Duke Tower Kitchener | 39 fl | completed

[panamaniac]

Not sure if everyone has only seen an initial marketing render of this project or not but from the renderings I have seen it looks like they are building it as proposed with precast concert panels. 

It appears that they are going to attach some metal louvers in a "decorative" pattern. some of the louvers are supposed to hid LED light fixtures, but who knows.

I am not sure the Architects thought it was going to look this bad when they designed it, but does not appear to be turning out great.

Thank goodness.  If that's accurate, it's at least more interesting than stripes of coloured concrete.

[Chris]

Maybe the criticism of the podium was too much.  Now there's a fire at or near the building.

Police are responding to a reported vehicle explosion.

From The Record

Fri., Aug. 14, 2020
KITCHENER — Police are on scene in the area of Frederick and Duke streets to respond to reports of a vehicle explosion Friday morning.

Roads in the area are closed as Waterloo Regional Police and Kitchener Fire investigate.

More to come.

[KevinL]

It's in front of the courthouse, on Duke.

[robdrimmie]

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...hener.html

There is a death involved in this incident.

[mastermind]

I googled and got a hit on global news that says 'fatal car explosion outside Kitchener courthouse'. Investigation underway.

[ac3r]

Looks like it was an IED. Peel Regional Police were brought in and they've raided two houses in Kitchener: https://twitter.com/WRPSToday/status/129...6723334145

What the hell?

[clasher]

Like something out of a breaking bad episode.

[ac3r]

It's weird that our police force in a city of our size does not have the resources to deal with this on their own...why call in resources from another city? Do we only have a couple explosive experts here - in a city of over 600'000+ people - or does this have some link to Peel? Either way, this is quite a huge crime, up there with the guy who killed half a dozen family members a few years ago.

[panamaniac]

I feel that an explosives expert in the WRPS would have a heck of a lot of spare time on her hands ...

[taylortbb]

It's weird that our police force in a city of our size does not have the resources to deal with this on their own...why call in resources from another city? Do we only have a couple explosive experts here - in a city of over 600'000+ people - or does this have some link to Peel? Either way, this is quite a huge crime, up there with the guy who killed half a dozen family members a few years ago.

WRPS said they were dealing with 3 simultaneous major incidents today, so it might just be a resource availability issue. Especially if they're raiding two houses at once for possible explosives. An explosives expert with WRPS probably isn't a busy position to begin with, and I really doubt they have two.

[ac3r]

I don't think or SWAT unit was called out to the taxi cab gun incident though, so maybe this bombing just had some connection to Peel...which makes sense, since we don't exactly have a lot of home grown organized crime here in Waterloo Region. There were a few explosive experts on scene for the explosion however. Two officers went in to inspect the car after the robot was peeking around the trunk, though they didn't find anything at that time. I'm guessing the IED itself was more or less destroyed, so it'll take the forensic units to figure out the details, but I guess they got enough to suggest it was an IED. I'm gonna guess this was either out of town organized crime or maybe just someone going a bit "crazy" over something a bit more personal.

[KevinL]

They have announced that the deceased was responsible for the explosion. So, either suicide or misadventure.

[Momo26]

Crazy day in DTK yesterday by the sounds of it!

[jeffster]

They have announced that the deceased was responsible for the explosion. So, either suicide or misadventure.

Could have been a suicide bomber, but who knows. Thankfully know one else was hurt. Sometimes the IED's can take out a lot more than just a car. We'll find out I am sure in the coming days/weeks/months.

As for summoning Peel Regional Police Services, they seem to the force we deal with. I don't think it's all that uncommon either. Though somehow I doubt that WRPS has much IED/Suicide Bombing experience.

[Square]

Looked to me like some work has started on the 5 storey parking podium ground level closest to the church.