154 Main St East | 81.75 m | 26 fl | Complete

[thomax]

154 Main St. E. | 7/5/2020 by Joe, on Flickr


154 Main St. E. | 7/5/2020 by Joe, on Flickr

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by thomax

154 Main St. E. | 7/5/2020 by Joe, on Flickr

The next Core Urban project?

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

The next Core Urban project?

I'd love to see them revive that brown building with the boarded up windows in the center of the image above.

Or the giant rowhouse strip with half the pediments missing on the other side of the street of it.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by Chronamut

I'd love to see them revive that brown building with the boarded up windows in the center of the image above.

Or the giant rowhouse strip with half the pediments missing on the other side of the street of it.

A building permit was issued in June 2019 to renovate the building, but no activity seems to have started.

https://www.hamilton.ca/sites/defaul...9-statscan.pdf

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

A building permit was issued in June 2019 to renovate the building, but no activity seems to have started.

https://www.hamilton.ca/sites/defaul...9-statscan.pdf

Imo the downtown core should be like Niagara on the lake - you have to keep your facade looking pristine. Half of downtown should have never deteriorated to the point that it did.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by Chronamut

Imo the downtown core should be like Niagara on the lake - you have to keep your facade looking pristine. Half of downtown should have never deteriorated to the point that it did.

The city should buy property downtown that is deteriorated and sell it to people on mortgage with 0% interest if they fix it up. The new property tax from the value of the property would be more than the interest anyway.

You would get more property tax so the city increases tax revenue, it would fix areas of delapitated buildings and it would increase economic activities.

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

The city should buy property downtown that is deteriorated and sell it to people on mortgage with 0% interest if they fix it up. The new property tax from the value of the property would be more than the interest anyway.

You would get more property tax so the city increases tax revenue, it would fix areas of delapitated buildings and it would increase economic activities.

There are things you can apply for if you have a heritage facade to help pay for it from the city I believe..

And yeah something definitely needs to be done. Most people can't afford to restore a facade AND run a business, so they just degrade over time.. or fall off. Or get chiseled off in some of hamiltons less glorious moments in history, like the william thomas building..

[thomax]

7/20/2020 by Joe, on Flickr

[SteelTown]

I like this; it's adding a little spice to the variety of buildings, mostly commie blocks.

But god damn I hate that dark grey building and that other building that's half white and dark grey (what they ran out of paint?)

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

I like this; it's adding a little spice to the variety of buildings, mostly commie blocks.

But god damn I hate that dark grey building and that other building that's half white and dark grey (what they ran out of paint?)

As for our many, many Commie Blocks, I think it would be cool if we were to take a creative approach with our design schemes: huge murals, landscapes, rainbows, whatever. Some people would be annoyed by it but, really, we've got very little to lose...

[Crapht]

Agree 100% with large murals on many of those buildings. Also I would like to see some funky lighting on the side of 25 Main st west. Is that too much to ask

https://goo.gl/maps/6Bov5vGapvEiyyHu8

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

I like this; it's adding a little spice to the variety of buildings, mostly commie blocks.

But god damn I hate that dark grey building and that other building that's half white and dark grey (what they ran out of paint?)

Those bug me too. The latter is the one on Market St., right? It has a shorter neighbour given the same decorative treatment.

I was on York today and noticed that the north side of the shorter wider one has patches where the dark paint has worn off or been scraped away. You can see it in the current street view!

Not many of the older buildings have been reclad or "refreshed" very nicely. The only ones that come to mind that I think are ok are the Oakland Square twins. Most of the others generate a

[SteelTown]

Yuck, so hideous.

I bet those apartments with the dark grey are owned by the same people, probably got a discount on the bulk paint order.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

As for our many, many Commie Blocks, I think it would be cool if we were to take a creative approach with our design schemes: huge murals, landscapes, rainbows, whatever. Some people would be annoyed by it but, really, we've got very little to lose...

