Canadian City Proposals

[CCF]

That St. John's proposal has to be one of the worst in recent memory that I've seen.

It could help itself by fixing that parkade....aka not having it front onto the street.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by CCF

That St. John's proposal has to be one of the worst in recent memory that I've seen.

It could help itself by fixing that parkade....aka not having it front onto the street.

The report stated that the facade of the parkade will be reworked. People also probably don't realize that most of the art deco building is existing; however, I think the new one should be designed to compliment it. The overall concept is the result of height restrictions and the need for public parking, but it just doesn't hold together visually as a project. This would work better if it were to be a tower that complimented the art-deco heritge building with the parking made less obvious. Another phase of the project involves an 1940's 7 storey office structure across the street.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by PoscStudent

Because they'd ruin the entire city, people would lose their virews, they'd create shadows on the road, they would look "ultra modern", they wouldn't look right next to "heritage" buildings and they'd cause to much traffic. I'm sure I could go on and on.

And it would cause total loss of all cultural heritage and identity, and tourism.

Downtown St. John's is fast running out of usable space amidst growing pressure for development; surrounded by steep slopes, there really isn't much land especially in desirable locations, and they will never let the commercial area encroach upon surrounding ones.

To put the site in context, the art deco building is the grey one right of center, and a later phase involves re-doing the old office building at the far left. This is an important site because it is just up from the center of the downtown which should get the utmost consideration for good contextual design.



The yellow building will also completely obscure the view of the houses at center :

(credit: my photos)

[PoscStudent]

The piece of land this building is going on is very large. In the picture below you'll see where the current art deco building is and then this will go from there and cover up Bell Street altogher. A simple glass building is what I think would fit great there, just something basic that wouldn't take away from the art deco building or any of the heritage buildings.



The lot is probably better suited for two buildings, or at least one building that looks like two.

[1ajs]

least the parkade does give some people the option of having a larger deck

[jigglysquishy]

They should do what Paris did. Keep all the historical areas intact and set aside a new area specifically for high rise office development.

[PoscStudent]

Originally Posted by jigglysquishy

They should do what Paris did. Keep all the historical areas intact and set aside a new area specifically for high rise office development.

They city spoke of that before and we've mentioned it alot on our thread but right now the downtown is the central business district and they have that much land classified as heritage that you'd need to go far away to get rid of all the heritage regulations. They recently zoned a small area to accomodate for some buildings but it's not enough.

Here is the map of St. John's heritage zones. There's a better map somewhere but this shows the 3 zones in yellow, blue and pink.



The most logical area to allow for higher density is to the west, just past the end of the harbour, but that is curretnly all zoned. Anywhere else besides that you'd be going up hill.

[Architype]

I started a new thread to discuss heritage and height restriction issues here.
I think it's an important topic that warrants it's own thread. Lets see if it works out:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=5207837#post5207837

[Architype]

Originally Posted by Dylan Leblanc

Grow by a few hundred thousand people if you want larger buildings. Grow by a few million if you want skyscrapers.

That's only partly true. St. John's Metro is just a bit smaller than Regina, and larger than Kelowna, Abbotsford, or Nanaimo, all of which have their share of highrises (not skyscrapers). Highrises, including residential, were proposed back in the 70's and 80's (many long forgotten now), but many weren't built, especially the tallest - up to 20 flrs, usually because of Nimby/heritage reasons. The same thing just happened again with the 16 fl Fortis proposal. Thousands of suburban homes have been built each year for the past several years, leaving most people little choice of where to live.

As can be seen with the map PoscStudent posted above, the whole downtown is restricted by the heritage area. 90% of the white areas are already occupied.

[mike474]

Who cares about a few highrises? I'd take the vibrancy of St. John's over Abbotsford any day.

[PoscStudent]

Originally Posted by mike474

Who cares about a few highrises? I'd take the vibrancy of St. John's over Abbotsford any day.

