The thirty tiny apartments at 18 West Hastings Street are ideally located for young professionals who otherwise couldn’t afford to live downtown in notoriously expensive Vancouver, Canada. On the flipside, this new residential complex is located in a downtown neighborhood known for low incomes and high crime rates.
The Burns Block building that now offers micro lofts measuring less than 300 square feet used to provide cheap housing as a single room occupancy hotel. The new complex offers compact, high-end apartments for the up and coming but is it at the expense of the down and out?
When the building opened on December 19, the designers revealed the transformation from sketchy hotel to high-end housing complex. Politicians and supporters of the project cite it as part of Vancouver’s affordable housing strategy and claim creating mixed income neighborhoods is the best way to improve the area.
Photos Courtesy of Bruce Carscadden Architect
