Winnipeg Construction

[vid]

I don't know, there is just something about it that irritates me. I think it is a combination of no cornice, bad proportions and obnoxious keystones on every single window, all of which are completely inappropriate for that style.

At the very least it needs a lot of work to look decent.

[roccerfeller]

Originally Posted by Kris22

The MoneyMart/Bargain Shop/Dollarama combo on portage is unfortunate but it'll likely be a few years before we see things like that disappear. With the investments happening around the MTS center and the developments in the Exchange and The Forks, I really wish the city would focus on using Portage avenue as a major connection route for foot traffic and tourists. Nice lighting and maybe some regulations on which types of stores can directly face Portage. And of course having P&M pedestrian friendly would help the continuity. I personally prefer walking up Graham when crossing downtown. It has a better vibe and less trash.

Yeah, the vibrancy will come in due time

First we'll need an urban minded mayor...because those are urban ideas which, to be put on the fast track, need someone who is in sync with said ideas...Katz for all his faults has a business mind and some good stuff has happened during his tenure but we'll need someone who's not only got an understanding of what it means to balance the books and budgets ...and buddies ...(there are realistic limits for Winnipeg) but imagine what an urban minded, enthusiastic mayor could get done?

If anything, I think the public outcry against the Canalta @ forks project and public discussion about Potential rail yards relocation and redevelopment shows Winnipeggers, especially those who are young professionals or working towards that, are of a different mindshare than the previous generations which aiui helped contribute to the city the negative stereotypes associated with the populous (nimby, anti growth, anti change, cheap etc...)

My opinion of course, and its likely flawed in some respects, but I would love to see what someone with that type of passion could do.

The danger is someone who is too urban minded; one can't force too much urban change on a city overnight. The reality is suburbs and associated sub urb developments are an important part in overall city growth as well..so a balance in my opinion is key. Right now it's too much on the sub urban side of things.

But synergy of some sort could be amazing (like the new neighborhoods which have active transport heavily factored into their layout)

I just realized this is better suited to the western espresso thread..

So uhh...a mayor with big ideas to woo urban development and construction. There's the tie in

[roccerfeller]

Originally Posted by vid

I don't know, there is just something about it that irritates me. I think it is a combination of no cornice, bad proportions and obnoxious keystones on every single window, all of which are completely inappropriate for that style.

At the very least it needs a lot of work to look decent.

vid I dunno what that building said to you, but you two need to hug it out man




(srsly..Some people did that with the Eatons building which eventually got demolished so you may need to hug it out one day if you relocate here...but it would piss Andy off lol)

[vid]

If I had the money I would buy it and make it look right but I don't. It's just annoying me that it looks like that.

I know that a lot of people find historic architecture unconditionally beautiful but there is some stuff from the past out there that is seriously ill-proportioned or mismatched to the point of looking absurd, to a trained eye. I would consider that building to be "too altered to be architecturally significant".

I'm not seriously advocating for tearing it down, it's just been ruined by decades of improper care and attention by its owners.

[OmarVP]

Is not a bad looking building, is ok imo, the subtle horizontal and vetical lines kind of remind me of a giant Rubik's cube, would be fantastic if they illuminate it in changing colours, imagine seated in one of the restaurants at Centre Point looking out to this massive rubik's cube solving itself!!

[vid]

OK, that would be cool.

[trueviking]

this discussion of the somerset building is blowing my mind....are we sure we are talking about the right building?

i dont think it has been altered at all....other than filling in a couple of windows at ground level....


http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryanscott/2700638296/


edit: it did have a small cornice projection, but still relatively unchanged for a 106 year old building:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26266017@N00/3630036297/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26266017@N00/5060731701/

[Andy6]

Those are a couple of my pics ... I'd forgotten about the last one. The Somerset was designed, I believe, by John D. Atchison, the foremost architect in the city. As it wasn't a bank building, it isn't as opulent as some of his other designs, e.g. the Bank of Hamilton or the Union Trust building at Main & Lombard. It was built immediately after Eaton's opened, no doubt to cash in on the new activity Eaton's was drawing to Portage Avenue, which would have encouraged offices to relocate there to take advantage of the crowds that were attracted by Eaton's, together with its thousands of employees. Like Eaton's, it was probably designed with expansion in mind, which might explain the plainness of both buildings. It did expand from seven to nine floors after awhile. Anyway, despite Vid's protests, I don't think it's going anywhere.

