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  #41  
Old Posted Feb 22, 2008, 7:38 AM
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Aerial view of the Hilton Embassy site:

This will be a fairly large development in area, the site being about 2/3 the size of Atlantic Place, and almost as large as the Scotia Centre. The height from highest (mech roof) to lowest point on Duckworth I am guessing will probably only be around 32 meters though. The height on the upper side (Henry Street) will be much lower, around 4 stories. Bell Street, on the East side (northeast), will be moved to the East.

Last edited by Architype; Apr 28, 2008 at 5:14 AM.
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  #42  
Old Posted Feb 22, 2008, 8:29 AM
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Paving Paradise

The fastest growing part of the St. John's Metro area is requiring more improved infrastructure for their town.

Quote:
Paving Paradise: Mayor sees four-lane solution for traffic headaches
Last Updated: Thursday, February 21, 2008 | 12:18 PM NT
CBC News

The mayor of a rapidly growing town outside St. John's said the time has come to expand a highway running through his community.

Paradise Mayor Ralph Wiseman said the town is growing so rapidly, traffic is clogging Topsail Road, a major artery that runs from St. John's straight through his community.

However, it turns abruptly from four lanes to two, causing traffic snarls — and not just during morning and evening commuting times.

"I don't see it as a problem," Wiseman said Thursday, describing how residents may react to a proposed expansion through what a generation ago was rural land.

"Topsail Road is four lane right out to St. John's from Paradise Road. I don't think anybody came here thinking that they would build a house on Topsail Road and it would always remain two-lane," he said.

The 2006 census counted 12,584 residents in Paradise, a 31 per cent increase from just five years earlier. The town added 466 houses last year, and an additional 300 are expected to be built this year.

Wiseman said a wider road will not interfere with any existing houses.

The construction project would last three years, he said, and cost more than $7 million.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundlan...dise-road.html

Topsail Road is the original highway which leads out of St. John's to Conception Bay. Paradise is also served by Kenmount Rd amd the TCH Outer Ring Freeway, which connects Pleasantville, East End St. John's, the airport, and the University area to the rest of the metro highways and province, and is skirted by the CBS-downtown freeway (Pitts Memorial). Paradise, one of the fastest growing towns in Canada, adjoins the St. John's boundary in the northwest section, and is filling in the area between St. John's and the municipality of Conception Bay South.

Last edited by Architype; Apr 28, 2008 at 5:15 AM.
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  #43  
Old Posted Feb 23, 2008, 12:32 AM
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when is the Hilton development supposed to start? thats one big chunk of land! good to see some large development downtown

and Paradise....well thats just growing like mad. the main road should definantly have at least four lanes.
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  #44  
Old Posted Feb 23, 2008, 11:58 PM
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^I'm not sure when the Hilton is supposed to start, but I think it has been approved.

Re: Paradise & Sprawl
^Yes, I agree, but mostly because lots of Nfld's infrastructure was substandard when it was built. Since Topsail Rd is Paradise's Main Street, improvements should be made along it. However, Paradise is an example of urban sprawl; I don't think anything is built there except single detached housing. This makes public transportation and walking to services impossible. Today's planning is supposed to be focused on "smart urban growth" (higher density and integrating services with housing), but this is difficult to implement in our society. The government however, has made sure that St. John's (city) has been given much of the available undeveloped land in the region. This is meant to create more easily governed and controlled metro area growth.

There is a theory that by building more highways and freeways, you are faciltating more sprawl, and therefore more traffic, which leads to congestion, which eats up fuel and costs money and time. The St. John's area, for it's size, is actually well served by its higways in recent years, but some of the important links and collector roads are missing.

While sprawl isn't as big a problem in St. John's as it is in larger places like Phoenix, L.A., and Atlanta, some of the same problems exist, such as those arising from gas prices, congestion, and the effects of non-walkable communities on people's health. Suburban living is not a part of traditional Newfoundland, but walkable communities are.

Anyway, that is my way of thinking.

You will find lot's of topics on this website about urban sprawl, and it's effects.

