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Vancouver Special
- nikanj 4y agoBack when you could simply build homes in Vancouver, without a literal decade of red tape spent in appeals, reviews and permit queues
- emacsen 4y agoGood to know. It is like this in the nearby suburbs as well (Burnaby, Richmond, etc.)?
- pabloescobyte 4y agoYes indeed. There are Vancouver Specials in the surrounding municipalities as well (I used to live in one).
- emacsen 4y agoI meant more is the administrative red tape an issue. :) This is somewhat aspirational, but I live in Vancouver and if/when we get PR, we'd like to buy a home and possibly want to renovate. Condo living (or in local Canadian "Strata Living") has been a very mixed experience for us.
- LawnGnome 4y agoMy impression is that it's not amazing anywhere, but I've heard Burnaby (for example) is a bit more development friendly than Vancouver. I'm interested to see what happens in the next couple of years — Ken Sim (Vancouver's new mayor) had significantly improving permitting speeds and decisions as a key plank in his platform. I'm curious to see how he and his party are planning to follow through on that.
- derefr 4y ago> Ken Sim (Vancouver's new mayor) had significantly improving permitting speeds and decisions as a key plank in his platform. It's nice to say, but I heard a consistent response from the Vancouver subreddit every time this has been brought up that permitting speeds in Vancouver have been more down to how hard it is to hire/train/retain code inspectors, than down to how many red-tape policies they need to evaluate a plan against. Even with a permanent budget increase for hiring code inspectors, given the training time, you wouldn't expect to see the effects within Sim's tenure. So it's questionable what he's actually planning to do here. (One thing I personally think could help is to get major property developers to peer-review one-anothers' work for its adherence to code; or even to require, as a condition for allowing such firms to do any development in the city at all, that said firms loan some of the talent that would normally be designing to code to instead sit on the other side of the table as code-inspection attachés — like a very domain-specialized form of jury duty. Most large development firms are already experts in local building codes, given that they have to design to them; so why not use that existing talent base?)
- ripley12 4y ago> permitting speeds in Vancouver have been more down to how hard it is to hire/train/retain code inspectors, than down to how many red-tape policies they need to evaluate a plan against I'm not sure about that. I'm sure there's a bit of both but Vancouver has remarkably complex (and often unique to Vancouver) policies for pretty much everything to do with real estate.
- 99_00 4y agoIt's an 18 hour course.
- ripley12 4y agoI think the short answer would be that the surrounding cities are often better+faster at permitting but they may have slightly less permissive zoning than Vancouver. For example “single-family” zoning in Vancouver actually allows for a secondary suite and a laneway house, and a lot of the suburbs are still dragging their heels on laneway houses.
- papandada 4y agoI'm shocked by the memories that photo has unlocked. Early 90s road trip with my parents to their friends' living in Vancouver. Sleepless nights in the summer heat and humidity with no AC. All while reading Cliff Stoll's classic The Cuckoo's Egg.
- ido 4y agoSleepless nights in the summer heat in Vancouver? Was this during a heatwave? Because average highs in July-August in Vancouver are just 22.2c: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver#Climate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver#Climate
- cperciva 4y agoA few details not mentioned in the article: 1. The Vancouver Special originated as a way to evade zoning regulations. The lower floor is 18" below grade which qualified it as a "basement" not counting towards floor area ratio calculations. 2. Once the design became widespread, the building permitting process was streamlined -- there was no need for a detailed review of plans if they were identical to previously approved homes. 3. These were fundamentally "cheap and fast" housing, and have a poor reputation not so much for their conformity as for the poor quality construction. 4. As a cost saving measure, Vancouver Specials often came with "unfinished basements". An entire generation of Vancouver homeowners learned to install drywall -- and often electrical and plumbing -- which further contributes to the poor quality of the construction.
- Mezzie 4y agoI lived in one of those basements as a grad student and yeah... the entire building was not well constructed.
- Steltek 4y agoThanks. I was trying to figure out where the "monster homes" appellation was coming from. It evokes McMansions but it's more about reach and spread than size. FAR zoning not allowing for a simple 2 story home seems absurd but I suppose those were written to imply a certain setback from the property line.