[headhorse]

So, the Sandhu project on Assiniboine is 24 storeys and called "D Condo". They have a new website up with some more information.

http://eblast.homebuyers.com/dcondos/reg.html

[lilwayne]

Originally Posted by headhorse

So, the Sandhu project on Assiniboine is 24 storeys and called "D Condo". They have a new website up with some more information.

http://eblast.homebuyers.com/dcondos/reg.html

so im assuming bldg will be 70 to 80 meters

and herritedge will be a lil taller

man get these 2 project built already im fearing that this one willl be delayed for a while too because of stupid city bylaws and policies and shit... heritedge should of been half way done by now... this city is so slow in getting shit done its pathetic.. if herritedge doesnt get going by sept both project will prolly get going next summer

[Mininari]

This is good to hear, but does this mean we'll have two delay-plagued riverfront towers?

But yeah, the red tape at city hall really needs to go along with completely gutting city hall and starting over with a modern-thinking, motivated, and younger workforce with some background in 21st century city planning and management. They're trying harder these days, there's lots of construction around (including urban infill), but Winnipeg still feels like a place that is humming along at a fraction of it's potential.

[1ajs]

we don't need to boom we need to keep on chuging along at a heathy pace or we will crash really hard

theres money to be made lets make sure its health growt

[roccerfeller]

Originally Posted by headhorse

So, the Sandhu project on Assiniboine is 24 storeys and called "D Condo". They have a new website up with some more information.

http://eblast.homebuyers.com/dcondos/reg.html

Nice find

Originally Posted by lilwayne

so im assuming bldg will be 70 to 80 meters

and herritedge will be a lil taller

That depends on a bunch of factors, most notably the design. It could end up taller if by design there are less units per floor, (and how many units there are) compared with the average 24 storey tower. I think Biff made mention how it's going to be a tall and skinny one. But expecting it to be 70-80m is probably a safe assumption.

Originally Posted by Mininari

This is good to hear, but does this mean we'll have two delay-plagued riverfront towers?

But yeah, the red tape at city hall really needs to go along with completely gutting city hall and starting over with a modern-thinking, motivated, and younger workforce with some background in 21st century city planning and management. They're trying harder these days, there's lots of construction around (including urban infill), but Winnipeg still feels like a place that is humming along at a fraction of it's potential.

Keep in mind it's more about momentum, we haven't had two new residential towers rising in Winnipeg for some time in general so that alone is pretty neat (add that with all the other general downtown residential development)

And, keep in mind, with Heritage, we had some discussion that there might be other reasons behind just the city part. It seemed like most of the criticism from the Heritage side was with things held up by Hydro, beyond letters of approval, that tardiness boils down to whoever is managing that aspect of the project from Hydro (in this case)

My point is, the truth to the delays is somewhere in the middle. The city probably has some blame on them, but it can't all be blamed on them. Some could be on the heritage guys (not doing their own homework or preparation in time or whatnot) and some could rest on MB Hydro; it's a combination of things taking physical time like papers needed X days to clear submissions or accounts and permits needing X days to be verified etc.. Plus human laziness, plus other factors (nature for instance) or over commitment ("we will have this project underway by X date!") that leads to the delays

It will start, but delays shouldnt be a surprise

Look at it this way, once it starts, we get to enjoy watching it go up for a longer time too! And in that time there might be other projects underway downtown like some of the MPI lot developments and Convention Centre expansion underway. It will be nice to be able to talk about all that construction while we all chat about how awesome (or bad in other opinions) the human rights museum was, how the new Bombers stadium is great (sans trough) and all the other projects currently underway are completed (if they aren't still U/C)

Delays suck when we anticipate things, but they can be more fun in the long run (not always though...haha that is a huge disclaimer with construction projects...delays can also mean a lot of stress for a lot of people) but I'm talking with the perspective of us SSP'ers

I mean, as long as they do eventually start, that is

[lilwayne]

okay so will we ever hear a H&m announcement
what happen with the whole dark zone coming back thing?

