This soil testing would be to inform the Geotechnical Report required for the 2nd submission. Unlike other municipalities, Hamilton doesn't require the full list of technical reports until the 2nd SPA submission. A Geotechnical report was not submitted with the initial application.
- 905 Residential units now
- 626 Parking Spaces
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There have been a few design changes. And while I'd still be generally critical of a lot of the design, including the lack of more retail, and the general feeling of the attempt to integrate "brick" with the heritage elements, I do think this submission looks and feels significantly better.
My biggest criticism would be the massive number of driveways. There are 5, and two of which connect in the middle for no real reason with a Woonerf style drive. Two parking entrances both off George street which will be a clusterfuck for traffic, unsure why at least one entrance isn't off Main St.
I tried to post the pictures below in a clockwise fashion around the base of the building starting with the southeast corner at Main and Caroline. I will post some more tomorrow.
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Hamilton Downtown. Huge tabletop skyline fan. Typically viewing the city from the street, not a helicopter. Cycling, transit and active transportation advocate 🚲🚍🚋
The architecture itself is fine. I'm even indifferent on the mid block driveway, cognizant of the condition of Main Street and how the local road will create a calmer pedestrian environment for the block. Even if Main is eventually 2-wayed and cut to 4 lanes, it's always going to be the primary vehicular corridor through downtown and is never going to be *super* pedestrian friendly.
I agree that all the accesses off of George Street are too much though. There is no reason a single 3 tower development needs 5 curb cuts, usually by having multi-tower developments one of the bonuses is reducing the number of curb cuts. They try to make it look otherwise, but as planned right now George Street would end up being basically little more than a rear lane servicing this development. The parking ramps should be consolidated to just a single ramp access, which should easily be able to handle 600 car parking spaces, and if possible, both the parking ramp and loading dock should be shifted to be off of the local driveway.
The Hess St frontage is possibly the best part of the project, and looks intelligently handled. Not more needs to be done there, I think. Even the Main St frontage looks generally good, though I may be partial to giving more space for the sidewalk and providing more connections to the local driveway for pedestrians compared to the little fence they are planning right now.
With Hess Village being next door as a destination, you'd think there would be a hotel component. The front entrance looks like a hotel; the first six floors could be hotel space.
Fingers crossed we see this break ground this summer.
Not a chance. This is next year at earliest at the point it's at. Developments this large require significantly more planning and I suspect staff will recommend changes to the drive entrances too.
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Hamilton Downtown. Huge tabletop skyline fan. Typically viewing the city from the street, not a helicopter. Cycling, transit and active transportation advocate 🚲🚍🚋
Not a chance. This is next year at earliest at the point it's at. Developments this large require significantly more planning and I suspect staff will recommend changes to the drive entrances too.
We'll see. SPA was submitted a solid two years ago.
There should be an LRT stop at Bay st. The density between this project, vrancor's two towers, and McMaster tower, combined with FirstOntario center should provide merit for a stop being there. Most likely another tower going up next to A&W in the future too.
As of right now, all of those people have to walk to James st to head East and Queen st to head west. I understand they are pretty close, but this is the heart of the city. From a cost/benefit point of view, I see there being more of a benefit for a stop being at Bay versus a cost of the LRT ride being 1-2 minutes longer as a result of this stop.
There should be an LRT stop at Bay st. The density between this project, vrancor's two towers, and McMaster tower, combined with FirstOntario center should provide merit for a stop being there. Most likely another tower going up next to A&W in the future too.
As of right now, all of those people have to walk to James st to head East and Queen st to head west. I understand they are pretty close, but this is the heart of the city. From a cost/benefit point of view, I see there being more of a benefit for a stop being at Bay versus a cost of the LRT ride being 1-2 minutes longer as a result of this stop.
I agree. When I first moved here I thought a Bay St stop wouldn't be warranted, but I do think so now. I suspect one will be retrofit in the future. I hope the city has made room for future stop addition. Especially with FOC it makes sense since I'm sure after it's fixed up more events will be there, but even now the King and Bay intersection is one of the busiest with pedestrian traffic.
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Hamilton Downtown. Huge tabletop skyline fan. Typically viewing the city from the street, not a helicopter. Cycling, transit and active transportation advocate 🚲🚍🚋
James is very close so it’s not super necessary, but it wouldn’t hurt either.
This project is closer to Queen station anyways.
It's not too far, but it's a bit of a trek for rapid transit in Hamilton. The big reason it wasn't included was cost saving and time saving. Despite the fact that the goal wasn't to improve speed by that much, the trip taking longer than it currently takes off-peak would have looked bad.
Currently taking the 10 would be 33 minutes, during rush hour that likely goes to 40 minutes. I believe the LRT is touting 31 minutes end to end.
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Hamilton Downtown. Huge tabletop skyline fan. Typically viewing the city from the street, not a helicopter. Cycling, transit and active transportation advocate 🚲🚍🚋
Regarding the apartment building on Caroline S that is on the same property as the Arrival Inn - back in the 90s when it was an EconoLodge I stayed there with some friends after doing some drinking downtown -- and at that time the hotel had been expanded into that former apartment building. At various points it's had different flags (it was later a Quality Inn) and has continued to seemingly slide into full-blown seediness.
As for the heritage registration, back when I was a kid and it was the Town Manor it had a very cool mid-century vibe including a distinctive 'screen' on the building facing Main Street -- all long since stripped away/covered over (I believe the patterned brickwork is still visible on the building on the corner of Main and Caroline S)...there may have been some potential at some point for a retro-vibe restoration but that ship has likely sailed...the types of development encroaching on the area will eventually make the property ripe for redevelopment.
I wonder if the developers here are debating a site plan change again since the weird layout was largely a result of Main St being one way. If the city is seriously considering a two way conversion of Main St, this site plan would be even worse and even less necessary.
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Hamilton Downtown. Huge tabletop skyline fan. Typically viewing the city from the street, not a helicopter. Cycling, transit and active transportation advocate 🚲🚍🚋
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