Last edited by Architype; Apr 28, 2008 at 5:15 AM.
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  #45  
Old Posted Feb 26, 2008, 8:09 PM
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So what's going on with this demolition? At least it looks like demolition. Aesbestos-related slow progress?

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  #46  
Old Posted Feb 26, 2008, 10:25 PM
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thats the Grace Hospital building and its been slated for demo for quite a while. when did you take that picture? i thought it would have progressed more than that since it started.
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  #47  
Old Posted Feb 26, 2008, 11:44 PM
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^February 21st which was last Thursday. Hmm...speaking of hospitals slated for demo. When is the Janeway getting it? I should walk up and take some photos soon.

Here's the latest photo wander around the area. Sorry, no construction site pics yet.

St. John's, NL - greyAndUglyAndSpectacularIfYouSurviveTheWeather [37 images]
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  #48  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2008, 12:40 PM
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Here's a relatively small but much needed development for Rawlins cross, they are turning the empty O’Mara-Martin Building into low income housing, although from the renderings it looks great. Now if they could only find a tenant for the building right across from there, which was last used by Konica



http://www.18lives.ca/
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  #49  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2008, 12:43 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrChills View Post
Here's a relatively small but much needed development for Rawlins cross, they are turning the empty O’Mara-Martin Building into low income housing, although from the renderings it looks great. Now if they could only find a tenant for the building right across from there, which was last used by Konica



http://www.18lives.ca/
Wow! What a fantastic improvement over the existing, and rather horrid, exterior.
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  #50  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2008, 12:46 PM
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^^^^ I was wondering the same thing, there hasn't been much happening with that since I moved back here almost five months ago now. Any idea if there are plans for developing that area? Would be a killer place for some highrise condos, almost every floor would have an amazing view of the city/harbour.
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  #51  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2008, 12:52 PM
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I took a couple of photos of the narrows development from the car on my way into the office this morning, they are moving along with the foundation pretty fast. Just down from this development there are a couple of old wood buildings for sale that almost sit in the battery, another prime piece of land for a similar development.





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  #52  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2008, 2:09 PM
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Hilarious Mr. Chills. I finally get off my ass for some update photos. At least I was up on Water for poor back lighting, but a different perspective. They are all clickable to get to the originals on flickr. The Narrows really is going to have a great view off of Harbour.

Context of the Steele site


The Narrows


Kenny's Pond


McKee's Grove: infill townhouses and some low-rises out behind the Sobey's strip around The Rooms
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  #53  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2008, 2:20 PM
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I really like all those development photos, well done! Something I thought of the other day about McKee's Grove - and you can see this in the photo - is that the street is so wide, and doesn't really fit with that part of the city IMO.
It must be the widest street in downtown St. John's!
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  #54  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2008, 3:14 PM
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Great photos, I really like what they are doing with the townhouses in center city, just down from there on Empire Ave you'll find some of the worst public "block" housing in the city, they are in rough shape and most have black mold showing all around the outside, would be a great to tear down and put in more of these townhouse type development
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  #55  
Old Posted Feb 29, 2008, 1:06 AM
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^Nice pics, both sets. The Narrows has been proposed since 2005, and is finally materializing. I think it is a key area for development.

There is a white wooden building in the last pic (McKees), near the end of the street, which is possibly the second oldest in St. John's (1826). It looks like that one is being renovated too, anyone have any updates on it? It's incredible & tragic that because of the 1892 fire, there's nothing left from the 1700's, and the oldest surviving structures are outside the old city. (I think the oldest one is Powers Court on Signal Hill Rd.)


Here's an interesting link on it:
http://www.historicplaces.ca/visit-v...id=2157&page=1

I also like the 18 Lives one at Rawlins Cross, even though when people say "it's so 90's", they normally mean 1990's, not 1890's.

