Oxford Tower
 

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How about a hotel atop, bring this to 300m

If it's going to be a glorified box, i say make it taller

Crown should be a lot more distinct too, atrium more of a regional draw instead of what looks to be tenant specific amenities.

This design will be reviewed, how about we focus on ideas to improve/inspirations. Lots of people in the know on this forum.

Good height for that area. Is this the IOL site?

Honestly, I really like it. I think they could do more (I think we all love crown lighting elements, here, and it could work on this tower), but good none-the-less.

Looks like a stretched version of City Centre. It's a decent design, but definitely not fitting for such a prominent site.

Ya

I actually like the massing, just think they'll need to make a few tweaks to the design to make it more elegant, similar to BP.

Wouldn't mind some mixed-use/height bump either.

I recall people talking about another site around that area with similar prestige and with another mystery project in the works (not Gateway), am I just remembering wrong?

Also, yeah... where are these coming from/when were they taken? Oxford's site mentions nothing about this.

Quite the let down. Not an awful design, or even a bad one really, but not a good one and definitely not what the site deserved.

Something about the second render seems off in terms of scale. The proposal seems to dwarf Canterra Tower, or whatever it's called now, which I seem to recall being roughly 45-46 storeys. Artistic licence?

yeah and Jameson and Centennial, too, which aren't exactly "short"

Things I like:

- The glass looks to be fairly clear and see-thru
- While I find its placement on the site a little strange it works to its advantage as it wont block all of the sun from hitting 5th ave. It almost looks to me like they are planning ahead for the potential to own the entire block with the podium design.

Things I don't like:

- Not as tall as I had hoped but its not bad.
- It could go from meh to amazing if it has some awesome light feature.

To me it looks like a good jumping off point, I would like to see what refinements are made and if they are eventually planning to have the whole block, If they do they could try to build its mirror image on the west side of the site and maybe a skywalk between them.

Yeah it really doesn't seem right. Centennial Place East in the background has 40 floors. :shrug:

Hazzah!!! That's how you start a work week!!!!

This is actually much better than I was expecting, though my prediction of it being a new City Centre type tower came true. I actually like this one more though. I like the step up as opposed to a spire and it will certainly add variety to the skyline which is sorely lacking with all the flat topped towers.

The benefit of expecting crap paid off as I am pleasantly surprised. Not earth shattering design, but this will definitely make a better tallest than BP.

What makes anyone think they'll improve on this design? Is it not final?

Apparently they do own the whole block and SB said it was only one tower. Interesting that the rendering shows the other towers still there. I hope they don't build a twin down the road. This city has enough of those already.

Glass in reality is never as see-through as in the rendering. Renderings in general should never be used to gauge details like glass transparency...or material color...or landscaping...or lighting...or...neighborhood atmosphere...or age/hotness of workers/residents. So pretty much anything beyond general shapes, ha. They are marketing material akin to a nicely stylized hamburger in a TV commercial.

Considering the architect though, the glass of EAP is probably what'd you'd end up with.

I voted like it not love it or list it because the shape has potential. If the height is only like 3 meters taller than Brookfield Place I will be hella disappointed though. This site at the very least deserves a new tallest by a fair margin.

The more I look at it this reminds me of a modern version of one of the never-built tallests from the 80's. In one respect that's lame, in another it's kind of fitting and doesn't bother me too much.

Height and quality of materials will be the biggest factors in determining if this is a win or a fail.

Question is... who are they marketing this at? Which company is looking for office space on this scale? ... and with oil prices fumbling is there a chance that this doesn't get built this cycle, and they go back to the drawing board?

CTRL+ALT+DLT get to work! LOL

I'm sure they have an anchor tenant lined up, especially with all the towers under construction right now.

Given what they've proposed in Toronto with Oxford Place, I can't look at this as anything other than a letdown.

The most prominent site in downtown Calgary deserves better. I'm hoping for a redesign along the lines of what we saw with Brookfield Place.

O.o

I haven't seen any other media or anything on Twitter about this tower. Nothing on Oxford's website either.

Typically a tower like this will be kept pretty hush hush until some big press release, so I'm fairly skeptical that this is the final design.

I believe this has to go through city council and I've also heard there will be talks with the developer.

