Canadian City Proposals II

[Maldive]

Shortly after the NY Times reported the passing of Frank Gehry I posted the news in the 10 Tallest U/C thread... along with a Forma pic, which perhaps might be his last design to be constructed(?).

RIP Frank, you will be missed.

[gaviscon]

From an outsider perspective, DT Ottawa feels like what Calgary DT aspires to be, but the skyline competes with Kitchener for the ugliest title...

[WhipperSnapper]

Waterloo design cues appear influenced from current Eastern European aesthetics whereas Ottawa appears a mash up of Ontario's multi-family post war boom from 70 years ago and current Quebec designs. Similar but, distinct.

I'm big on aesthetics when it comes to creating environments but, currently in Canada, how a tower looks feels less important from the political pressure through incentives and breaks to maximizing housing with oversized scale and massing or, in a small community of hundreds or thousands, multi-family apartment complexes that aren't in demand but will end up making the community less affordable.

[craner]

Originally Posted by gaviscon

From an outsider perspective, DT Ottawa feels like what Calgary DT aspires to be, but the skyline competes with Kitchener for the ugliest title...

DT Calgary aspires to be like DT Ottawa at street level - is that what you mean ?

[SteelTown]

Ontario Building More Homes Near Transit in Hamilton
Province unlocking vacant land for up to 642 new homes near West Harbour GO Station

https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1...it-in-hamilton

HAMILTON — The Ontario government is supporting the construction of up to 642 new homes at 405 James Street North (Jamesville) near the West Harbour GO Station in Hamilton. As part of its work to protect Ontario and in partnership with the municipal government, the province is unlocking this vacant land through a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) to build more homes and keep workers in tariff-hit sectors on the job in the face of economic uncertainty.

“I want to thank Mayor Horwath for identifying this tremendous opportunity to speed up the redevelopment of Jamesville, ending years of delays to get shovels in the ground and get more homes built for people who need them,” said Rob Flack, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “Our government is proud to partner with Hamilton and provide the city with the tools and support it needs to get vital housing projects like this one underway as fast as possible.”

To address pent-up housing demand, the City of Hamilton requested Ontario issue an MZO. Vacant since 2019, the province is helping to accelerate redevelopment of Jamesville, allowing CityHousing Hamilton, Indwell and the Jamesville Redevelopment Limited Partnership to revitalize the site with new apartment buildings and townhouses that include up to 210 affordable units, achieving Ontario and Hamilton’s shared goal of increasing density near transit and providing a mix of market and affordable housing options.

More information about the project, the project was stalled because of CN's objection since it's close to one of their train yards.

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

Docs are up:

[MonctonRad]

A new dense urban neighbourhood proposed for northwest Moncton on the last big parcel of unused land within the Wheeler Blvd loop: Proponent is Shannex, and they have been working diligently with the city of Moncton for some time. The city has just installed an access street to this site from Mountain Road, and, have constructed a new roundabout. This is a deadly serious development

Station Yards:

Site Plan



Shannex campus is to the left. Lower density townhomes are towards the bottom (next to existing residential neighbourhood), with the higher density development towards the back, behind the Northwest Centre and Ryan Street.

The Shannex campus is much bigger than it is right now. Lots of room for significant expansion. Currently only the nursing homes are constructed. The assisted living and independent living buildings are yet to come.

Height maxes out at 16-18 storeys in the high density component of the development This proposed development will be the new regional node for the northwest end, and an important one too, being so close to retail and services.

Road Network



They will likely connect this development up to the stub of Ryan Road and allow right in/right out road access from Mountain Road. They are also Talking about putting in an overpass over Wheeler to connect with the main part of Ryan Street, but only for active transportation and pedestrians.

Lands for Public Purposes



Land for public purposes is shown in green, and is limited to a corridor through the heart of the development. At the top however, you can see a big green square containing a large building. This building is anticipated to be a new civic community centre. They said during the presentation that this is the same size as the Kay/Crossman Community Centre in the Lewisville neighbourhood. The Kay/Crossman Centre includes a hockey rink, gymnasium, walking tracks and community rooms. I imagine this will be something similar.

District Height Map



The numbers are a little blurry since this is a screen capture, but height gets progressively taller as you get closer to the Northwest Centre and to Ryan Street. The tallest buildings will be 18 storeys. The closeness of this community to the adjacent retail areas even had the presenter from town planning uttering the "15 minute" dog-whistle phrase.......

