203-207 King St S | 30 fl | Proposed

[ac3r]

A developer is proposing a mixed use building at 203-207 King Street South (and 10-16 John Street West) (located directly next to Bauer Lofts) which currently contains a parking lot and various low rise businesses. The architectural design is by Sweeny&Co architects, who have a great portfolio of work I suggest checking out. They primarily build within the GTA known for projects like the RBC Centre, 25 Ontario and incredible works like The Bridge and Grenville Grosvenor.

The podium is to contain 3 "double" commercial spaces that will front King, John and Caroline. In total a 320 residential units (a mixture of 1 and 2 bedroom) are proposed. The 7th upper level of the podium is to contain amenity spaces for building residents. Parking is to be contained as such: 1 level underground, some within the podium which will be accessed from John Street.

[dtkvictim]

Housing crisis and need for units aside, with every single render/development that gets posted on this site I can't help but think how much more attractive and human scale they would be if they just stopped after the podium.

[Lebronj23]

Is this not the site that is currently being demo’d?

[Bjays93]

It's nice to get some more reputable architects working in the region, I'd like to see some more renders and also the mats here though because I'm not really sold based on these renderings.

It's better than a lot of the garbage that's gone up around here no doubt but I'm not particularly thrilled with this as it currently stands either.

[allknowing2012]

Is this not the site that is currently being demo’d?

That demo'd property is one block away .. in the same block as the barrel yards.

[Lens]

Ooof. Terrible. This might be worse than circa, honestly.

[myfaceisonfire]

Ooof. Terrible. This might be worse than circa, honestly.

With most things these days, I find it depends on the finishes, which mainly depends on how cheap the builder is feeling in any particular day.   I think it could turn out nicely if built to the architecture team's spec.    

I was also confused by the location given that the adult center was recently demo'd, this is the corner of King and John

[westwardloo]

Sweeny &co tend to take pride in what the the final product looks like. Easily one of the best architectural firms in Toronto. They aren't mass producing residential towers like most. I have faith that this will be better then 90% of the towers in the region. I think it looks off because of the rectangular profile of the tower. If it was a podium and a square tower this would look really good. The podium itself looks great! Finally a firm that knows how to design a podium.

[ac3r]

Yeah this is a good group of designers. I'm not a fan of the design and colour choices, but this won't look awful. The shape of the tower makes it feel imposing but their work is almost always high quality with great materials and finishes.

[taylortbb]

 If it was a podium and a square tower this would look really good.

Sadly the city of Waterloo pushes developers towards the slab towers, as the city really wants to maintain the 25fl city-wide height limit. There have been projects proposed (not publicly) for uptown that are 30-something floor point towers, but the city told the developer "no way, nothing over 25fl, even if it means it has to be a slab tower".

[tomh009]

You could do two 25 fl towers sharing the podium -- but construction costs would be substantially higher than for the current design.

[ac3r]

Waterloo just needs to join the 21st century and evolve.

[Bjays93]

 If it was a podium and a square tower this would look really good.

Sadly the city of Waterloo pushes developers towards the slab towers, as the city really wants to maintain the 25fl city-wide height limit. There have been projects proposed (not publicly) for uptown that are 30-something floor point towers, but the city told the developer "no way, nothing over 25fl, even if it means it has to be a slab tower".

This is mind boggling. Not only does it produce ugly towers. Tabletops are also incredibly boring and make cities and areas feel very dull.

[bravado]

Waterloo just needs to join the 21st century and evolve.

Is there a way to do that with the least possible public expense and with the fewest possible undesirables involved? Asking for a municipal government-friend...

[KevinT]

Those bowed 'supports' in each of the 3-story blocks makes it look like something from a Ralph Bakshi cartoon. At first I thought the renders were just stylized, but then looked closer and realized that's actually how it's being proposed. Interesting.