MOSAIC RETURNS TO CAMBIE STREET
Cambria will be close to SkyTrain with fantastic views
Cambria Project size: 126 homes Address: 516 West 50th Ave. and 6629 & 6709 Cambie St., Vancouver Residence size: 1 bedroom, 2 bedrooms, 3 bedrooms; 593 - 1,852 square feet Prices: Starting from mid-$ 300,000s Sales centre: 5710 Cambie St. ( at 41st Avenue) Hours: noon - 6 p. m. daily Telephone: 604- 325- 2216 Developer: Mosaic Architect: Ramsay Worden Architects Interior design: Insight Design Web: mosaichomes.com/cambria Warranty: 2- 5- 10 Travelers Warranty Construction: Starting August 2014
When Mosaic first planned Cambria, its 126- condominium project at Cambie and 50th launching May 24, views were not expected to be a selling feature. Then the development team went up in a lift to take some photographs.
“We got up there, and we saw the photographs the next day, and I was like, oh my gosh, these views are absolutely incredible,” says Geoff Duyker, Mosaic’s senior vice- president of marketing. “You basically see from Mount Baker all the way around to the North Shore mountains. It’s fantastic.”
Cambria is Mosaic’s second Cambie Street project.
The first was Elizabeth, 41 apartment homes across from Queen Elizabeth Park. When Elizabeth sold out in early 2013, Mosaic began looking for another site on Cambie, acquiring the current one across from Langara Golf Course, kitty- corner from a Canada Line station and close to Langara College and Oakridge. “It’s a phenomenal location,” Duyker says. After Elizabeth, located across from the park, “I thought it wouldn’t be able to get much better than that in terms of a property to build on Cambie, but the people we’ve talked to so far in many ways like Cambria even more just because of the proximity to SkyTrain.”
For Cambria, Patrick Worden Architects have designed two six- storey buildings that feature a brick facade on the first four storeys, then step back on the top two floors, reducing the scale and making it feel more intimate. The thick brick facade also provides intimacy and separation from the street for the spacious balconies. The entrance is marked by a striking gold- metal portico.
The interiors by Insight Design also mix warm finishes with simple lines. “We wanted to do something distinct and different in the market,” Duyker says. “We’re seeing a real trend in interior design. Everything has been really kind of clean, sleek, shiny, contemporary, and we’re seeing trends move back to a little more warmth, still very clean and simple but with slight references to a more traditional form.”
Cabinet doors — either all white or white mixed with dark brown — in kitchens and baths have a woodgrain surface with a hint of a raised panel for a contemporary look with a touch of texture. In the living areas, floors are wide- plank laminate. In baths, oversized marble- patterned porcelain tile covers both floors and walls. Counters are polished composite stone.
The show suite represents a typical two- bedroom plan, although with just one bedroom due to lack of space in the sales centre.
That bedroom faces east, with a view of Mount Baker through the window — an enlargement of one of the photographs taken from the lift. As in most of Cambria’s two- bedroom homes, the master bath has both a tub and frameless shower.
The living area is generous, with both a dining area able to comfortably accommodate a table for eight and a kitchen with a large island and breakfast bar. Appliances include an integrated fridge and dishwasher; stainless steel wall oven, wall- mounted microwave and pullout range hood; gas cooktop and, in some homes, a wok burner or wine cooler.
Another feature available in some homes is a cabinet in the living/ kitchen area concealing a tech station with integrated USB to organize and charge data devices.
“The notion of a home office is becoming different, and really what people need is a drop zone,” Duyker says. “Historically, we would have called this a tech nook, but really now what it is is a concealed cupboard, where you can plug in your iPhone, your laptop, your iPad, put your mail in a file drawer.”
Most of the homes include a den and/ or a flex space or storage area.
The majority are one- and two- bedroom plans, with one- bedroom homes ranging from 593 to 723 square feet plus decks from 48 to 176 square feet, and twobedrooms from 840 to 1,187 square feet with decks from 56 to 240 square feet. There are also two 1,052- square- foot laneway homes with attached 49- square- foot storage lockers and a couple of 1,852- squarefoot three- bedroom homes with either 370 or 487 square feet of outdoor space.