Lower Kitchener (534 Charles St E) | 32, 27, 15 fl | Proposed

[nms]

If they managed to echo that central tower in the rest of the street level facade and/or towers, it would stand out.

[panamaniac]

Not sure what you mean by "echo", but my first reaction would be why bother. It didn't really amount to much at Barra. I woulzd have thought that a clever developer would have little trouble integrating the Onward tower and/or facade into a larger development (bonus - a nifty plaza out front!).

[tomh009]

A demolition permit has been issued for 1001 King St E (the rightmost building on the Onward property, a converted single-family house) and demolition is now under way.

[Lens]

That thing has been falling apart for years, just a liability demo.

[taylortbb]

Vive has updated their website, and I think posted the first partial render of this project.

https://vivedevelopment.com/project/king...es-ottawa/ titled King-Charles-Ottawa at 1001 King St E, Kitchener.

   

[tomh009]

I really like that podium design -- hopefully the implementation will look equally good!

Some staggered windows in the side, but they look reasonable without the multicoloured precast used by some other buildings. The building design is not super exciting but it's clean and tidy. A huge improvement to a deteriorating block, and increasing the momentum for the east end.

[cherrypark]

Let's hope if we're doing another map facade that its actually a visible map this time! I guess the tower is the King/Ottawa side?

[jeffster]

Vive has updated their website, and I think posted the first partial render of this project.

https://vivedevelopment.com/project/king...es-ottawa/ titled King-Charles-Ottawa at 1001 King St E, Kitchener.

Wow....would be totally awesome if this is actually how it ended up looking. Sucks the NIMBY's and heritage folks will be out to ruin this project.

[panamaniac]

I’m glad to see the tower portion preserved (moved closer to King?). Given the Charlie facade, the K-W maps seem a bit of overkill.

[Lebronj23]

To me it looks kind of University-area-ish, lots of grey surface area

[DeepDraw21]

To me it looks kind of University-area-ish, lots of grey surface area

Agree. It's not attractive at all from the picture. More like a 1980 style or a student housing.

[jeffster]

My daughter was looking at my screen while I was reading the last message. She asks "what is that" and I answer, and she says "it's ugly"....

Personally I don't find nearly as bad as the Waterloo Ghettos, but I do see peoples point that this isn't a beauty contest winner.

[ac3r]

This building will be 30 floors rather than 32, 27 of which can be occupied for a total of 92 meters in height. There will be a total of 486 one and two bedroom rental units, 5 live-work units (located on the ground floor facing Charles Street), 3 commercial units (located on the ground floor facing King Street), 290 parking spaces (primarily contained in the podium with the exception of a small surface parking lot for the commercial units), an amenity space on top of the podium which has a little parkette/reflecting pond/swimming pool.

The art deco tower that was part of the Onward Manufacturing building will not be fully retained as is, but rather modified to a contemporary style (including imagery of the art deco tower visible on the glass) and aligned directly with Onward Avenue. The podium will also have a historical map representation of Waterloo Region dating to the 1930s to reflect the historical heritage of the old factory. There are also plans for a set of 27 and 15 floor towers (nearest King Street and Charles Street respectively) located beside the 30 floor tower.

The architectural design is by the local firm Neo Architecture who have worked on the majority of Vive projects.

[Votemac]

This building will be 30 floors rather than 32, 27 of which can be occupied for a total of 92 meters in height. There will be a total of 486 one and two bedroom rental units, 5 live-work units (located on the ground floor facing Charles Street), 3 commercial units (located on the ground floor facing King Street), 290 parking spaces (primarily contained in the podium with the exception of a small surface parking lot for the commercial units), an amenity space on top of the podium which has a little parkette/reflecting pond/swimming pool.

The art deco tower that was part of the Onward Manufacturing building will not be fully retained as is, but rather modified to a contemporary style (including imagery of the art deco tower visible on the glass) and aligned directly with Onward Avenue. The podium will also have a historical map representation of Waterloo Region dating to the 1930s to reflect the historical heritage of the old factory. There are also plans for a set of 27 and 15 floor towers (nearest King Street and Charles Street respectively) located beside the 30 floor tower.

The architectural design is by the local firm Neo Architecture who have worked on the majority of Vive projects.

Huge downgrade with the loss of that Art Deco feature

[clasher]

Not sure I understand the whole "put a bunch of photos of it on glass" thing. I'm ambivalent about the treatment they gave the glass on the old mayfair, but at least it doesn't have faux sepia tone obscuring things... can't really make out what is supposed to be on the glass from the far-away renderings.