Brookfield Place Calgary | 247M - 56F | Construction

[Blue_Cypress]

Originally Posted by MrOunce

Work in Bow Valley Square and see this everyday, which I love watching the hole keep going down.

Heard that the crane should be going up soon!!

It'll be a while yet fella. This project is going to proceed with an uncanny similarity to how the penny lane towers were constructed.

[Blue_Cypress]

Originally Posted by RyLucky

Interesting. Hypothetically, could excess dirt go towards elevating low-lying areas? building hills in certain areas, like say parks, like say Fort Calgary? burying highways or creating sound barriers?

It's often more complicated than dirt from project a goes to project b. Schedules have to line up, material has to be suitable for the purpose, contractor either must be the same between projects, or contractors must work together, etc. It rarely works out so nicely.

[Calgarian]

Are they going to build the entire parkade at once? I thought building 1 was going to be finished before they demolished the existing parkade.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by H.E.Pennypacker

Also if phase two is delayed like FCC was for 30 years, leaving that fugly parkade up .. I will punch a kitten

I doubt it will be 30 years, Brookfield has some pretty deep pockets. I wouldn't be surprised to see it sit idle for a long time though.

[H.E.Pennypacker]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

I doubt it will be 30 years, Brookfield has some pretty deep pockets. I wouldn't be surprised to see it sit idle for a long time though.

I'll still punch a kitten

[craner]

Originally Posted by Jimby

I hope the second tower isn't a 30 + year delay like FCC 2, and like Bow 2 is going to be.

At least Brookfield is building the taller tower first. Why oh why didn't BOM do the same with FCC .

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

I doubt it will be 30 years, Brookfield has some pretty deep pockets. I wouldn't be surprised to see it sit idle for a long time though.

I don't think you mean the Bow Parkade on the west side of the block will be idle & unused after tower 1 (and the underground parking) is open.

I would expect Bow Parkade to be open generating some $$ right up until they pull the trigger on Tower 2 construction.
Will Tower 2 start a year after Tower 1 is open? a few years after? a decade? or more?
Who knows.
Meanwhile the Bow Parkade continues to 'do its thing' and provide parking for all the shiny new towers around it.

If Bow Parkade wasn't generating a profit (or at least break-even), Brookfield would have knocked it over too, build the full block of underground parking and Tower 1, and left the street-level space for Tower 2 as a 'public park' until the market was ready for Tower 2 construction -- see First Canadian Center (aka Bank of Montreal) Tower II across 2nd street for an example.

[Spring2008]

Blue Cypress hinted that tower 2 is planned to start in a year or two. I wouldn`t mind a re-design, keep the atrium though.

[Blue_Cypress]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Are they going to build the entire parkade at once? I thought building 1 was going to be finished before they demolished the existing parkade.

Quoting myself from further up the same page...

Originally Posted by Blue_Cypress

Yes. When complete, the parkade will fill the entire block, but it will be phased. The west side will be completed with the second tower.

I suppose there's some ambiguity, so:

Phase 1: East portion of underground parkade, east tower(taller), partial atrium.

Phase 2: Demolish Bow(bay/above ground) parkade. Build west portion of underground parkade, west tower(shorter), and the full atrium, with the "spanish steps."

Phase 1 is proceeding ahead now. Once complete, parking in the above ground parkade structure will be restricted to ~1450 stalls I believe, as part of the terms of the permit, if it is not demolished before then to allow commencement of phase 2.

There was originally some language in the permit requiring the developer to retain the +15/30 from scotia/bay to the above-ground parkade until such time as phase two was clearly going ahead. The direction things went after that was... discouraging.

Here's a phasing plan from the permit application.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by jsbertram

I don't think you mean the Bow Parkade on the west side of the block will be idle & unused after tower 1 (and the underground parking) is open.

I would expect Bow Parkade to be open generating some $$ right up until they pull the trigger on Tower 2 construction.
Will Tower 2 start a year after Tower 1 is open? a few years after? a decade? or more?
Who knows.
Meanwhile the Bow Parkade continues to 'do its thing' and provide parking for all the shiny new towers around it.

If Bow Parkade wasn't generating a profit (or at least break-even), Brookfield would have knocked it over too, build the full block of underground parking and Tower 1, and left the street-level space for Tower 2 as a 'public park' until the market was ready for Tower 2 construction -- see First Canadian Center (aka Bank of Montreal) Tower II across 2nd street for an example.

I mean that the project will sit idle, not the parkade, Brookfield probably makes some decent coin off that parkade.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by Blue_Cypress

I suppose there's some ambiguity, so:

Phase 1: East portion of underground parkade, east tower(taller), partial atrium.

Phase 2: Demolish Bow(bay/above ground) parkade. Build west portion of underground parkade, west tower(shorter), and the full atrium, with the "spanish steps."

Phase 1 is proceeding ahead now. Once complete, parking in the above ground parkade structure will be restricted to ~1450 stalls I believe, as part of the terms of the permit, if it is not demolished before then to allow commencement of phase 2.

There was originally some language in the permit requiring the developer to retain the +15/30 from scotia/bay to the above-ground parkade until such time as phase two was clearly going ahead.

That's what I thought, was just asking since you mentioned it was going to be similar to how EAP was phased, and they did the entire parkade at once on that job.

Do you know if there will be a connection between the 2 phases of the parkade? I think one entrance / exit is more than enough and there shouldn't be too much settling of the first phase before the second starts.

[Blue_Cypress]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

That's what I thought, was just asking since you mentioned it was going to be similar to how EAP was phased, and they did the entire parkade at once on that job.

Do you know if there will be a connection between the 2 phases of the parkade? I think one entrance / exit is more than enough and there shouldn't be too much settling of the first phase before the second starts.

They'll be interconnected, but there will be two sets of ramps, both emerging at street level onto 6th ave, and the upper levels will be quite convoluted.

[Blue_Cypress]

On another note, I think this may be the least-exciting project I've come across in at least a decade, from a construction and technology standpoint. I think it could be mistaken for a design 4 decades prior. It reminds me a lot of Western Canadian Place (Husky)

[Design-mind]

Mine from today.

[H.E.Pennypacker]

SSP Calgary: "Where people get excited about a big hole being dug"

[Design-mind]

Originally Posted by H.E.Pennypacker

SSP Calgary: "Where people get excited about a big hole being dug"

Hey hey more than a hole here! Look at those excavators, the ramp, oh and those amazing tendon tie backs!

[Chadillaccc]

It's really too bad that even thought the tower will be done and open by 2018, the galleria won't be complete until sometime in the 2020s when/if the west tower is built. :/

[Spring2008]

^Well at least half of it will be open with phase 1.

[PPAR]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

It's really too bad that even thought the tower will be done and open by 2018, the galleria won't be complete until sometime in the 2020s when/if the west tower is built. :/

After what has occurred with the cultural component of the Bow, the city should have insisted on completion of the Galleria and base of the second tower. I think there is more than a small risk that we get only phase 1 of this project with phase 2 joining the ranks of BMO phase 2 ( thirty years and counting).

[Spring2008]

Originally Posted by PPAR

After what has occurred with the cultural component of the Bow, the city should have insisted on completion of the Galleria and base of the second tower. I think there is more than a small risk that we get only phase 1 of this project with phase 2 joining the ranks of BMO phase 2 ( thirty years and counting).

SOunds impossible without demolishing half of that parkade. Phase 2 is only a million square feet of space, will get scooped up. Might see that absorption in a quarter once the office market heats up again.

Btw Eau-Claire Tower is now 75% pre-leased