Cobalt Luxury Residences On King | 97.5 & 97.5m | 2 x 30 fl | Complete

[movingtohamilton]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

^ The city is working on declaring those municipal lots as surplus land and therefore sell it. So we could see some action soon.

What prevents the buyer from continuing its use as a private parking lot?

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by movingtohamilton

What prevents the buyer from continuing its use as a private parking lot?

Probably the terms of the sale agreement. The city could also rezone the property.

[Boboo]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

It is.

It's also staggering to consider how long it remained largely the same, at least until the glacial pace of change began to accelerate, especially in the past few years.

All the best to everyone here for 2017, and to downtown Hamilton as well.

(PS: nice work Thomax. Thanks! )

I was born and raised in Hamilton, moving away in 1977. And I couldn't agree more with your statement. Coming home every now and then I was always amazed at how little the city had changed. Good to see the progress in revitalizing downtown.

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by thomax

I think they should demolish the rear 1-storey portion of the building, then they'd only have to restore the 2-storey portion and it could be incorporated into the new building nicely.

Something like this...

I'll be honest man, that looks pretty ugly.. still.

Looking back at the older images of this building in the archives, this building looked ugly even THEN. It was all stained and worn looking. The only nice part is the main floor with the glass area. I like that - reminds me of an old 50s diner look. You don't see the old wraparound glass much anymore.

Imo I think they should demo all the old brick and those sad worn out tiled pyramids on top (half of which don't even match each other anymore as some are so bleached), and put something different in. The side of the building has been tagged over and over and just looks awful now, even with the brick painted over. The back entrance looks sad too. This building just needs to be overhauled completely. The days of if being associated with kreskys are long gone.

For me personally, having to have had to take the bus at the bus stop beside it for so long, it just reminds me of the days when hamilton was full of welfare-ridden, on disability, overweight buggie people and old sad retired people and welfare bums playing bingo inside.

I mean compare what used to be in the downtown core in hamiltons heyday:

department stores
crystal and china shops
jewellery and fur shops
cigar shops
cinemas and entertainment

Now compare what is there now:

thrift stores
unemployment services stores
money mart stores
ghetto stores
bingo halls
boarded up buildings
banks

Does this sound like a recipe for success and prestige to you?

the issue here isn't so much the buildings, but the fact that we have ghettofied our downtown core and focused on the lack of jobs and lack of money. Personally I don't think money mart places should be allowed ANYWHERE in the city. Is this the type of people we want to bring into the core? Sure james st north and king william are turning over, but what about the actual core of the city?

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^I like where you're going with that.

I would demo the rear and build up but leave the front of the building alone. But there's no good reason why you'd have to knock the whole thing down.

The City is going to have to grow some b*lls at some point.

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

^I like where you're going with that.

I would demo the rear and build up but leave the front of the building alone. But there's no good reason why you'd have to knock the whole thing down.

The City is going to have to grow some b*lls at some point.

The building has no redeeming value and no historic significance. It is just another ugly building. Tearing it down would be no great loss. The city has to pick it's battles carefully and this isn't a battle they should engage in.

[davidcappi]

http://dailycommercialnews.com/Proje...ence-1020391W/

This article says that one of these towers is to be rental units, one to be condos.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by bigguy1231

The building has no redeeming value and no historic significance. It is just another ugly building. Tearing it down would be no great loss. The city has to pick it's battles carefully and this isn't a battle they should engage in.

^And that's why you don't sit on the board.

[davidcappi]

For many people in Hamilton, this building was never Kresge's. It was only delta bingo. I get giving a nod to those who remember things through rose coloured glasses but for a lot of us that building is a symbol of hamiltons downfall, and seeing it replaced with something new might not be a bad idea.

[movingtohamilton]

Originally Posted by davidcappi

For many people in Hamilton, this building was never Kresge's. It was only delta bingo...

I'm in that group. I was happy when it closed. What's surprising is that we're into the 3rd year of its closing, and the snails-pace of redevelopment carries on.

[Boboo]

Originally Posted by movingtohamilton

I'm in that group. I was happy when it closed. What's surprising is that we're into the 3rd year of its closing, and the snails-pace of redevelopment carries on.

And I am in the group that remembers it as Kresges. It was a staple of downtown. You never went downtown without going to Kresges, Woolworths, Right House, etc. It was an integral part of the downtown experience, but architecturally, nothing special.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Again, apologies for droning on, but who are you and what criteria are you using to determine its specialness?

Many would also agree that the pre-Confederation buildings on the South Side of the Gore are also lacking in importance. That they're 'beyond repair.' That the interiors of those buildings have been completely gutted so 'might as well knock 'em down!' And so on ad nauseam.

The bottom line is that people just love new stuff. That's our culture. The fact that it's made with pre-cast this or papier-mache that is irrelevant, I suppose.

