Edmonton Construction 11 (November 2011)

[Coldrsx]

^no friggen kidding.

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

After a long discussion with a glazing professional and envelope engineer, we all feel that those reports are doomsday generally speaking. We spec a lot of curtain wall, mind you quite high performance versions of it, but we expect 20-30 years from it.

20- 30?????????

you might start to experience some failure in the glazing units in that kind of time frame (typically a loss of their seals which will impact performance and allow condensation between the glass but even that won't make the overall system unsound either structurally or in terms of water penetration). there is no reason that a well detailed and well built curtain wall shouldn't last 100 plus years...

[Coldrsx]

^sorry, 20-30 years prior to any maintenance Ken, not failure. Yes, generally we would hope 50 years prior to anything major and longer if well kept.

[Coldrsx]

Comprehensive listing of the CBC - downtown features

http://www.cbc.ca/edmonton/features/downtown/

[EdmTrekker]

Originally Posted by Albicaulis

^
Please god let the Mercer Tavern be a proper pub, with real wood, history and an excellent selection of beer, both local and international.

ditto..

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Williams Engineering will be moving into redeveloped BOM in 2013.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/...ct+signs+first+tenant/5975959/story.html

The article doesn't mention what will happen with the old digs. But with the old Edmonton Club building being vacated, I'd like to see something neat happen with that building. Some ideas:
- revival of the Edmonton Club itself
- resto-bar overlooking the river valley
- Heritage Trail interpretive centre, to complement the Heritage Trail monuments along MacDonald Drive

What you guys think?

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by rapid_business

No, Toronto's CityPlace is a disaster. No scale, terrible location cut off from the rest of the city by the rail lines and the Gardiner. Paying attention to the design, scale and public realm is far more crucial than the max profit driven-model derived from scalability that CityPlace chose to make a higher-density community work.

CityPlace primarily fails at the ground level and overall land use programming. You can't help the physical barriers such as the rail lines and the Gardiner as they are what they are. CityPlace should have paid more attention to creating great public spaces and focused on greating a high density 'neighbourhood'.

[240glt]

Originally Posted by Hallsy's Toupee

Williams Engineering will be moving into redeveloped BOM in 2013.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/...ct+signs+first+tenant/5975959/story.html

The article doesn't mention what will happen with the old digs. But with the old Edmonton Club building being vacated, I'd like to see something neat happen with that building. Some ideas:
- revival of the Edmonton Club itself
- resto-bar overlooking the river valley
- Heritage Trail interpretive centre, to complement the Heritage Trail monuments along MacDonald Drive

What you guys think?

33k S.F. is a lot more than a single floorplate in the old Epcor building. Is the second floor in the podium, or are they going to extend the 2nd floor office space over into the new development ?

Vacating the old office adjacent to Telus Plaza provides some interesting opportunities as well. I have some insiders at Tonko... will have to ask around!

Good on ADW. They're a good committed local firm that has suffered some devastating losses people-wise in the past few years. Glad to see them being resilient.

[Coldrsx]

Very interesting about WE. I'd love to see a nice new large restaurant there.

[SHOFEAR]

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Edmonton+region+housing+starts+fall+2011/5975551/story.html

Two years in a row now Edmonton has more housing starts than Calgary.

[tony0911]

Considering that the Calgary number is Calgary only and Edmonton's includes the burbs......doesn't really say much.

[240glt]

BSSSST. Wrong. Try again Oscar.

It's actually quite a valid stat given the similar populations fo the two cities.

[TimB09]

Originally Posted by tony0911

Considering that the Calgary number is Calgary only and Edmonton's includes the burbs......doesn't really say much.

I'm glad you open your mouth with such great comments for this board.

And when someone calls you on it, you look foolish.

[Coldrsx]

Bickering is stupid, I have learned that.

As for starts, numbers don't mean much to me, rather I would like to see where these starts fall within the City/Region.

Calgary is sprawling just as bad as anyone, but they are also infilling and densifying at a clip past us and that is my concern.

[tony0911]

Actually no I am not wrong.....the stat is Edmonton and area versus Calgary proper. The point is that Edmonton does not get tax revenue on all those starts as the city of Calgary does. Yet Edmonton must maintain infrastructure for the burbs using the cities amenities. Secondly, building more vinyl clad fireboxes out as far as the eye can see in both cities does nothing for enhancing the urban experience.

[Coldrsx]

"Secondly, building more vinyl clad fireboxes out as far as the eye can see in both cities does nothing for enhancing the urban experience."

Yet it seems to 'enhance' the suburban experience... or something.

blah

[240glt]

Last I checked, city of St. Albert payed for infrastructure in St. Albert.... etc etc.

The point of the stat is housing starts per city. Edmonton is doing very well. Lets leave it at that.

[Jasper and one o nin]

Who cares? The stat is actually representative of growth in the City. It is an economic indicator that suggests that Edmonton is doing very well. Only such a wet blanket, naysayer cynic such as Tony could turn a diamond into coal. You must be fun to hang out with.

[rapid_business]

Originally Posted by CMD UW

CityPlace primarily fails at the ground level and overall land use programming. You can't help the physical barriers such as the rail lines and the Gardiner as they are what they are. CityPlace should have paid more attention to creating great public spaces and focused on greating a high density 'neighbourhood'.

But you can work around some of the physical barriers. Look at the way the whole project turns it's back to the gap that is the rail corridor. There should be another access point, even if just a pedestrian/cycle bridge, half way between Bathurst and Spadina to open it up some. The biggest noticeable difference is the tower/podium model that CityPlace uses doesn't represent good scale. A 10 storey podium does not address the street any better than a 50 storey building without setbacks. Finally, the CRU spaces in this project fail at creating a good tenant mix and an interesting pedestrian experience. Bank -> laundromat -> Sobeys -> Bank -> Second Cup -> Bank (repeat) can only go so far.

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by rapid_business

But you can work around some of the physical barriers. Look at the way the whole project turns it's back to the gap that is the rail corridor. There should be another access point, even if just a pedestrian/cycle bridge, half way between Bathurst and Spadina to open it up some. The biggest noticeable difference is the tower/podium model that CityPlace uses doesn't represent good scale. A 10 storey podium does not address the street any better than a 50 storey building without setbacks. Finally, the CRU spaces in this project fail at creating a good tenant mix and an interesting pedestrian experience. Bank -> laundromat -> Sobeys -> Bank -> Second Cup -> Bank (repeat) can only go so far.

But who would/should pay for that infrastructure. I am sure this may have been discussed between Concord and the City and the rail company (CN?) at the time when they were planning the development.

And what other type of interface would you expect along the rail corridor?