Edmonton Construction 11 (November 2011)

[240glt]

Some EDC minutes of note:

C.2. Oliver Residential Podium/Tower
Manasc Isaac - Myron Nebozuk
Presentation made.

I can't imagine a drawing is available, but can you at least tell us roughly whereabouts this is Cold ?

C.3. J22 Parking Structure
Dialog - Alexis Finlay
10126, 10130,10132, 10136, 10140,10142 – 122 Street NW
Sites legally described as:
Lots 7-10, Block 1, Plan 4044AC
Presentation made.

I still think it's such a shame that those beautiful old houses (as run down as they are.. there is still life there) are getting knocked down for a parkade, with fake houses tacked to the front. Good lord.

B.3. Mckoy Building
Gardner Architecture – Ben Gardner
11211, 11229, 11235 – 105 Avenue NW
Site legally described as:
Lots 168 – 172, Block 12, Plan 5665CL
P. Odinga read the comments of the Development Planner.
MOVED: C. Domanski
Motion to support

Anyone know what this is ?

B.5. Mayfair North
Architecture ATB - Rick Arndt
10037, 10039, 10045 and 10051 - 109 Street NW; 10815 and 10845 Jasper Avenue NW
Site legally described as:
Lots 38 - 46, Block 8, Plan NB
P. Odinga read the comments of the Development Planner.
MOVED: K. Kerr
Motion of support with conditions. Administrative walk-on required.
• The Committee requires that the applicant meet the required tower stepback on 109 Street.
• The Committee requires the applicant to raise the podium of the main building back to the original development permit height application of 7.9 meters (matching Mayfair South).
• The Committee recommends the applicant include soft landscaping within the new mews diagonal pederstrian at-grade connection.
• The Committee strongly recommends that the applicant works with an artist to design the “lantern elements” that are located within the mews.
SECONDED: T. Muller

[Coldrsx]

Oliver - not public no, but looks good and is across from Paul Kane (east side).

Houses - I worked on this a while back and many of the homes were in pretty bad shape foundation speaking.

McKoy - mid-rise of say 8 or so... looks very good IMO.

Mayfair - Good comments.

[240glt]

Re: houses... I don't accept that argument. A new foundation is $30k, give or take. Those could have been saved and either kept as SFH's or redeveloped in an interesting way into professional offices or stacked townhouses

I can stomach them being knocked down, but the faux houses in their place is just obscene IMO

[Coldrsx]

Have you seen the design yet?

I too would prefer them saved, that street has a nice feel, but I do want to see what the plans are before a final.

[240glt]

^ I've seen enough 'faux' to know that it's more often than not.... terrible.

But we'll wait until some drawings come out to make that determination.

I do lament the loss of the houses though regardless. I wish I was in a position to pick one like those up in Little Italy or Alberta Avenue, and completely restore it. But oh so much work...

[Coldrsx]

EDACC update - arts and cultural campus

http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2013/02/25/live-blog-council-update-on-the-downtown-arts-campus/

[Keats82]

Originally Posted by s211

Having talked to leasing reps for CN Tower in years past, the skinny windows and zillions of vertical mullions (if I understand the vernacular) are a huge impediment to attracting/retaining tenants.

Hence why I say update the vertical to ze horizontal!

[240glt]

Hard lesson learned by one of my tenants today.

If you're sitting on the can & accidentally drop your keys in, and the toilet has an auto flushometer.... whatever you do, don't stand up!

[240glt]

Conceptual of course, but wow. That's pretty cool

[sdimedru]

Originally Posted by 240glt

Conceptual of course, but wow. That's pretty cool

Sweet

Is that 97st THROUGH an office tower? Haven't seen that before...

[240glt]

^ According to the site plan that is a hotel. And yup.. looks like it straddles 97th st

That particular aspect of the plan will be made much easier by the closing of the remand


Speaking of the remand... I've heard that they are contemplating turning over a portion of the building to the sheriffs office.

[Black Star]

That is amazing!!!! Dam our Downtown will be amazing in the very near future. To be honest if i rewind 5 years ago I didn't see 90% of this happening. The tower to the right in this rendering is actually fatter then Epcor!!!!! Noooooo!

[240glt]

^ It also looks like about 800,000 s.f. of office space to fill.

Can't help but think this is tied to the city RFP for office space...

What makes me wonder a bit is that the project in question is proposed at $50 mil.. but in that conceptual photo, I'm looking at an easy 1 billion in investment

[itom 987]

It even shows the towers from the Colosseum and Aurora proposals.
Why does Edmonton get plans to develop entire neighbourhoods? Wouldn't it be better to focus one building at a time? These plans remind me of the ones that were proposed in the '60s in which almost nothing got built. There is going to be a lot of broken dreams.

Massive development plans Edmonton has so far:
Arts and Cultural Campus
Century Park
Strathern development
Skyline
RK East
Mayfair and environs
Stationlands

If everything is built to spec we would have enough space for 50,000 people. Is this reasonable?
Edmonton has more monster plans per capita than any other city in Canada.

[itom 987]

I wonder what Daryl Katz is thinking now that this Arts and Cultural Campus plan is on the table? I bet he is thinking about reducing his 2 billion dollar investment...

[Coldrsx]

Why? If anything this makes the area even more attractive.

[EdmTrekker]

Originally Posted by itom 987

I wonder what Daryl Katz is thinking now that this Arts and Cultural Campus plan is on the table? I bet he is thinking about reducing his 2 billion dollar investment...

Minor impact - the retail in the Arts and Cultural Campus will be student and arts/cultural community focused - and the space is being built "cheap". If there is a major office tower developed by Qualico or a P4 group - likely the UofA and City would eat up 800,000 sq ft...or could...if the least cost is competitive. The UofA would never have been a tenant in the arena district anyway. The City might have...but then the RFP has closed and we have not heard where the City is at...have we. The other part of Arts and Cultural Campus would likely be 500-1000 ++ student residences - built by the P4 and leased directly out to students or through the UofA.

[Harrison]

If the this proposed City tower is as wide as the concept, then I'd be worried. Are the larger floors attractive to offices nowadays, because it seemed back in the 60s and 70s small square floors were the norm.
That being said, I'd still love if that tower's width was halved and made up for in doubling the height...

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by 240glt

Re: houses... I don't accept that argument. A new foundation is $30k, give or take. Those could have been saved and either kept as SFH's or redeveloped in an interesting way into professional offices or stacked townhouses

I can stomach them being knocked down, but the faux houses in their place is just obscene IMO

The houses are POS and not worth the land they are on.

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by itom 987

Edmonton has more monster plans per capita than any other city in Canada.

Ah, no it doesn't. All major cities have their share of proposed, unbuilt, half built mega proposals. You'd be shocked to have seen how many proposals there were to redevelop the waterfront in Toronto over the last 40 years. It wasn't up until recent when actual development has occurred.