Twin 550-foot towers approved for Vancouver's West End

A pair of towers featuring more than 55 storeys each and promising to bring 1,100 additional homes to Vancouver's West End have been approved by city council.

Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the proposal for 1040-1080 Barclay St. at a public hearing Thursday, after receiving 21 submissions in favour of the project and just two in opposition.

A rendering of the project from the intersection of Thurlow and Barclay streets. (Bosa Properties)

Pitched by developer Bosa Properties, the project calls for a 59-storey east tower with 636 rental units, 20 per cent of which will be secured as below-market rental units.

Of those 130 units, 49 will have at least two bedrooms, according to project documents. 

The 56-storey west tower will feature 365 market condos and 99 city-owned social housing units, 50 of which will be "family units" with two or more bedrooms.

The project also includes ground-level retail and a 37-space child care facility, as well as a park space between the two towers that will serve as a "mid-block connection" between Barclay Street and the laneway behind it.

A rendering of the park between the two towers. (Bosa Properties)

That laneway separates the towers from another massive redevelopment project planned for the block: CURV, the 60-storey luxury development that pitches itself as the world's tallest "passive house."

A rendering of one of the proposed towers with the planned CURV luxury development shown on the right. (Bosa Properties)

Both projects are part of the "Burrard Corridor," a swath of the West End northwest of Burrard Street that the city has targeted for significant densification.