When the vacancy rate for class A office space is at 0% and all other at only a few percent it becomes an issue. It has also led to the price of condos being more expensive then they need to be and to horrible urban sprawl.

[Metro-One]

Well it looks like Victoria may soon have a new tallest with this proposal at 66.3 meters tall (the tallest currently is 62 meters):



Source: http://www.bosaproperties.com/bayview/

Check out the website above for it also has a some nice harbour pics that it scrolls through and has some more information.

Although it seems to have its share of nay sayers on this forum, Victoria is my favorite Canadian city and I am happy to see them likely getting a new tallest. That being said, I think 50 to 70 meter tall towers fits the character of Victoria perfectly and this is one city where I hope they do not become much taller than this near the downtown core.

[caltrane74]

New project for Toronto Exhibit Condos

Exhibit has one of the most high profile locations in Toronto: one look at the rendering of the building and anyone familiar with Toronto instantly knows that the 32-storey tower will sit across Bloor Street from Daniel Libeskind’s landmark crystal at the renowned Royal Ontario Museum.

Bloor Street has been witness to a smart revitalization of late, not only with the game-changing ROM addition, but also with black granite sidewalks, London plane trees, and the lush planters of the Bloor-Yorkville shopping district, an expansion of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, an expansion of the Royal Conservatory of Music with an exceptional performing arts venue, and the ongoing renewal of much of the University of Toronto’s northern face.

With all of this going on, Bazis partner and chief architect Roy Varacalli knew that the design for Exhibit had to respond to the increased expectations for this important cultural hub. More than anything, Exhibit needed to be in dialogue with the Libeskind crystal’s daring angles to the South. To that end Exhibit’s bulk is divided into quarters, 8 storeys each, angled to harmonize with the ROM, and sheathed in a cool white veil.
Exhibit’s centre-of-everything site means that there was another challenge to overcome when designing it: below ground there simply is no space for a garage, as the University subway line runs underneath. Parking, therefore, would have to be above ground. While above ground garages are not typically associated with beautiful design, Varacalli seems to have managed it here, and no-one looking at the rendering would guess that the garage has been hidden within the building’s podium. It will, in fact, look just like the rest of the building from the outside. The fritted glazing will give hints of colour wherever cars are parked close behind, while still hiding less desirable details from view. Residents will find meanwhile that the garage’s interior will be flooded with light pouring through the translucent walls. Moreover, those whose units are on the third through eighth floors will be able to park, very conveniently, right by their door.

from interchange42 at UT

[Nouvellecosse]

^ The tower itself is nice but the retail level is pretty anemic. I would rather see a good 3-5 stories or retail and services - especially considering its location.

I know the main reason for only a single floor of retail is the above-street parking, but I honestly don't see this as much of an excuse. The fact that it's built over a subway line in a busy part of downtown is a great reason to make it a second car-free development like the one on University. I can't remember its name, but I'd think more developments like it are feasible in downtown.

[caltrane74]

Yeah, you are right. This would have been a great opportunity to bring the Yorkville Retail Cache further west down Bloor Street.

That first level of retail will end up being home to some mom and pop store trying to pawn off some Chinese gear as the latest fashions.

[Coldrsx]

New 'Walterdale Bridge' for Edmonton replacing a current overcapacity and out of date one.








All photos from edmonton.ca

[The_Architect]

Looks like a bigger version of the Humber Bay Arch Bridge.

[Coldrsx]

Except sleeker and mores awesomest.

[The_Architect]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Except sleeker and mores awesomest.

They're like the exact same.

And one was built over 15 years ago, one is a render, I sure hope the render looks sleeker..

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by The_Architect

They're like the exact same.

And one was built over 15 years ago, one is a render, I sure hope the render looks sleeker..

It's all in the details. The render suggests that it will be much sleeker than that one in Toronto. Glass barricades instead of wire? Tile instead of asphalt? It's what separates a Maserati from a Pontiac.