Sections Within the Neighbourhood



1 - Shannex Campus (already started, but will be expanded to the north and the south).
2 - Neighbourhood Section (contains townhomes and midrises, (will begin construction soon after approval is given, most likely next year)
3 - High Density Residential Section ( will not start until the neighbourhood section is close to completion, perhaps in 5-8 years).

What to ExpectL


This illustration shows the neighbourhood section

From the Shannex website:

STATION YARDS:

This destination Lifestyle Community will inspire social connection and pride of place, enriching the lives of every local resident through the addition of accessible public spaces, services, memberships and more. A continuum of premium lifestyle options, amenities and age-friendly spaces will invite New Brunswickers to live, work and play at Station Yards.

This multi-phase development will be home to Parkland Station Yards, two nursing homes operated by Shannex Enhanced Care, and a master-planned community being developed in collaboration with the City of Moncton.

Parkland Station Yards will offer independent and supportive lifestyle options, along with intergenerational connection through building design, community partnerships, on-site services and programming. For Parkland Station Yards residents and those living nearby, a Parkland Club membership-based program will provide access to amenity spaces such as a gym, wellness clinic, dining venues and more. A short-term stay option will also be available for families, and visitors seeking a fully furnished suite.

Shannex Enhanced Care will operate two licensed long term care communities named Gordon Hall (opened June 7, 2023) and Ocean Hall (opening September 7, 2023). The two homes are connected via an industry-leading Main Street design and will welcome a total of 120 residents.

A master-planned community will be developed as part of Station Yards, which has been consciously designed to align with Shannex’s commitment to being a leader in energy management. This development is led by Shannex and built by our sister company, ACL Design Build Solutions.

Community and Building Names

Inspired by the region’s shared history and traditions, along with input from local residents and team members, the name Station Yards pays tribute to the Canadian National (CN) railway and the hub city’s historic role as a connector. Gordon Hall honors Gordon Yard, the formal name of the Moncton Hump Yard and CN’s principal yard visited frequently by long-distance and local trains. Ocean Hall is named after the oldest continuously operated named passenger train in North America. The Ocean, owned by Via Rail, moves commuters between Montreal and Halifax. Future names will also align with Moncton’s great history, and we look forward to sharing more soon.

For any inquiries please email [email protected]

I believe this image shows one of the independent living buildings on the Shannex campus

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

More information about the project, the project was stalled because of CN's objection since it's close to one of their train yards.

The plan has changed slightly since these renderings were released, with a 20-storey tower added at the southeast corner now:

[Maldive]

59-65 Adelaide Street East | 227.55m | 63s | Premium | BDP Quadrangle l pre-construction

Another 200 metre+ proposal (lost count) that may be little more than yet another up-zoning play. We’re lucky in T.O. to have so many great (real) talls under construction so the fictional stuff is a shrug.


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[TorontoDrew]

Even if it's not real I kind of like it.

[zoomer]

The Jamesville Hamilton projects looks fantastic - 9/10! I'd give it a 10 if they improved the design of the mid-rise apartment buildings, but the rest including the layout of the property looks fantastic. I'd take a dozen of these in any Canadian city pronto. Far better than the generic 6-storey wood frame rectangular boxes that seem to be the default for building density outside of downtown cores across the country. I wonder how much more these cost to build - maybe 20%? For something that looks 100% better and will likely have a longer life span. I know, every penny counts nowadays..

Also kudos to Moncton - a pretty dense suburban neighbourhood there and with the efforts downtown should hopefully prevent further sprawl, although maybe some would categorize this as sprawl? I don't know the area well enough to comment further.

And yep, that Toronto tower looks cool (if impractical) except for the original base building which does not blend well, but hey, that's part of Torontoism for better or worse.

[Maldive]

Mississauga

Clarkson TOC | 147.75m | 45s | Infrastructure ON | Zeidler l pre-construction

Incudes 7 towers at 25, 30, 35, 40, 40, 45, and 45 storeys, with 2,343 residential units and 2,161 sq. m. of commercial space next to a GO Transit station.


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[Innsertnamehere]

that site plan makes absolutely 0 sense.

[Maldive]

8-12 Benner Avenue | 122.08m | 37s | DBS + Achille | BDPQ l pre-construction


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[trueviking]

^ I don't see the CN Tower in the rendering, and I know that poster doesn't believe in adding the location because he believes this is a local Toronto thread, so I'll just assume that's another Toronto no-name tower.....it's really a shame that's how the city is growing....soulless....generic towers...one after another....relentless.....sometimes a postage stamp heritage facade glued to the bottom....they have wasted a boom era.