As always, I would point to the Core Urban people as a fine example of how old, un-loved buildings can be lovingly re-developed to suit all tastes. Their MO goes beyond just profit-making. Keep that in mind evaluating the relative merits of this ill-scaled proposal.

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

Again, apologies for droning on, but who are you and what criteria are you using to determine its specialness?

Many would also agree that the pre-Confederation buildings on the South Side of the Gore are also lacking in importance. That they're 'beyond repair.' That the interiors of those buildings have been completely gutted so 'might as well knock 'em down!' And so on ad nauseam.

The bottom line is that people just love new stuff. That's our culture. The fact that it's made with pre-cast this or papier-mache that is irrelevant, I suppose.

As always, I would point to the Core Urban people as a fine example of how old, un-loved buildings can be lovingly re-developed to suit all tastes. Their MO goes beyond just profit-making. Keep that in mind evaluating the relative merits of this ill-scaled proposal.

imo you would have to sandblast or chemically treat the brick of this building to make it even look remotely attractive again. I just don't know if the work on the building itself is worth it. I am also one of the people who only ever saw it as the bingo hall. I wish I had been able to see it as kreskys... I do like the wraparound glass part - I just think the top part needs.. revitalization of some sort. Maybe even re-bricking the whole thing possibly...

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^My view is grounded in a love of history along with a total and complete lack of trust and general skepticism of the modern-day architect.

With some minor exceptions, today's architect has shown himself to be largely incapable of producing anything of worth or quality, especially in Hamilton.

In terms of history, that Kresge's building has been around for 8 decades. What's the lifespan of your typical new-build today? When does the stucco, the particle board, the aluminium, the vinyl siding and all the other cheap $h!t that passes for construction material today start peeling off the facade? A decade maybe?

In the end, if it were a developer with more of a pedigree, I'd relent and allow its razing to transpire. As it is, why would I trust a suburban homebuilder like Frisina Group with a project like this? Let them build on one of the empty parking lots if they're so keen on the city centre.

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

^My view is grounded in a love of history along with a total and complete lack of trust and general skepticism of the modern-day architect.

With some minor exceptions, today's architect has shown himself to be largely incapable of producing anything of worth or quality, especially in Hamilton.

In terms of history, that Kresge's building has been around for 8 decades. What's the lifespan of your typical new-build today? When does the stucco, the particle board, the aluminium, the vinyl siding and all the other cheap $h!t that passes for construction material today start peeling off the facade? A decade maybe?

In the end, if it were a developer with more of a pedigree, I'd relent and allow its razing to transpire. As it is, why would I trust a suburban homebuilder like Frisina Group with a project like this? Let them build on one of the empty parking lots if they're so keen on the city centre.

I'd love to see buildings go up around the underground!

Did you know they actually proposed to build a park on that lot, and TEAR DOWN the underground? Like why? All these empty parting lots and you choose to make a park where there is still a building left? People don't seem to have any brains..

[King&James]

https://twitter.com/__Ronin/status/8...162945/photo/1

Saw this render in a tweet (link),

[thmx]

^ That's Queen Street Condominiums

[King&James]

Originally Posted by thomax

^ That's Queen Street Condominiums

Ug - sorry - looked like a double tower - should have looked around a bit! I guess no news on this site.

[Boboo]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

Again, apologies for droning on, but who are you and what criteria are you using to determine its specialness?

Many would also agree that the pre-Confederation buildings on the South Side of the Gore are also lacking in importance. That they're 'beyond repair.' That the interiors of those buildings have been completely gutted so 'might as well knock 'em down!' And so on ad nauseam.

The bottom line is that people just love new stuff. That's our culture. The fact that it's made with pre-cast this or papier-mache that is irrelevant, I suppose.

As always, I would point to the Core Urban people as a fine example of how old, un-loved buildings can be lovingly re-developed to suit all tastes. Their MO goes beyond just profit-making. Keep that in mind evaluating the relative merits of this ill-scaled proposal.

And my apologies for taking so long to reply. But who are you and what gives you the right to criticize a personal opinion of what constitutes architectural "specialness"? It is a simple statement of my feeling towards the architecture of this building and as such is not subject to you debating. It is an undeniable fact - I do not believe that the building is interesting - sorry, but that point is not debatable. You can state that you feel the building is interesting and I will respect your point of view. Not everyone views a piece of art the same way. Having said that - nowhere did I state, or imply, that the building should be torn down and sold for scrap. In fact I am disgusted by the demolition of Hamilton's history. But that has nothing to do with whether or not I personally find a certain architecture to be interesting or not. A building may be nothing special architecturally but that does not imply that it has no historical significance nor that it is not worthy of preservation efforts.

[eatboots]

Usually it's pretty easy to tell if something should or could be saved, while I totally believe Hamilton has knocked down way too much great stuff I also don't think this Kresge building is worth saving, what's left of it is pretty meh. The buildings on the corner of James and Wilson on the other hand absolutely must be saved.