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Originally Posted by sailor734
I agree about the VERY questionable design renderings that we have seen. If they want to see an homage to 1920's-30's architecture done right just look across the square to the Irving Oil HQ.
The talk about preformed panels give me pause too but time will tell. It is such a prime location I worry that it will be nickel and dimed with unfortunate results that the city's main street has to live with for the next 50+ years.
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Irving did a fine job with their HQ, but that building is still a far cry from truly beautiful as compared to other buildings from the past, like these two below. Saint John should push for more high rises to be made with materials like stone, and high quality concrete. The trend of cheaply built 6 storey apartment boxes is selling our city centre short. There's always room for these type of builds, but we shouldn't let too much prime real estate uptown get gobbled up by these type of developments. There's all kinds of room around this city for those type of apartment buildings to be constructed outside of the city centre.
The Union Bank Building, Winnipeg, MB
99 King is just next level goofy looking, and for no good reason either.
A Collage of Bad Ideas, Saint John, NB
If they actually have that ostentatious logo for the building on the roof "accents" it will look bloody atrocious.
Saint John need to embrace height, but it needs to do it in a way that shows tall buildings can be attractive. I'm sick and tired of the argument that tall buildings would ruin the Uptown aesthetic, and that we need to focus on 6 storey apartment box infill first. How much prime real estate will be left Uptown if we keep on building so many 6 storey apartments?
If the city is going to waive height restrictions for proposals, they should at least look nice. I don't understand why this developer has chosen such a god awful design for the roof of this building, when it will just impact the long term value of their investment if they like actually stick with this awful roof design.
A 12 storey building can be very minimal and elegant, two adjectives I don't think anyone would use when describing 99 King.
99 King is literally hurting the cause of getting high rises built in Saint John... not just because of how ugly it might be, but because how awfully long it's taken to start construction. I hope they look at some simple solutions to deal with the goofy roof situation. Simply deleting the four corner "accents" might be enough, but trying to emulate the roof like the one found the Union Bank Building in Winnipeg,
Canada's first skyscraper, or the
Ingalls Building, the world's first sky scraper could be a more ambitious and rewarding fix to the problem with the fugliness of the current roof design. Obviously I wouldn't expect something this ornate, but there are some novel ways they could approach improving the design of the roof without drastically increasing costs.
The Ingalls Building, Cincinnati, OH
Tall buildings shouldn't have to look ugly... we should have standards and expectations, and unfortunately, Mr. Wilbur and 99 King are woefully failing to meet the expectations that should be expected for a building at this location in the heart of Uptown Saint John. Again though, it's not too late for Mr. Wilbur and his team to fix this ugly design, and build something better.
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Looks like it belongs beside an Interstate exit somewhere.
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