After I made that fake proposal for what I would like to see happen with David Blanchard's Gore Park Redevelopment the other day, I found Google SketchUp. I thought it would be fun to take the fake proposal I made the other day and explain it better with SkethUp and change it around a bit. So here it is, step by step of what I would like to see happen in the area south of Gore Park. (Nothing is to proper scale. I did this quick and for fun without measuring or putting too much detail into the buildings so use your imagination a bit)
To start, I sketched up roughly what is currently on the site (Seen in photos 1&2).
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Next, I added the 2-level grocery store with entrances facing James St S and Main St E (Not facing the Gore Park. Restaurants with patios should face Gore Park with the new Gore Park Promenade going in, not a huge grocery store). The 5 buildings along Gore Park would have the structures behind the facades torn down and the facades saved while new structures in behind the facades would be built that can support the office/condo tower on top (Seen in photos 3&4).
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I then added 3 entrance/exits to the underground parking. One on James St S, one on Main St E, and one on Hughson St S (Seen in photos 5&6).
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After adding the underground parking entrance/exits, I added the aboveground parking entrance/exits. I added one on Main St E and one on Hughson St S. The first level of the aboveground parking is coloured red as well as the entrance/exits and the ramps (ramps are also marked with an “X”), (Seen in photos 7, 8, and 9).
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I then added some of the three levels of walls for the aboveground parking structure while leaving it partially open so you can see on the first level where the entrance/exit from the ramp is. I also enclosed the street level entrance/exits as well as the ramps (Seen in photos 10, 11, and 12).
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After that, I completely enclosed the three levels of the aboveground parking structure (Seen in photos 13, 14, and 15).
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Next, it was time to add the office block component of the development (blue building facing Gore Park). I also changed the colour of the parking structure to be translucent so it can be seen better, but if it was built it would be covered in the same glass as the office/condo above it. (Seen in photos 16, 17, 18, and 19)
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After adding the office block, I added part of a condo along Main St E (darker blue building). It could be the complete condo tower, but I’d like to see more then something that small. (Seen in photos 20, 21, and 22)
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And now, this is where I can see the project complete. I added another section to the condo tower and made it the tallest building in the development. I also added some rooftop patios with green space. People living in the condos would have access to the building from its main lobby along Main St E, a smaller entrance along James St S, or the office block entrance along Gore Park (Also from the parking garages of course). (Seen in photos 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30)
*Although photos 23 & 24 look the same, in photo 24 I changed the colour of the parking garage to match the glass of the condo so you can get an idea of what the parking garage would look like hidden.
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After getting to a point where I felt that everything was perfectly sized, and just right I decided to have some fun with the model I have and go over the top by adding more. First, I added a huge condo tower on top of the office block which became the tallest in the development (Seen in photos 31, 32, and 33)
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After adding that condo, I went a little over the top again and extended the height of the condo along Main St E to be the tallest in the development again (Seen in photos 34&35)
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So that’s it, roughly everything I would love to see happen on the site. Photos 23-30 show what I would think is the best for the location, but if something even taller goes in like what I have in photos 31-35 I won't complain. There is just so much potential for the location and I'd hate to see it all go to waste...
Source: My Photos
P.S. sorry for the long post.
Edit: Just realized that some of the buildings like the 2 along Hughson St change colours, shape, design, etc as the list goes on. I edited them to fit a bit better as I was going and forgot to make the same changes to the buildings in the older files. Oh well....