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  #2061  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 2:20 PM
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Originally Posted by trueviking View Post
Also, its a national historic site because it is an intact collection of buildings from the same period. that includes the non-descript buildings. Most of them are non-descript actually. How many do we lose until the collection is no longer significant?

Is a person's house on that critical site a better use?
I have to admit that preserving the character of the entire west Exchange is not really that high on my priority list. It's just through a fluke that it exists in its current form to begin with...basically due to the stasis that set in after WWI. I don't think that should force us to maintain things as they are now until the end of time... there have been new things built over the years that are more modern, like City Hall, PSB, elements of RRC, Centennial Centre the parkade on King... that kind of modern design looks far better on the neighbourhood than goofy throwback stuff like the Police Credit Union on William.

And wait a minute, this proposed building is a single family home? If so, that will change my opinion on things in a hurry.
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  #2062  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 2:21 PM
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also...two storeys is a significant under-use of the site...especially when half the site is a single residential unit.
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  #2063  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 2:22 PM
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agree completely...that's my point...just because its 'modern' doesn't mean its appropriate. That site deserves more finesse than simply a featureless curtain wall. It has an amazing context of texture to draw inspiration from. It can be modern and still respect the area....its too easy to just say its a glass box.
Fair enough, I will agree with you there. Contemporary design doesn't have to come only in the form of a glass box.
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  #2064  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 2:23 PM
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I have to admit that preserving the character of the entire west Exchange is not really that high on my priority list. It's just through a fluke that it exists in its current form to begin with...basically due to the stasis that set in after WWI. I don't think that should force us to maintain things as they are now until the end of time... there have been new things built over the years that are more modern, like City Hall, PSB, elements of RRC, Centennial Centre the parkade on King... that kind of modern design looks far better on the neighbourhood than goofy throwback stuff like the Police Credit Union on William.

And wait a minute, this proposed building is a single family home? If so, that will change my opinion on things in a hurry.
I agree but why is the choice featureless glass box and faux-historic?

Not sure how the fact that slow growth being the reason the exchange district exists is reason to not care about what is built there. We are fortunate for that quirk of fate, lets take advantage of it.
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  #2065  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 2:30 PM
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I agree but why is the choice featureless glass box and faux-historic?

Not sure how the fact that slow growth being the reason the exchange district exists is reason to not care about what is built there. We are fortunate for that quirk of fate, lets take advantage of it.
Oh yes, I'm not suggesting that we should engage in a demolition spree for its own sake. I wouldn't want to return to the 60s when blocks got demolished to make way for new urban renewal projects. I just think it's important that we allow the area to continue to grow organically... if that means filling in a surface parking lot with a boldly modern design, then so be it. I don't want to see the Exchange trapped in an aesthetic jail, sentenced to using nothing but bricks as if it were always 1905.

It's really the Exchange's form that I hold the most dear. The low-slung, very dense streets are something special and if someone wants to build something that takes things further in that direction, then I can get behind it. My preference would be that nothing gets demolished, but the old filling station with large open space in front doesn't strike me as a huge sacrifice.
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  #2066  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 2:35 PM
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I would prefer the old building stay and something more creative be done with the corner, but if it goes I really care that what replaces it is appropriate.

The architects are talented designers....this building could be a gem that stands as a modern expression of the exchange district.
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  #2067  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 2:39 PM
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^ That's perfectly reasonable.
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  #2068  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 2:48 PM
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Ooh, ya.. I like the Vancouver glass box much better.

The OMS one looks like its picked up from the law courts and dropped down in the Exchange. Or taken the 360 Main cladding and salvaged it for re-use.
LMFAO, that was my first thought (remnants of 360 Main).
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  #2069  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 2:49 PM
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those buildings are not in the exchange district though. What I don't understand is that there are quite prescriptive exchange district design guidelines.

I understand the contrast is what its going for but that's just so easy. The site deserves richness and texture. Just because it has curtain wall doesn't mean its good. It still needs to be designed with sensitivity. Especially when its a person's house. Is all that glass going to be left open?

There has to be some recognition that it sits on the most central site of a national historic neighbourhood....does that context mean nothing?

this is the type of architecture I would like to see as modern insertions into the exchange district.

Wow, very cold.
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  #2070  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 3:11 PM
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Some photos of 98 Albert from the Historical Report, for context.

1895


1905


1910


1926


1978/1984
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  #2072  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 3:18 PM
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That corner could be spectacular if done right.
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  #2073  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 3:23 PM
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Wow, very cold.
I believe the word you are looking for is cool
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  #2074  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 3:24 PM
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That corner could be spectacular if done right.
agreed...hugely important....most critical site in the exchange.

could be a signature for the architect and the city.
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  #2075  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 3:26 PM
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Males me dream of how much more European the exchange would feel if we'd built Wilson's subway.
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  #2076  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 3:27 PM
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So what is the story on the project itself? Who's the developer? It's a two storey project with CRU on the main with one residential space on 2?

I agree with vike, I wish the plan called for something a bit bigger. At least three storeys would be nice.
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  #2077  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 3:48 PM
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Those are mostly good, but the first one in Vancouver is painfully tacky. I'd prefer the austere brick building next to it over stucco columns and a large setback.


I read this article last year about how Boris Johnson helped establish a vernacular for affordable housing in London. I don't know about that, but the idea behind the buildings is that they integrate well with the Georgian buildings that predominately. The buildings they have made demonstrate what Viking's example above does: that if the form of the building fits its context, the materials and other aesthetics need not.

Here's the article, anyway. The examples they provide are attractive, and I'd be pleased if there were hundreds like them all over town.

http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/...ousing/481149/
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  #2078  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 3:53 PM
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Adjust the materials, sure. I like the tension between the lower and upper parts, and there is a richness about it the district needs to attract the snobby rich bitches.

Great article. If the brick cladding looks that good, I would love to see dozens of those brick buildings all over downtown.
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  #2079  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 4:26 PM
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People seem to really hate the Police Credit Union and Free Press Building Expansion (on 300 Carlton).

I don't mind attempts at blending in with the surrounding area in some cases - I don't know what may have been demolished for those projects but I'd prefer it any time over the risk of something like 763 Portage (probably my least favorite building in the city for some reason - first time I really noticed a new building and knew I hated it).

Some of these 'fake old' buildings aren't bad. Its a kind of compromise I think. It could be worse no?
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  #2080  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2017, 4:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trueviking View Post
I believe the word you are looking for is cool
What's cooler than cool?

Ice cold!
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