[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by pspeid

I once worked at a company where we would regularly monitor and evaluate the performance of our telephone representatives. Whenever we did this as a group of 15-20 people, the group's evaluation would inevitably rate our rep's performance as "terrible" after our group discussions, despite the fact that initial individual evaluations tended to rate the rep as "average". As a group, we tended to dissect the rep's performance in the smallest detail, and nip-pick every small error until they became magnified in our minds.

I kind of see that happening here. When the "final five" plans were first posted, I think most people rated what became the "winning" plan as "middle of the pack"; maybe not the best, but not the worst. Now, in some people's minds, it's an abomination and a tragedy.

I personally still stand by my initial reaction, which was kind of "meh". Not the best choice, but not the worst either. I think there have been some good observations to try to give the plan a little more "sizzle", but overall I don't think it's a terrible design.

IMO-The alignment of the apartment block seems to be a major point of contention, but I think it has some positives. It gives the RRC more visibility from King and Main streets. The apartment that face south will have great views, but the north-facting apartments will have it pretty bleak until the rest of the area is developed. The market stalls themselves will depend greatly on the vendors that use them and the hours of operation, no mater what they look like. The RRC end of the apartments (glass) will, I think, have a nice "airy" fell, but the King Street side may need a large piece of art to make it interesting. I think it's a good opportunity for a colourful mural or mosaic to give the area a sense of identity.

Of course, the conceptual drawings are not always the final form. I will be interested to see what that looks like.

That's just it. It's meh. This is supposed be transformative. If that just means putting up buildings on the site, again don't really need a competition for that.