21 Weber St W + 149-151 Ontario St N | 20 fl | Proposed

[panamaniac]

Kitchener Parking has an extremely broken pass pricing model in so many ways. There's one price for all surface lots, and a separate higher price for all garages, regardless of location.

I have to assume they price based on maintenance costs - a garage is more intensive to maintain than an asphalt lot.

Covered parking is also more desireable than open air parking.

[taylortbb]

I have to assume they price based on maintenance costs - a garage is more intensive to maintain than an asphalt lot.

Covered parking is also more desireable than open air parking.

Is it? I feel like every time this comes up online about why people don't go downtown, people talk about how they feel parking garages are unsafe at night, difficult to navigate, etc. I personally find covered parking more desirable, but I get the definite sense than at least half of people feel the opposite.

[jeffster]

Covered parking is also more desireable than open air parking.

Is it? I feel like every time this comes up online about why people don't go downtown, people talk about how they feel parking garages are unsafe at night, difficult to navigate, etc. I personally find covered parking more desirable, but I get the definite sense than at least half of people feel the opposite.

One issue with the D&O garage is Hours of Operation. I believe it closes at 11 or 12 at night, so you're left with taking the stairs and quite often, dealing with the rift raft that inject and vomit and sh*t everywhere. The Cop Shop (KPL) garbage is locked up at night entirely, with buzzed in entry (to city hall) or fob and generally issue free (with the exception of the odd cop taking a dump after work). Don't ask how I know this stuff. Hotel Benton is 24-hours, but you're dealing with rift raft again, but generally is OK between floors 1 & 3 and Benton entrance (as opposed to the one in the alley).

If I had to choose, though, I'd choose City Hall, it's quiet at night, controlled entry after hours (Fob or if walking in, front door of city hall), and totally issue free. I'd do the extra 3 minute walk.

[panamaniac]

Riff-raff.

[jeffster]

Riff-raff.

Lol....unsure why I keep saying rift raft...likely autocorrect. Yeah. That is what I will blame...Autocorrect.

[KevinL]

A re-design has led to new plans for the heritage building becoming enclosed by a glass atrium: https://www.therecord.com/news-story/987...ss-atrium/

[BruceAshe]

A re-design has led to new plans for the heritage building becoming enclosed by a glass atrium: https://www.therecord.com/news-story/987...ss-atrium/

I can't find anything about it in the agenda for the committee meeting, so maybe we have to wait for the minutes to be posted to see the new design. I didn't really like the way the original design incorporated the building, so I'm looking forward to seeing the redesign.

[rangersfan]

According to the article the footprint of the tower is changing and shrinking from 18 to 14 stories. I am looking forward to seeing the new design as well.

[panamaniac]

Sounds less eccentric than the original proposal.

[ac3r]

It's a shame they had to shrink the size of the building. The "tall building guidelines" seem pretty irrelevant when there is a 39 floor building on the next city block. A taller building provides more housing for the city and is a better use of land.

At least Edge Architects is behind this project. They do really good work in the region. I've seen a lot of renders of the previous design and it looked great, so hopefully the new one will be just as nice.

[Bjays93]

It's a shame they had to shrink the size of the building. The "tall building guidelines" seem pretty irrelevant when there is a 39 floor building on the next city block. 

Have to agree with this. I'm all for preventing a supertall from popping up in someone's back yard but if there were a place for a building to be ~20 stories or even higher, this is where youd want it to be.

Not saying this is the case because theres so much downtown to redevelop still, but you dont want to come to it and have redeveloped the entire downtown and start needing to build taller buildings encroaching into the subdivisions, because they poorly planned the height of buildings in the core. 

18 floors would also offer nice variance in height compared to some of the buildings close by, that 14 will not.

[westwardloo]

I agree that it would have been nice if it was a 20fl building, unfortunately 14fl won't do much for the skyline. I really wish it was going to be taller than this building:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.451731,-8...6656?hl=en


I think the no parking is what ultimate shrunk this building. Seems like some in this city aren't quite ready for the idea of someone buying a place Downtown without a parking spot. They could have also done market research to determine this height was the most feasible without parking.   I trust Edge to produce a nice looking building though. Looking forward to seeing more on this project.

[Spokes]

Im curious to see new pictures of this. Shame about it being shrunk though

[Square]

I think this will mean the proposed building where Jack Burger Pub is will shrink also.

[westwardloo]

I think this will mean the proposed building where Jack Burger Pub is will shrink also.

I always assume a building will shrink from original proposal, although i think that proposal is a bit different. They are not saving that house and there is a 25 storey building being built right beside that. They are also building parking so I assume that will be the first 3-4 floors so it will still be taller than this proposal, although since it is down the hill it might end up looking like the same height, which would be unfortunate.