Edmonton Construction 11 (November 2011)

[EdmTrekker]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Strategic Group out of Calgary purchased the CN a while back and at the real estate forum suggested a 'reimagine' of it.

http://www.strategicgroup.ca/Real-Estate-Portfolio/Edmonton-CN-Tower.aspx

Randy Ferguson the COO there and has some solid Edmonton experience:
http://www.strategicgroup.ca/Company-Profile/Our-Leadership-Team.aspx

That said I would rather the City partner with the UAlberta on the new Downtown Cultural Campus including some of the separate towers to leverage the viability of the project.

[Coldrsx]

Downtown Farmers market:

Total traffic count is up to 48,500. Last year at this time it was 42,000 and in 2011 it was 28,388.

from SHO

[Coldrsx]

Calgary and Edmonton buck national housing market trend of declining sales

Only two major markets to see growth in existing home sales

By Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald May 28, 2013

Calgary and Edmonton buck national housing market trend of declining sales

Realtor Corinne Poffenroth in the front entranceway of the house in Aspen Ridge that Sotheby’s International Realty Canada sold for $10.35 million, the highest ever in Calgary, earlier this year.
Photograph by: Ted Rhodes Ted Rhodes , Calgary Herald

CALGARY — A soft landing is underway in the Canadian housing market and should continue but Calgary and Edmonton are bucking the trend with sales rising compared with a year ago, says a new report released Tuesday by BMO Capital Markets.

The report, by Sal Guatieri, senior economist for BMO, said the Canadian housing market is “calming not crashing.”

“In most regions, sales have fallen at double-digit rates this year from high levels last year,” said Guatieri. “But the rate of decline has slowed recently.

“By contrast, Alberta enjoys decent sales growth.”

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/...g+national+trend+bank/8445656/story.html

[Coldrsx]

C.1. Encore
Dub Architects – Michael Dub
P. Odinga read the comments of the development planner.
MOVED: M. Nebozuk
Motion of support. Administrative walk-on required.
• Create a more defined residential lobby entrance off of 103 Street.
• The north podium façade must wrap around 103 Street in order to better define the corner and provide a more consistent profile.
• Articulate the podium façades that face into 103 Street and 102 Avenue in order to meet the spirit of the Heritage Area (HA) Zone Regulations.
• Consider patterning of the brick on the south façade and/or adopting the rhythms of the 103 Street façade.
• Provide a comprehensive signage and exterior lighting package.
• Create an opportunity for a ground level retail space along the north half of the lobby by moving the residential lobby vestibule southward.
SECONDED: R. Lederer
FOR THE MOTION: C. Domanski, K. Kerr, R. Labonte, R. Lederer, C. McRae, M. Nebozuk,
CARRIED
A. Pantelimon, L. Woodland

http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/documents/EDCMinutesMarch5.pdf

[CapitalYEG]

Does anyone know why there are so many twin towers being built or already built, with one being often shorter than the other? This is primarily in Calgary but to a lesser extent it is in edmonton as well. I suppose it makes sense in Edmonton with the previous height restrictions of the airport when you need more office space....however...

Is it cheaper to build this way instead of adding the combined height into one tower? Or say making only one tower but instead having a larger girth (floor plate) to the tower and a slight height increase?

[Coldrsx]

Less risk by phasing 2 rather than doing 1 large one. Easier to fund/get financing for a smaller building than 1 large one. Less costly to design 1 and replicate rather than doing a new design.

[CapitalYEG]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Less risk by phasing 2 rather than doing 1 large one. Easier to fund/get financing for a smaller building than 1 large one. Less costly to design 1 and replicate rather than doing a new design.

Thank you!

[EdmTrekker]

Less design fees - for the blood sucking architectural and engineering firms. Pay for 1 building, and the negotiate a fee for a second tower. Cold, what do you think of that approach? Lol.

[Coldrsx]

Not a fan of twins, rarely do they work out well IMO, but totally understand why they are done.

