201 Water Street South | 13, 13, 9 fl | Proposed

[ac3r]

SG Real Estate Developments and Cynthia Zahoruk Architects are proposing a new residential development in south Cambridge.

The project would consist of 3 towers, with 2 being 13 floors and 1 being 9 floors. 330 residential units would be included in the proposed design. 152 of these would be 1 bedroom, 71 would be 1 bedroom + den and 107 would be 2 bedroom units. 416 vehicle parking spaces and 117 bicycle spaces are proposed. An amenity area which utilizes an existing heritage stone building on the site would be available, including an expanded open air courtyard. No commercial space is proposed for this development in its current proposal.

[ac3r]

So this is a pretty modest development. The architectural design is typically Waterloo Region (aka bad, at least from what these basic CAD renders suggest but I have little expectation it would look good when you take a moment to look at the portfolio of this firm) and the design is pretty standard as well, as are the number of 1 bedroom units and the design is a standard box. There is a large amount of parking as well, but that is expected as this is in a fairly disconnected and suburban area of the region which has very little transit coverage.

The project sits directly beside an unrelated project at 193 Water Street South which is proposed to have 5 15 floor towers. That particular development was actually approved by Cambridge council which is an incredibly rare thing to happen, so maybe, just maybe this one will also be approved? Well, after it goes through a few months of hit pieces in the local media, social media outrage from residents and council members complaining about how this would be bad.

[bravado]

It’s a very difficult geographic spot and I know that the major complaints will be about traffic and trees, just like 193 Water got. But it’s a great spot for density and improving downtown Galt with more people.

The access to paths and nature and Hwy 24 is a great combo for density, unlike the wasteful suburb on top of the hill behind it.

I feel like 193 Water is probably dead… it was quite an ambitious engineering project and I’ve seen no movement at all on it for years now. This one might be a bit more manageable, despite being boring.

[ac3r]

The location is slightly more challenging to build on, but not too bad. Most of it can be solved with retaining walls which, so long as they're designed well (in other words...preferably not huge concrete walls hah) it can look okay. It's a great location to build such projects because unlike single family homes, you can fit a lot of people in a small space that would otherwise only hold a handful of homes.

The views of the river would be spectacular too. That's one of the nicest areas of the Grand River which is best viewed from a bit of a height, as the valley has a lot of nice vegetation over the shoreline/floodplain. I could see this whole area containing a lot of towers as the years go by, similar to the Don Valley in Toronto. People will pay top dollar for nice views over the Grand River. It's locations like this that remind us how much potential Cambridge has...if only a good portion of the residents and council could pull their heads out of their asses. It's a gorgeous city that is sitting on the launch pad of a renaissance - if only they decide to ignite things. I shit talk Cambridge a lot but not really because it's an awful place (well, in the current state it is haha) and more because it has so much untapped potential that is unfortunately combined with a fearful populace that is pessimistic about change. All it needs is for most of the council to get kicked to the curb and for the region to get the LRT going. Once we put the infrastructure in place and brought in some new blood to lead the city, the doors that would open would be endless. Long time residents would quickly see how they can evolve and grow without losing the beauty and charm the place has, especially because you could densify the place without having to build skyscrapers downtown as they could be spread out along the LRT and main bus routes.