I've see a few commie blocks in Toronto build their first 2 to 3 storeys outward toward the street to allow first floor walk ups and some commercial. The giant unused green space surrounding these commie blocks kills the vibrancy of the street, and is essentially a fancy front lawn. They could easily tighten these up and allow the trees to stay and make a few better pedestrian welcoming canyons.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

I've see a few commie blocks in Toronto build their first 2 to 3 storeys outward toward the street to allow first floor walk ups and some commercial. The giant unused green space surrounding these commie blocks kills the vibrancy of the street, and is essentially a fancy front lawn. They could easily tighten these up and allow the trees to stay and make a few better pedestrian welcoming canyons.

Sure. To me, it's the ultimate creative project, a completely blank canvas. There's almost nothing you could do to make it worse. Except, perhaps, to paint it beige...

[Chronamut]

I think this is a good lesson of when you build things too tightly together..

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamil...fire-1.5664100

Just happened yesterday or the other day - buncha stoney creek townhouses went up in flames as one caught on fire and a prevailing wind blew it across and set the rest on fire.. have we learned nothing from the 1800s when we burned down most of the city this way?



Also I don't get your peoples obsessions with canyons - hamiltonians like the sun - they like being able to see the sky. They like the fronts of the buildings illuminated by the sun - we don't want a toronto experience where every street is shadowed by crazy high buildings on each side with wind tunnel effects where it can be bright and sunny but it feels like fall all the time and you never see the sun.

2 of the main reasons people come to visit the city is because they can see so much of the sky here and because of the old architecture - it's why the city is trying to preserve both as much as they can. The escarpment view preservation is up for debate but I honestly don't want a canyon city. Sorry.

Now upon saying that I am not against things like king william street - or james street - filling in gaps - short storied canyons sure - it's nice to have buildings all across on each side - but they have to be built smart and the facades should a minimum be 3 stories, and at MAX be 6. Anything above that like with william stomas should be set back so it's just there, and not the main focus from the street. Imo that building was done smart.

I've said it before and ive said it again - this city has so much old that it should focus with combining with the new - core urban has done an EXCELLENT job of this all over the city.

I'd love to see heritage style on the bottom facades and modern buildings erupting out of the top. Imo fusing the 2 is the perfect compromise.

And yeah that grey and white building just reeks of old dingy apartment building style attempted to be gussied up cheaply. If you're gonna go the style of condos just knock these down and build something newer. And prettier.

[TheRitsman]

This is what I was referring to Chronamut: https://youtu.be/xov7Ao_fPwQ

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

This is what I was referring to Chronamut: https://youtu.be/xov7Ao_fPwQ

Ahh ok you are referring to ENCLOSURE, not canyon. I think that should be something that is worth distinguishing. I know for me when I think of canyon I think of a road that has buildings so high on each side it feels like a canyon. And I don't like that.

There is a bit to unpack from that video. I like how he states the buildings should have neighbour friendly style - I agree - esp. in areas like king william and gore park and james st - I feel those buildings should have consistent styles.

These 3 streets are also your "enclosure" areas of the city. King st all the way to where the downtown arches are is a perfect example of an area enclosed on both sides.

HOWEVER, the city has forgotten its roots in many of the new buildings it is building. It has sort of re-introduced this on king william in the porticos to shade people from the sun as they eat, but not on king st in gore park where it was historically on every building to shade people from the elements while they walked down and shopped in comfort.

We need that back - they weren't just there for aesthetic. I know a lot of them got grody over the years but still. Even the windows above had porticos that could be folded up or popped out. Our city also does not make good use of windows in that it doesn't use windows that can be tinted from the sun like in your car. Thus a place with mostly glazing just gets covered up with window treatments to block it all out, thus making it completely ineffective. What's the point of having all windows if you are just going to cover them all up?

I do like the feel king william is going for - at least on the north side. The south side is obviously in transition - and buildings like the cobalt and the EVENTUAL building on the old zellers site will do a lot for that, and any transition onto the new eatons center location as well.

King street is classic and a good portion of it still works as it originally did in the far east section - gore park area however is losing that.

James street is rapidly being restored and still has that enclosed feel, which is great for festivals like art crawl and supercrawl (well pre-covid-19 anyways.)

as for other places in the city.. nooot... really. One could argue places like ottawa street could be, but the building to road ratio is too low.

[King&James]

Didn't count... must be coming close to 22...

[urban_planner]

They have raised the crane.