[240glt]

For what it's worth, most "twin" towers, at least in commercial use, are rarely true twins, beyond how they look physically on the outside.

[Coldrsx]

^depends, but yes that can be as well. That said, many details/designs are reused which reduce cost/time.

[240glt]

^ Architectural details seem to be commonly re-used, true. It's funny though... you look at a set of towers like TD and 101st, which originally were almost identical when they were built, are fundamentally different in construction.

In the many sets of twins I've worked in, you find sometimes subtle, sometimes extremely obvious differences between the towers. most of of those differences are the ones nobody sees.. M & E, elevators, even floorplates that look the same, freqently are not.

Not to say that there's still not some value engineering going on, becuase there most certainly is

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by 240glt

For what it's worth, most "twin" towers, at least in commercial use, are rarely true twins, beyond how they look physically on the outside.

The Original design and construction of Cornation Plaza was a real mirror copy of one tower. so much so that when the second tower was built the mechanical drawings were rotated 45degrees. this was not discouvered until the tenants moved in and there were sugnificant cooling issues. When you looked at it the cooling \ ventilation loads were 45 degrees off what they sould have been.

Definetly a less expensive design.

[240glt]

^ In that situation it definitely sounds like a case of "you get what you pay for!"

yeah.. if they'd sized.. say.. induction systems for one based on solar gain and then just flipped the building... I could see huge issues with that

And lots of unhappy tenants

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by 240glt

^ In that situation it definitely sounds like a case of "you get what you pay for!"

yeah.. if they'd sized.. say.. induction systems for one based on solar gain and then just flipped the building... I could see huge issues with that

And lots of unhappy tenants

This was a VAV system with Hydronic perimeter convectors. didn't have reheat on the VAV. The consultant was known for some of his less than spectacular designs. Nice guy but bad Engineer.

[240glt]

^ LOL.. yeah that's an oversight.

Reminds me of my ol' pal Dual Duct Dick from down in Calgary. Great guy... but... design wise... yikes!

[Coldrsx]

Bus tour aims to show how downtown is shaping up


BY BRENT WITTMEIER, EDMONTON JOURNAL MAY 29, 2013 3:19 PM

Downtown Edmonton is under construction as seen here on 108th Street on May 29, 2013.
Photograph by: Larry Wong , EDMONTON JOURNAL
EDMONTON - Numerous parking lots line the City of Edmonton’s Connections bus tour, a 26-minute circumnavigation of the sites under transformation downtown.

Many on the ‘How Downtown is Shaping Up’ tour — running five times Thursday between 11:15 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. — will write all that asphalt off as a legacy of urban stagnation, but for those with an eye to the future, the parking lots are opportunities for transforming the city’s core.

Zanette Frost, district co-ordinator for the city’s Great Neighbourhoods program, gave a dry run of the tour Wednesday morning, pointing out the transformation already underway: new LRT stations, the metamorphosis of 108th Street into Capital Boulevard, revitalization plans for Boyle Street and Queen Mary Park, and changes around the new downtown arena site.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/edmonton/tour+aims+show+downtown+shaping/8451558/story.html

[240glt]

I see they've moved an excavator back onto the Corner 1 site again

The Edgewater pit is getting absolutely massive. It looks like they've just scraped down to their P3 level on the SE corner

I'm suprised to not see at least footings start to go in at the Quarters hotel. Progress seems to have slowed lately

[Coldrsx]

Very very slow...

[Shodan]

City looks at faster move to LED street lights
Conversion predicted to save $57 million over two years

Gordon Kent
Edmonton Journal

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Edmonton could look at speeding up converting all street lights to LED bulbs after councillors heard Wednesday the move could save $57 million over two decades.

"I'm very much for this. It's a good program ... You start looking at the savings," Coun. Ed Gibbons told council's transportation committee, which recommended council approve the idea.

The city started a 20-year plan in 2009 to switch its 100,000 street lights to low-energy LED fixtures from the current high-pressure sodium, according to a city report...

gkent@edmontonjournal. com
© Edmonton Journal 2013

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