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Manulife (King Centre) redevelopment project
#16
(06-04-2019, 03:55 PM)panamaniac Wrote:
(06-04-2019, 12:07 PM)TMKM94 Wrote: Maybe it could become a Mall again LOL? It's Probably wishful thinking for Market Square or King Center to become a successful Mall again even with all the new Residential buildings and Offices being built.

I could see the main floor off King St being a mall - haven't there always been businesses in there?

Coffee Time has been there for a very long time and is the only third-party business there at present. There is some space that could be converted, until you get to the secure access door to the core building, but everything other than Coffee Time and their old location is currently in use by Manulife (behind doors that can only be opened with security passes). There's somewhere approaching the amount of floor space that could readily be converted to publicly accessible spaces as there is in the short hallway in Fairview Mall that bisects the main triangle.

That feels like a very poor description, I'm sorry for that and I hope it is enough.
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#17
OK, I thought I looked inside once and thought I saw a hair salon or some such, but I wasn't really paying attention.  In any event, for the foreseeable future I'd rather see any new DTK retail go into street-facing storefronts.
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#18
Quote:Permit No 21109208
Permit Description Permit is for interior alterations for unit 200 for Google

Rumours had been swirling for a while that Google was going to lease part of the old King Centre (and that Faire would take another large chunk) but all leasing got put on hold with Covid WFH shutdowns. Looks like Google has officially gone ahead though, permit was issued in early April.
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#19
(05-22-2021, 12:06 PM)taylortbb Wrote:
Quote:Permit No 21109208
Work Type Interior Finish - Commercial
Permit Description Permit is for interior alterations for unit 200 for Google

Rumours had been swirling for a while that Google was going to lease part of the old King Centre (and that Faire would take another large chunk) but all leasing got put on hold with Covid WFH shutdowns. Looks like Google has officially gone ahead though, permit was issued in early April.

Would this be temp until their new facilities are completed? Or would this be ‘in addition to’ the new facilities?

Unit 200 would refer to the second (ground) floor I assume.
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#20
(05-22-2021, 12:17 PM)jeffster Wrote: Would this be temp until their new facilities are completed? Or would this be ‘in addition to’ the new facilities?

I don't think anyone outside of Google knows for sure. But speculatively, they seem to only be accelerating hiring here. Their 3000 employees in KW target would be right at the limit of (or even a little over) what the Breithaupt Block (including phase 3) could accommodate at Google's typical sq ft per employee. So if they keep hiring they'll need more space, and the new building won't be done for a while. There's also the question of less dense offices post-Covid, which a lot of employers are talking about. I won't be surprised if by the time they move in to the new building it's already full and they end up keeping the other office space.
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#21
Yup they seem to be accelerating hiring but I doubt they reach the target anytime in the medium-term. Engineering talent is hard to find unless hiring standards drop.

Also, Google is changing to a hybrid model as per https://blog.google/inside-google/life-a...oach-work/. More details will be released in June publicly depending on employee surveys IIUC.
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#22
I think post-covid many people will want to start working from the office again. For one, there is the social aspect of it. And another thing, people need to decompress (either from work or from family) and the commute, however you go, is good for decompressing. Who hasn't sat in their car for 5 minutes? Or missed their bus stop 'accidentally on purpose'? Businesses will probably find that for many staff, having them at work means more productively.
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#23
(05-22-2021, 09:10 PM)jeffster Wrote: I think post-covid many people will want to start working from the office again. For one, there is the social aspect of it. And another thing, people need to decompress (either from work or from family) and the commute, however you go, is good for decompressing. Who hasn't sat in their car for 5 minutes? Or missed their bus stop 'accidentally on purpose'? Businesses will probably find that for many staff, having them at work means more productively.

Burnout is a real issue, but so is overcommunication and interruption. Being at home does give workers more control over their schedule and working times. To say nothing of savings of commute time.

I'm not sure it's clear cut what is more productive.

The social aspects are a different question, certainly some people gain social interactions at work, and would miss those, but for others, they have other sources of social interaction. Regardless of the source, we've all been missing those during the pandemic.

Ultimately, going forward, I hope there is more flexibility and less commuting.
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#24
An informal survey of our software development team says that most people would like some flexibility in working from home in the future, but I don't believe anyone actually asked to continue working exclusively at home. It's a fairly small sample size, though.
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#25
I would dread always working from home. I have to do it quite a lot already, but I prefer to keep my work and private life as separate as I can because architecture burns you the hell out. Being able to be flexible with your hours would be nice, as well as not having to socialize with colleagues, though.
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#26
(05-23-2021, 05:35 AM)ac3r Wrote: I would dread always working from home. I have to do it quite a lot already, but I prefer to keep my work and private life as separate as I can because architecture burns you the hell out. Being able to be flexible with your hours would be nice, as well as not having to socialize with colleagues, though.

There are definitely a multitude of options as well, remote working spaces, where you have an office you go to, it just so happens that none of your coworkers are there, some of us can afford big spaces in our home to keep work separate.

One of the big benefit of remote work as well, is it gives you more flexibility about what companies you work for and where you live. If you want to work for a silicon valley startup but live at the cottage...it's a starlink antenna away.
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#27
I hope they do external renovations on the building. It’s so brick-ey right now.
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#28
(05-23-2021, 12:13 PM)catarctica Wrote: I hope they do external renovations on the building. It’s so brick-ey right now.

Manulife did add a fair bit of glass, but not on the King St facade.
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#29
The King Street facade looks horrible, but the rest does indeed have that nice glass that does an incredible job at retaining its modernist architectural design while bringing it into the 21st century: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4504819,...384!8i8192

One day I would love to find some photographs or video clips of the inside when it was still a mall. I don't remember a single thing about it, but somehow I remember the Market Square mall down to every detail.
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#30
I wish I had pictures too but I'll attempt to jog some memories. The mall's directional signage was always backlit and in a curved pill-shaped design. There were skylights above the escalators, When you ate at the Robinson's restaurant, you were on the top floor, right next to a huge atrium. The food court was down in the basement, sunken to the absolute lowest level in the mall.

I don't know how literally no photos of this mall exist.
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