Community for the city of Vancouver, BC
On one hand, Chinatown does have a certain aesthetic.
On the other hand, that aesthetic exists because it was needed to keep Chinese communities alive. It's no longer needed today.
Vancouver Chinatown is the second (or third) oldest Chinatown in North America after San Francisco (and maybe Victoria). Beside of the Chinese community living there since generations, it is a popular tourist attraction and a unique neighbourhood its own character that you can't find in Richmond (or anywhere else in VGA) in this form.
IMO, it would be a shame to stamp out this uniqueness and replace it with the same style of glass and steel towers with the same style and look that you can find anywhere else. There are ways to build up and provide more living space, while retaining the character at street level if must be.
Came here to see why it was rejected before
community concern about the tall building’s architectural disconnect with historic Chinatown
Oh, so NIMBYs aren't just rich bitches. Gotcha.
Hey look. There's more people all the time. Housing will need to get more dense or we'll have to start eating our friends. YOU'RE GONNA GET TALL BUILDINGS.
the lack of social housing, which
... we get with tall buildings.
the only mistake here is that the ground floor doesn't blend perfectly to a cultural-appropriation level of blending, which seems to be the minimum acceptable level AND also probably offensive. And that they could've put another 40 storeys on top.
I don't understand this obsession with 'architectural disconnect' argument, who cares if it doesn't look the same as the surrounding buildings. It's just another tool for NIMBY's to use to shut down progress, personally I love it the mix and match of buildings architecture, it makes traveling through cities visually interesting! I don't want this strange suburban hell where all buildings are copy-pasted all over the place, let your areas have some variety