Also, in the news, St. John's may lose a hospital; I think it would be the Waterford (a.k.a. The Mental), and not St. Clares. All the hospitals need around $170 mil for repairs and upgrades. Link to story:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundlan...hospitals.html

You know, that part of the Grace under demolition is only a few years older than the Health Science Centre - government planning at it's best. Link to a rendering of the Grace when it was complete, more or less:
http://www.davehoddinott.ca/images/G...ceHospital.png

Re: The width of the street at McKees grove - it's most likely wider than normal because there would be extra traffic to the govt. buildings at the end of the street. I also think they should try developments where the parking is at the rear of the units, as in an alley, because the rows of driveways take away from the aesthetics. This is done in many other places where entire cities were planned with alley systems; it gives an unbroken green expanse at the front which is great for landscaping. That would require more snowclearing, but might be worth it.

Last edited by Architype; Mar 2, 2008 at 4:15 AM.
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  #56  
Old Posted Mar 2, 2008, 4:19 AM
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Here's a great link I found, with lots of old postcard views of St. John's (and other places, incl. New York). Click on them to see the larger versions; amazing:

http://www.oldstratforduponavon.com/newfoundland.html
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  #57  
Old Posted Mar 3, 2008, 6:37 PM
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Banner Year for Economy

An article from a month ago:

Quote:
2007 a Banner Year for St. John's Economy

RELEASE DATE: 2008-01-22

Lowest unemployment rate recorded in over 30 years

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) attributed to the St. John's Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is estimated to have grown by 9.7% in 2007, reaching approximately $9.2 billion (in 2002$).

Advances in oil production continues to be the main economic driver however, many other industries also recorded solid economic performance including: wholesale and retail trade; finance, insurance, real estate and leasing; information, culture and recreation; and public administration.

Employment increased by 1.2% to 94,500 - goods sector employment increased by 15.9% as a result of increased manufacturing and oil and gas employment while service sector employment declined by 1.1%. The CMA labour force was essentially unchanged at 101,500 (-0.1%). The unemployment rate declined by 1.2 percentage points to 6.9%, the lowest unemployment rate recorded in the metro region in over 30 years (the national unemployment rate for 2007 was 6.0%).

Increased consumer confidence and income gains resulted in exceptionally strong housing starts and retail sales growth. Housing starts increased by 16.1% to 1,480 starts in 2007. In the first ten months of 2007, the value of residential building permits increased by 33.8% (to $256.4 million) and the value of non-residential building permits increased by 4.2% (to $84.6 million) over the same period in 2006. Retail sales also exhibited strong growth in 2007- up by an estimated 9.2% over 2006.

The population of the St. John's CMA is estimated to have grown by 0.4% in 2007 and now stands at 184,194.

Outlook for 2008

GDP growth is expected to continue at a more moderate pace in 2008 as gains in oil production are less pronounced. Private sector services such as transportation and warehousing; information, culture and recreation; and finance, insurance, real estate and leasing; and accommodation and food services are also expected to expand. Continued employment gains, strong wage growth and a buoyant housing sector should provide an additional boost to consumer spending.
http://www.stjohns.ca/csj/NewsDetails?id=656
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  #58  
Old Posted Mar 3, 2008, 9:01 PM
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wow! those postcard pictures are fascinating. I really took notice to the one showing the university and long pond etc. Its amazing how the landscape has changed and the university has grown in 30 odd years! St. John's has sprawled far out beyond now but in that picture beyond the university is just boonies and farmland by the looks of it. The Water Street ones are neat aswell, so very lowrise
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  #59  
Old Posted Mar 3, 2008, 9:29 PM
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^Yes, the University has changed, maybe twice the size, including "infill". Most of the land in the areas developed in the forties, fifties & sixties was farmland too. Now it's mostly forest land, as they will not develop the Goulds farming area. Now they have to go farther out around the Southlands (on the other side of Mt Pearl), or Kenmount Road, as the city can't develop the watershed area, Southside, or Pippy Park; land is harder to come by than most people think.
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  #60  
Old Posted Mar 4, 2008, 12:58 AM
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well, out around Southlands is basically the Goulds. the farms are just like 2km down the road. Speaking of Southlands that place is just booming out of contol aswell eh.

and just a question...how come they cant develop the Southside? my guess is that its impossible because of the steep hills and cliffs but im just wondering if there is any other reason...like restrictions etc.
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