is a h&m, water park inevitable all this hype all the time and nothing.. i would of preferred they built something across from the museum even if it was a small ass water park.. now we have to wait 10 years before anything gets built there if anything at all. im generally upbeat about the direction peg is going but we need to increase the pace a bit.. i wanna hear more announcements... once these major projects get built example chrm, ikea, stadium, hsc projects they better start moving on the convention center, mpi lots, and canad inn projects quickly

[1ajs]

why do people care so much about h&m? junk clothing

[lilwayne]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

why do people care so much about h&m? junk clothing

im not a fan of their clothing either but the fact that almost every other major city in canada has at least one h&m location i find it hard to believe they cant take a chance at adding a h&m to the winnipeg market. Why is h&m overlooking us so much? theres frickin 48 h&m locations and none between toronto and calgary like wtf?

in order to establish ourselves as a major city we need to start attracting more businesses like these here. I think that adding the nhl and ikea show just how much we have progressed as a city but in order to really get noticed we need to bring in the h&m, lacoste, armani exchange, ralph lauren's, echo ltmd stores. i think if seasons of tuxedo could add all these stores to the mall.. Wpg will have truly arrived. my wish list. polo park and st vital are already adding so many big names to thier list of stores so how is tuxedo gonna set itself apart

my wish list for retail at seasons of tuxedo

sean john
ecko unltd
lacoste
ralph lauren
armani exchange
h&m
ikea
cabelas
lowes
sunglass hut
guess
calvin klein
nike factory
maybe a gucci or prada store lol
water park




these stores would be mostly unique to the city seperating em from different malls in the city

get er doneeeeeee

[vid]

That's basically it. "Everyone else who is anyone has this so why don't we have this? We need this now because we have to compete with them!!"

[Mininari]

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Parking-authority-closes-Civic-Centre-Parkade-167389315.html

Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
Parking authority closes Civic Centre Parkade

By: Bartley Kives

Posted: 7:01 PM | Comments: 8 (including replies)

...
The Civic Centre Parkade

The Winnipeg Parking Authority has announced the sudden and immediate closure of the Civic Centre Parkade after engineers declared the Princess Street facility suffers from structural-integrity issues.
...

[lilwayne]

Originally Posted by vid

That's basically it. "Everyone else who is anyone has this so why don't we have this? We need this now because we have to compete with them!!"

i just dont like the fact that ppl in peg have to go to tdot or clgy to shop at h&m when that option should be avlble here...

[roccerfeller]

Originally Posted by lilwayne

im not a fan of their clothing either but the fact that almost every other major city in canada has at least one h&m location i find it hard to believe they cant take a chance at adding a h&m to the winnipeg market. Why is h&m overlooking us so much? theres frickin 48 h&m locations and none between toronto and calgary like wtf?

in order to establish ourselves as a major city we need to start attracting more businesses like these here. I think that adding the nhl and ikea show just how much we have progressed as a city but in order to really get noticed we need to bring in the h&m, lacoste, armani exchange, ralph lauren's, echo ltmd stores. i think if seasons of tuxedo could add all these stores to the mall.. Wpg will have truly arrived. my wish list. polo park and st vital are already adding so many big names to thier list of stores so how is tuxedo gonna set itself apart

my wish list for retail at seasons of tuxedo

sean john
ecko unltd
lacoste
ralph lauren
armani exchange
h&m
ikea
cabelas
lowes
sunglass hut
guess
calvin klein
nike factory
maybe a gucci or prada store lol
water park




these stores would be mostly unique to the city seperating em from different malls in the city

get er doneeeeeee

That's not a bad wish list for what seasons of tuxedo is positioning itself as. Some of those upscale stores are very unlikely to come though especially a Gucci or Prada.

Keep in mind many upscale stores target a specific market, and even though Winnipeg and Calgary are similar market sizes, the demographic in Calgary is very different. Calgary's got the demographic to keep those stores in the black

Originally Posted by vid

That's basically it. "Everyone else who is anyone has this so why don't we have this? We need this now because we have to compete with them!!"

To be fair, h&m is one of those stores that should be in Winnipeg. It's
Not exactly a special or high end store by any means, and suits itself very well to Winnipeg's market. I would bet the right opportunity just hasn't come along yet for a franchise here

Originally Posted by lilwayne

i just dont like the fact that ppl in peg have to go to tdot or clgy to shop at h&m when that option should be avlble here...

Keep in mind, there are huge demographic differences between Peg and Calgary & Toronto, not to mention population discrepancies.