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22 Frederick | 12 Floors | U/C - Renovation
#1
The previous city hall for Kitchener is now being converted into 91 rental units - consisting of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.6845096

These are going to be great units - imagine have an apartment with very high ceilings. This will be a great addition to our rental market.
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#2
I thought these were intended to be geared towards Conestoga students? I would hope they'll be available to anyone.

And yikes what an ugly building to live in haha. I wish they never painted the grey.
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#3
(05-23-2023, 08:26 PM)ac3r Wrote: And yikes what an ugly building to live in haha. I wish they never painted the grey.

At least you can't see the outside when you're inside?

On the flip side, people seem to really like the building I live in. But it's sometimes strange when I'm sitting looking out my window, and there is a crowd of those people on the DTK walks with their cameras taking pictures of the building. Half of them probably have the ghost of my face looking out the window haha.
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#4
(05-23-2023, 08:26 PM)ac3r Wrote: I thought these were intended to be geared towards Conestoga students? I would hope they'll be available to anyone.

And yikes what an ugly building to live in haha. I wish they never painted the grey.

I wouldn't care about the outside. What will be great is not hearing any thudding coming from heavy walkers from the next floor up.

Also, having 3 elevators for 91 units is really great. When I lived in Hamilton we lived in a 7 storey building with 1 elevator - something like 14 units per floor. There was waiting. Usually we took the stairs down. We were on the 6th floor.

When the father in law lived at The York in Kitchener, that place only had the 1 elevator, and he was on the 6th floor as well. Moving day, we were walking up all the flights (and these are larger flights than typical).

While the building won't win any beauty contests - you know you're safe - it has great bones. I love repurposed buildings, as there is a lot more thought on how to convert to a living suite. You almost always end up with much better units.

Well, no comparison to The York. I've been through lots of different apartments in my younger days, never seen anything as good as The York.
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#5
If they didn't paint it, I would honestly love the exterior. The entire complex - City Hall and Market Square - had architecture reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Wax building (here's a great documentary on it...well worth a watch: https://youtu.be/z1MXuBAxcdM). They slapped John E. Lingwood's legacy in the face with that aesthetic choice just because painting everything grey is in fashion for some reason. As much as I use that colour in my own architectural work, sculptures and paintings it's just sooooo over done. The brick was fine. It just needed some cleaning and maybe masonry repair.

Sadly, modernist architecture - internationalism, brutalism, functionalism and heck even post-modernism - is unfortunately not held to the same prestige and lacks the heritage protection that other movements have been awarded. Which is odd, because such styles have defined modern architecture, art and design and our entire contemporary world. Lingwood was one of this regions most prolific architects we had who made an impact on this region. Nobody is going to care about Edge, SRM, WalterFedy and so on in a century since it's so generic. AI could probably do equivalent work. But people like him who had such impact on the urban fabric and architectural design of this part of Canada and we ought to preserve these creations of human ingenuity for as long as we can. It makes little sense that we will protect a fairly forgettable post-war home just because it's old, but then slather the City Hall of Kitchener in ugly paint. Then again it isn't that surprising...we demolished our original city hall in the name of "progress".
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#6
I'm wondering whether the conversion might not see some sort of reclad?
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#7
(05-23-2023, 11:06 PM)panamaniac Wrote: I'm wondering whether the conversion might not see some sort of reclad?

Please no...lol. I'll rent a scissor lift and power washer myself if it means no recladding.

However I kind of doubt it. For or some odd reason Europro in the age of global pandemic, technology and austerity - decided to take on this office tower project even though everyone in this industry could simply look at the office vacancy rates to see this would fail and renovated this building beyond the bad paint job. It no doubt cost a lot. If the sign out front is any clue, there's only 1 tenant. And from what I've heard, they intend to market this place to primarily students and "professionals" so I can't see them sinking too much money into an office tower conversion after spending so much money thinking they'd attract businesses.
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#8
(05-23-2023, 11:55 PM)ac3r Wrote: And from what I've heard, they intend to market this place to primarily students and "professionals" so I can't see them sinking too much money into an office tower conversion after spending so much money thinking they'd attract businesses.

That's a sunk cost, water under the bridge. The question they will analyze is which option will have the best ROI going forward, regardless of what was spent before.
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#9
Just noticed that the grey paint they applied is already peeling off at the top and elsewhere. Did that even last 6 months?
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#10
(03-11-2024, 04:33 PM)ac3r Wrote: Just noticed that the grey paint they applied is already peeling off at the top and elsewhere. Did that even last 6 months?

That was 2019. Five years ago.
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