Canadian City Proposals - Page 110

esquire · #**2181** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 1:11 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

I'm not sure how you can defend that proposal. It's just plain dated and ugly.

I'm not saying it's a beauty. Do you think it would be preferable for nothing at all to be built instead?

MonkeyRonin · #**2182** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 1:36 AM**

Must it be a choice between ugly or nothing? It's not as if good design need be any more expensive.

TorontoDrew · #**2183** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 2:37 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

I'm not saying it's a beauty. Do you think it would be preferable for nothing at all to be built instead?

Honestly...........yes.

esquire · #**2184** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 3:20 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Honestly...........yes.

If you can't handle the sight of a few ugly buildings, then I think you may be living in the wrong town.

Beedok · #**2185** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 3:36 AM**

Those Regina buildings are ugly. They've got a hospital look. Maybe the material will be amazing, but I have serious doubts. They look like low quality office towers or something. Yuck.

Regina can do better.

WhipperSnapper · #**2186** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 3:52 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

If you can't handle the sight of a few ugly buildings, then I think you may be living in the wrong town.

I really hope you're just in the mood for argument. These tower proposals are hideous with a piss poor urban form. There are so unfortunately bad that the only comparable is a widely recognize urban renewal mistake from 50 years ago. And, even with their advanced age, the St. Jamestown towers still look better.

WhipperSnapper · #**2187** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 3:53 AM**

double post

city guy · #**2188** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 5:48 AM**

http://vimeo.com/84787920

esquire · #**2189** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 6:36 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I really hope you're just in the mood for argument. These tower proposals are hideous with a piss poor urban form. There are so unfortunately bad that the only comparable is a widely recognize urban renewal mistake from 50 years ago. And, even with their advanced age, the St. Jamestown towers still look better.

Then build something better. I'm sure the people of Regina will appreciate it.

Dwils01 · #**2190** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 7:21 AM**

That Regina proposal looks more like a massing study. There is no way in 2015 that this building will be what the final product looks like.

caltrane74 · #**2191** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 12:27 PM**

Regina - 0
Vancouver - 1

Lol! General Hospital? I never watched that soap, but that building looks like the one in the opening credits!

Beedok · #**2192** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 4:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

Then build something better. I'm sure the people of Regina will appreciate it.

I love comments like this. Because we're all multi millionaires with massive real estate holdings and the capital available to build a highrise or skyscraper.

esquire · #**2193** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 4:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beedok

I love comments like this. Because we're all multi millionaires with massive real estate holdings and the capital available to build a highrise or skyscraper.

Apparently some of you think that the developer of the Regina project has endless amounts of capital to throw at their proposal regardless of profitability... what exactly is the difference between that view and my previous comment?

Beedok · #**2194** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 4:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

Apparently some of you think that the developer of the Regina project has endless amounts of capital to throw at their proposal regardless of profitability... what exactly is the difference between that view and my previous comment?

I don't think they have endless money, but it wouldn't take too much to fix things. Balconies alone would go a long way to at least making the building look like something other than a hospital. The cost difference between a bad building and a good one is less than the difference between no building and a good one by an order or magnitude or so.

WhipperSnapper · #**2195** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 5:04 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

Then build something better. I'm sure the people of Regina will appreciate it.

Your being ridiculously defensive. Is this your handy work?

Doesn't take much to pull the office floor plate up to the retail's level and build a real 4 storey street wall. It will still be an ugly — but, at least it will have some semblance of an urban form.

esquire · #**2196** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 6:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beedok

I don't think they have endless money, but it wouldn't take too much to fix things. Balconies alone would go a long way to at least making the building look like something other than a hospital. The cost difference between a bad building and a good one is less than the difference between no building and a good one by an order or magnitude or so.

Not everyone wants to pay for balconies. They are limited in their usefulness in a prairie climate...believe me, I've lived in suites that have had them.

And that aside, I don't think balconies do much to make a building more attractive. If anything, they clutter a facade.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Your being ridiculously defensive. Is this your handy work?

Doesn't take much to pull the office floor plate up to the retail's level and build a real 4 storey street wall. It will still be an ugly — but, at least it will have some semblance of an urban form.

Sorry for not buying into the fantasyland groupthink, but these projects have to exist in the real world. Outside of Skyscraperpage, compromise is occasionally necessary.

Beedok · #**2197** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 6:10 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

Not everyone wants to pay for balconies. They are limited in their usefulness in a prairie climate...believe me, I've lived in suites that have had them.

They're of use a few months of the year. With less rain that probably balances out all the extra cold.

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

And that aside, I don't think balconies do much to make a building more attractive. If anything, they clutter a facade.

They might clutter (if done poorly), but at least it would be clear the building was a residence not a hospital or an old folks home. Besides that was just one option. Anything short of hot pink clown murals would probably be an improvement.

biguc · #**2198** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 6:17 PM**

Regina is a small market that doesn't command high rents. Developers just can't afford to build stunners there. In other words: People are willing to pay out the — to live in Yorkville, so Toronto gets nice buildings like 1 Bloor; nobody is willing to pay out the — to live in Regina, so Regina gets whatever that dumpy building is.

Typical that a bunch of Torontonians are out of touch with how things work in a different part of Canada.

Martin Mtl · #**2199** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 6:33 PM**

The idea that it costs a fortune to build good architecture is completely fallacious. All it needs, really, is good taste and the will to build quality in terms of design, materials and urban integration. There are very bad buildings that costed a fortune and there are just as many very good ones that didn't.

Innsertnamehere · #**2200** Posted **Jan 4, 2015, 6:37 PM**

...

There are plenty of buildings in Canada (not just Toronto) that look far better than that price of — that are going up for the same price.

Take a look at Toronto suburbs and their projects, nothing to write home about, but still not horrible. Or some of the projects in Hamilton, one of the cheapest housing markets in the country. A cheap housing market (of which Regina is far from the bottom of the list) doesn't mean you need to have complete sh*t architecture.

Believe it or not people are capable of looking at scenarios outside of their own city as well, and many of the Toronto forumers have lived outside of the city before.