Oxford Place was a marketing piece to get casinos allowed. No one knows what their long term goals are for their Front Street West portfolio.

Idk how this would be a new tallest at 55-56 storeys unless the floor to ceiling clearance is unusually high. Then again, we don't even know if this is the final proposal.

Exactly. Architecturally, this is pretty basic. The problem is mainly how high my hopes were. For some reason I had hoped for Calgary's answer to the Chrysler Building, Trans America Pyramid, or the John Hancock Centre. The City Centre comparisons are dead on. That said, I like City Centre, and this is even better.

A hotel or public element would have taken this to another level. As is, it's just your basic office tower, but a bit taller and a bit higher standard.

I think this building as is, is pretty much an alright AA class building, but not a trophy building, which everyone is understandably expecting for this site.

It's both sides of the alley, no?

I believe they bought their portion of the alley from the City so it will span the block at the 4th street end.

You'd think there would be a little more competitiveness between the developers wanting to go bigger and better than each other. I still think they'll make it taller.

One question: why did they buy the properties next door if their plan is to only build beside them? I have a sinking feeling we'll be hearing about a smaller twin should their leasing go according to plan rather than a bump in height.

The lukewarm acceptance of this Oxford tower brings a question to mind:

Given that the main criticisms of the tower are that it is generic, devoid of distinguishing features, and conservative, how much should (or can) a project strive to suit a particular location?

The Bow reflects several elements of local geography, but in my opinion is fairly insensitive to its immediate surroundings. Brookfield Place somewhat responds to its surroundings, but would not be out of place in Houston, Toronto, or Sydney. Telus Sky seems to fit its environment well, but will forever be compared to Beach and Howe. In a globalized world, are urban environments becoming more and more the same? Should walking down the street in Calgary feel like walking down the street in Toronto?

Is it possible to get an iconic 1-of-a-kind tower in 2014? Starchitects tend to protect a brand, and shareholders expect a functional, conservative investment. Obviously, these rules are different in Asia and the Middle East, where labour is dirt cheap and companies may be controlled to single families..

I'm not sure what exactly I would have liked to go in the place of Oxford's tower. Other than vague comparative adjectives like "taller", "more beautiful", "better", I don't know what to say. By no means do I think curvier is better, though I think most SSPers would prefer curves. After all, curves are easier to design and build than in the past, and therefore might be indicative of our era of architecture.

What do you guys think?

I like it. It's not great, but overall not a bad looking tower imo.

I am going with list it! It doesn't look bad, but it looks very similar to City Centre, and I would like to see some other shape and a taller structure 270M +.

No need to worry. One of a kind buildings will continue to get built with the majority of them turning their back on fitting into the urban fabric. Fitting in defeats the purpose of most star architect's visions.

The aspect that a few curves will improve a design does often rub me the wrong way. There have been some well done "boxes" that get lumped in with the rest. There have also been some poorly thought out designs featuring curves and such that get praised. Of course, I want better but, the reality is tenants are demanding highly efficient, identical floor plans and developers are filling that demand with extruded right angled forms.

Shanghai Tower. Shard. Devon. TransBay. Eureka.

These are the things we should be striving to. Not City Centre.

My feelings pretty much what has already been said - pretty good but not outstanding which we were all hoping for.
I like the profile it will cut from the north and south. But I worry it will be a girthy slab from the east & west.
Go taller, much taller I say!
Having said that, we are spoiled in this city when this proposal is met with such indifference.

This thing is going to get kicked around and re-designed a little, so it's probably a ways off! When it's all said and done, I'd bet this will be in the 270-280 meter range. Bet on it!! Unless they "Punk Out" with a couple of TWINS!! (OMG... I said that dreadful word)!

It's odd the Oxford logo doesn't appear on the renderings.

Don't worry about that.

Looks decent, but it reminds me of the original design for Penny Lane Towers (save for a single tower) before it was redesigned to 8th Avenue Place.

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I voted that I like it. I know many feel it's a disappointment given the location, but I voted simply on what I thought of the tower, and overall I like it. It's basic and simple, and I have no problem with that.

I voted "Like it" too, but want to qualify that in the fact that the design is decent enough, but NOT for this site.

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