466 Albert Street | 8, 9, 11, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21x3, 22, 30 | Proposed

[Acitta]

CTV: Over a dozen apartment towers proposed for development in Waterloo neighbourhood

[Acitta]

Residents react to 13 towers proposed in central Waterloo

We demand that the world not change!

[ac3r]

These sort of comments never get old. I find it hilarious that one woman thinks she can just suggest the city downsize a multi-million dollar residential project and make all the towers shorter just so she can see the sun and stop having "nightmares" about 30 floor buildings. Lmao. Truly unhinged.

[westwardloo]

Honestly I am getting sick of these proposals around Waterloo. There are two other proposed "Masterplanned" neighbourhoods near this one between Weber and King. All three are comprised of some of the ugliest towers I have ever seen, none of them seem to incorporate a proper street grid system, include adequate park space or provide much in terms of retail or small office space.

The HUB is probably the ugliest built urban form in our region and this proposal looks exactly like those towers. The scary part is The Hub looked kind of cool before it was value engineered. This proposal looks like it was already value engineered in the initial renderings. I can only imagine how bad this is going to look. I wouldn't want my house anywhere near these buildings.

I am actual pissed that somehow developers continue to find a way to build shittier and shitteir buildings over time in this Region. I thought by now we would start to get a bit of expertise on how to utilizes materials that are slightly cheaper then we see used in Toronto, but no its like developers have a competition in the region to see who can produce the ugliest buildings.

How hard is it to design something that looks like what is proposed in Vaughan? Are developers not trying to make as much money in the GTA as they are in Waterloo?

https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2024/01/mas...mall.55051

Or this project in Thorncliff?
https://urbantoronto.ca/database/project...nity.54213

Even Brampton is getting much nicer proposals
https://urbantoronto.ca/database/project...west.49595

[tomh009]

Lots of people complain about the Metz, but I do think it will look far better than this.

[westwardloo]

Just to drive home the point of how cheap our "masterplanned" communities are in waterloo. This is what is being proposed in brampton beside a highway and surrounded by industrial parks. 

https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2024/02/15-...reet.55214

Not great by any means, but at least there is some variety in the towers design.

[ac3r]

Interesting. The designs basically look as if they designed a 1 floor section and just duplicated them tens of times until the desired height, but at least there is more colour haha. Even if it's kinda same-y that's more visually interesting. Seems like most of the architects working in this region are stuck in 2016's with the "just make everything white/grey/black and have a shit load of glass" faux-minimalist aesthetic despite this being 2024. Every dang building here looks exactly the same. Q Condos? Oh you mean Charlie West, right? Yeah that's the one on Duke and Frederick, right? Next to the old Ziggy's? Oh wait those are all different - yet the same.

Or...they have a ton of colour, but not used in any sort of sensible way. Looking at you, Northdale.

Station Park had the one skyscraper that was supposed to be very modern and colourful, but which was then turned into the most generic white condo tower that's both slim and thiccccccc with curves. What a shame. At least it'll blend in with the rest of them. 459 Mill at least still seems to be retaining the different coloured towers...unless they bait and switch that one as well. Vive has that one tower going up on King East near the Grand River, though it's not well done. The Preston Springs Hotel project has some really well done architecture with nice colour tones used, but who knows what'll happen to that one. Whoever it was that did Duke Tower at least seems to want to use dark colours for the skyscraper at Queen and Charles, but given who they hired to design it...ehhh.

[Bjays93]

Honestly I am getting sick of these proposals around Waterloo. There are two other proposed "Masterplanned" neighbourhoods near this one between Weber and King. All three are comprised of some of the ugliest towers I have ever seen, none of them seem to incorporate a proper street grid system, include adequate park space or provide much in terms of retail or small office space. 

The HUB is probably the ugliest built urban form in our region and this proposal looks exactly like those towers. The scary part is The Hub looked kind of cool before it was value engineered. This proposal looks like it was already value engineered in the initial renderings. I can only imagine how bad this is going to look. I wouldn't want my house anywhere near these buildings. 

I am actual pissed that somehow developers continue to find a way to build shittier and shitteir buildings over time in this Region. I thought by now we would start to get a bit of expertise on how to utilizes materials that are slightly cheaper then we see used in Toronto, but no its like developers have a competition in the region to see who can produce the ugliest buildings.

How hard is it to design something that looks like what is proposed in Vaughan? Are developers not trying to make as much money in the GTA as they are in Waterloo?

https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2024/01/mas...mall.55051

Or this project in Thorncliff?
https://urbantoronto.ca/database/project...nity.54213

Even Brampton is getting much nicer proposals
https://urbantoronto.ca/database/project...west.49595

I’ve got to agree. I’m as pro development as they come but I’m sick and tired of this region being ruined by shitty architecture. Waterloo is a miserable mess and I genuinely think the buildings have gotten worse over time. Look at 205 Albert (brand new) and compare that to 222 Albert (across the street). 222 actually looks serviceable and if that was the starting point from which things only improved it would be fine, but they’ve genuinely gotten worse. Phillips square looks like it belongs in the Soviet Union. 

Barrelyards was decent for when the project started but it’s still going over a decade later and looks extremely dated plus all the towers look the same. There’s no excuse for this garbage that is populating our city and I’m not going to shout it down because I know we need housing but these are changes that are going to stick with us for 50 if not 100 years. There is a chance to radically transform the urban fabric of this region and chance to turn this region into something architecturally beautiful or at bare minimum serviceable, is slipping through our fingers.

[2tall]

I thought this project address was 446 Albert? Also surprised no one has commented on the 2nd submission under the new Architect....design looks to have changed a bit

[ZEBuilder]

I thought this project address was 446 Albert? Also surprised no one has commented on the 2nd submission under the new Architect....design looks to have changed a bit

There isn't a lot that's changed in the new application, the proposed pops/park is now moved to the back of the site next to the existing residential. Two of the midrises in the back are lost for the park, to make up for that where the original pops/park was there's now another tower (23 floors) and then the 30 floor tower is dropped to 26 floors. There's no net change in floor count and the net change in terms of commercial is rather minimal. And there's a slight increase in 3brdm units.

So from this all that was really done is switch of location for the proposed public spaces, and Waterloo managing to make an even more table top skyline.

The buildings themselves still look like your generic student housing buildings, maybe slightly more like a condo, but really nothing has changed, if they had instead made the buildings less bulky, taller, had some height variation most of us would like it more but as it stands its another project that'll just further Waterloo's crappy urban design.

[westwardloo]

hahah somehow they made the proposal even worse than the original. I hope this project never sees the light of day, but knowing Waterloo somehow this will be built before the HIP development on bridgeport and King. 

Original:

   

Revised:

   

[ac3r]

Hah, ew.