safeway store which was vacated and sold in 1993. At that time, a 20-year restrictive covenant was included with the sale such that the land could not be used for a supermarket over 325m², nor a drugstore over 557m². It has been suggested at a Vancouver City Council meeting that this covenant will be lifted prior to the completion of the development, and that a new grocery store of 2508m² will be included in King Edward Village^[6]. The developer of King Edward Village, Tri-Power Development, has suggested that a Save-On Foods grocery store will likely reside in this location.

The three tower development was constructed in two separate phases ^[7]. The first phase, consisting of the south west and south east towers (4078 Knight and 1483 King Edward), was completed in January 2008. The second phase, the north west tower at 4028 Knight completed in June 2008.

The retail/commercial units are still under construction. It is expected that TD Bank, Save-on-Foods and a Vancouver Public Library branch will be the anchor tenants for the building.