Love that Hamilton proposal.

[GeneralLea]

Yeah, the site is close to two subway stations (Glencairn and Eglinton West), but I only found out from Google. It's not close to downtown, but, not too far since its near the subway (the site is basically in the middle of Toronto).

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by trueviking

^ I don't see the CN Tower in the rendering, and I know that poster doesn't believe in adding the location because he believes this is a local Toronto thread, so I'll just assume that's another Toronto no-name tower.....it's really a shame that's how the city is growing....soulless....generic towers...one after another....relentless.....sometimes a postage stamp heritage facade glued to the bottom....they have wasted a boom era.

Harsh, but not entirely unwarranted - particularly the last statement. Given the almost insatiable appetite of the development industry over the past 20 years, it's unfortunate that the City didn't take a more proactive approach to design and use all that demand to enforce higher architectural standards or perhaps even a more cohesive, locally-derived vernacular. And what passes for heritage preservation is just shameful.

Still, I'd temper my criticisms somewhat by arguing that the development boom has still been a net positive for the city. Lots of new residents, almost all of the gaps in the urban fabric have been filled, and it just feels like a much bigger, denser place than it ever has. And they did get some great new towers out of it. I'd break down Toronto's recent builds as being something like 10% of them are great, 20% are good, 20% are bad, 10% awful; and the remaining 40% mediocre - just completely forgettable filler.

[someone123]

I think it's a valid criticism but you'd need to say more about the context of these towers. A tower in a prominent downtown location is more important than one next to a highway in the suburbs. Ideally they'd all be nice, but realistically there will always be generic filler buildings, and these at least are a step up from the 2000's.

There's a lot of good stuff in Toronto. I wish there were more street-level detailing/ornamentation (a criticism aimed at all commercial scale construction around the world over many decades), and it would be good to try to do something about huge building footprints (Toronto specifically being bad for this). Then there's the whole investor shoebox condo problem. Also yes please actually preserve the last 5% of the historic buildings instead of the taxidermy approach.

[Nouvellecosse]

While I've long been very critical of the bland and often repetitive designs that appeared during the condo boom, I'll also say that for most of the last century, most growth in NA was in the form of soulless, generic cookie-cutter houses in endless suburban subdivisions. That deserves far more criticism than housing that adds density to the central city, puts less strain regional infrastructure, wastes fewer resources, and destroyed less natural environment and agricultural land. It can be tempting to compare low to mid-range residential towers with landmark office buildings, hotels, and luxury towers, but the choice was never between those things. While I'm sure there are designs that would have looked better, middle class housing was never going to add to a city's aesthetics the way other highrise booms have. So some of the disappointment is down to inappropriate expectations.

While some worry that the unit sizes are too small, the overly large suburban houses that tend to be the alternative would be too far, too car dependent, and in too ugly of landscapes making them even worse.

[trueviking]

Controversial project moving forward in Winnipeg. Designed by myself.

The site is a surface parking lot next to the historic Granite Curling Club. Often called the Mother Club, it is the oldest curling club in the west and one of the oldest curling buildings in Canada.

As part of the city's Housing Accelerator Fund commitment to build affordable housing on city-owned property, it has been declared surplus, and a not-for-profit housing developer was engaged. The club's board, which is a month-to-month lease tenant of the city-owned building has fought the development because they fear losing part of their parking. This, despite the fact that the development agreement will provide long-term, stable funding to the club from the profits of the residential building. The city will likely figure out a way to replace some, but not all of the parking. There are lots of residential streets in the area with parking. There is also a massive parking lot for Canada Life's Head Office right across the street where curlers can park after office hours, but there is no formal agreement to provide parking. They just allow it as good neighbours.

The project is on the edge of downtown along the Assiniboine River, in a neighbourhood called West Broadway.

The provincial Municipal Board, which is an appeals board, sided with the club and said the project could only proceed with a parking plan approved by the tenant. The city is basically playing chicken and ignoring the province, saying that it is illegal for them to overrule their property rights and give that power to a tenant. They are essentially daring them to take it to court.

Cladding is red brick to compliment the historic facades of the curling club. The ninth-floor terrace has common area views across downtown and the neighbouring legislative building and grounds. It will be a mix of market, affordable and deeply affordable homes and Net Zero Carbon.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

that site plan makes absolutely 0 sense.

The site plan is consistent as the heights and densities make no sense either from a non skyscraper/skyline enthusiast's perspective.