92 John St N | 104.5m | 31 fl | Proposed

[TheRitsman]

These are actually some of the condos I like the best in Hamilton. I like the podiums on these ones. If they used real brick it would be even nicer. I'd prefer less glass on the first floor with some materiality though.

Emblem's other development in Ottawa looks good imo: https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...5&postcount=69

The 1 Jarvis development is shaping up to look decent too. I really wish they and others would avoid spandrel panels that attempt to emulate the actual glass.

[mikevbar1]

Agree with theRitsman. The benefit of podiums like these are that they create opportunities for good streetwalls that don't usually exist. Makes towers less imposing and streets more complete. Hamilton's flavour of setbacks and design guidelines makes for meatier, more substantive developments- not good for cheap stuff, but great for things like this. It results in a typology that's quite functional and embraces their own size. Instead of pretending it is smaller than it is like they do in Toronto. This project specifically excels at recognizing where the 'human-scale' would benefit from a bit of bulk and imposition, so long as other parts are executed well.

[TheHonestMaple]

Originally Posted by mikevbar1

Agree with theRitsman. The benefit of podiums like these are that they create opportunities for good streetwalls that don't usually exist. Makes towers less imposing and streets more complete. Hamilton's flavour of setbacks and design guidelines makes for meatier, more substantive developments- not good for cheap stuff, but great for things like this. It results in a typology that's quite functional and embraces their own size. Instead of pretending it is smaller than it is like they do in Toronto. This project specifically excels at recognizing where the 'human-scale' would benefit from a bit of bulk and imposition, so long as other parts are executed well.

That would be true if they formed a complete massing down the whole street. They don't though, these building are usually all by themselves. Look at Platinum. Horribly ugly massing. I will say though, Emblem makes nice looking stuff. But podiums are a big no no in pretty much any other place other than the GTA.

[TheRitsman]

I believe that podiums are a pretty common part of most city's tall building guidelines. Vancouver, Ottawa, and many other cities that I'm aware of have podium with tower above set back as part of their official guidelines and current builds.

[mikevbar1]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

That would be true if they formed a complete massing down the whole street. They don't though, these building are usually all by themselves. Look at Platinum. Horribly ugly massing. I will say though, Emblem makes nice looking stuff. But podiums are a big no no in pretty much any other place other than the GTA.

TheRitsman has now taken the words out of my mouth- I forgot to add to my last post that podiums are common (and near-exclusive) to Canada, yes. But, this doesn’t make them “bad” or an anomaly. We adopted them en masse when vancouverism became the de facto model for urban design. Not many other places do urban density how NA does, and I’m not inclined to look to America for urban design advice/alternatives. It’s been a reasonable way for us to ensure towers engage with streets and avoids certain design mistakes of the past.

I find it hard to see the downsides really- where are podiums seen as bad and what is a simple alternative? Presumably it’s just having a continuous tower massing from the street level. But I’d rather have a bad tower with a podium than without.

[ScreamingViking]

I don't mind podiums either (podia?)

So long as they're not butt-ugly.

[ScreamingViking]

I haven't walked around Vancity since the early 1990s, and the "point towers" on podiums had yet to emerge back then. But I'd love to see that city's version in real life.

Last time I was there was about 5 years ago, and I was at a conference in New Westminster (before it too started sprouting tall condos). I loved NewWest. To get to the airport for the journey home I took the skytrain downtown and then to YVR, but didn't get outside in the core.

[Corktowner]

This is going to the Committee of Adjustment next week for a bunch of minor variances: https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings...umentId=367869