- blincoln 4y agoNot sure if this is still the case ~25 years later, but when I lived in Vancouver in the late 90s, a lot of those DIY-finished basements were set up as (probably off-the-books) rental units to help cover the homeowners' mortgages. I lived in one of those for about a year in-between actual apartments, and always thought it was weird how it was just slightly below grade. Thank you for solving that mystery :).
- cperciva 4y agoThe first generation of Vancouver Special owners were largely families who occupied the entire property. By the late 90s either their kids had moved out and they had space to spare or they sold their homes (at much higher prices!) to families who needed to help pay the mortgage. BTW the "slightly below grade" situation is helped by Vancouver having lots of hills -- in many cases the front door is at grade even though the average ground level is 18" higher.
- _whiteCaps_ 4y agohttps://www.google.ca/maps/@49.2695545,-123.0402209,3a,75y,358.91h,82.88t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1swakNicaXmtqS0Ox5_9s0Ow!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.2695545,-123.0402209,3a,75y,3... My kids like to play count the Vancouver Special when we drive down 1st Ave.
- Patrick_Devine 4y agoThe concept of a cheap, post-war house that you can finish out yourself is great... for certain places. There isn't really room in Vancouver for them any more, as [Vancouverism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouverism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouverism) has taken over much of the city (i.e. low podium of 2-4 floors with a slender 100m tower). Vancouver's biggest problem right now is housing affordability, and "the missing middle" (i.e. 20-30m high buildings). There isn't really very much housing stock in between single family homes and 30 story buildings, and getting those larger high rises built is expensive, and time consuming.
- ripley12 4y ago> Vancouverism has taken over much of the city There are plenty of towers downtown but the rest of Vancouver (i.e. most of the city by land area) is still zoned for suburban levels of density: https://twitter.com/Scott_dLB/status/1599177703466610688 https://twitter.com/Scott_dLB/status/1599177703466610688
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoThere are towers outside of downtown. In the 90s, I marveled at Vancouver's density compared to Seattle. But I guess it is a matter of perspective.
- ripley12 4y agoThere are a few, but the vast majority of Vancouver’s residential land still bans apartment/condo buildings of any height: https://twitter.com/GRIDSVancouver/status/640544192045826049 https://twitter.com/GRIDSVancouver/status/640544192045826049
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoYa, I've been to a few residential areas in Vancouver, the same is true in most cities (definitely Seattle). I get focusing towers in areas where the density can be supported, but at the same time we need to incrementally allocate more area for tower construction.
- Tokkemon 4y agoI grew up in a prewar house in EastVan but the neighborhood had a lot of these houses around it, usually filled with East Asian or Indian immigrants. Taking the Skytrain was so fun as a kid. It was certainly a unique experience. The big culture shock for me was moving to New York and having to deal with large five-floor walkups in Queens, but the diversity was just the same. And the subway was so much bigger. Truth be told, while I have a lot of nostalgia of the Vancouver of the 90s, I've since been back to visit and if given the choice, I would pick living in New York every time.
- huhtenberg 4y agoHere's a modern reno of one of these that made it look nothing like the original even though it's the same blueprint - https://www.darcyjones.com/430-house https://www.darcyjones.com/430-house
- Tiktaalik 4y agoReally nicely done. I'm under the impression that despite being maligned in the middle of the century Vancouver Specials are in relative high demand compared to houses newer and older because of how their basic flexible layouts make things relatively simple for new modern renovations.
- kridsdale1 4y agoWhen I was a uni student in Vancouver in 2005, “The Vancouver Special” meant a tall young white man with a much shorter Chinese girlfriend. Most people in my circles (UBC engineering and humanities) agreed with this appellation. I wonder if it’s still used.
- moneywoes 4y agoLike 10x more common
- Tiktaalik 4y agoMore detail about the originator of this architectural style His ‘Revenge’ on Architects Was the Vancouver Special https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2019/12/17/Vancouver-Special-Revenge-On-Architects/ https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2019/12/17/Vancouver-Special-Reve...