900 King St W | 25 fl | U/C

[Rainrider22]

I think it is a good idea. It was a simple statement to suggest to do something different for the benefit of everyone. A funding and maintenece agreement could be drawn up.

We can all argue why it wouldn't happen, but why not acknowledge a good idea and argue why we should try to make it happen.

[MidTowner]

Looks like the one neighbor with the solar roof is going to lose a few hours of direct sunlight.

With respect to that solar array, its primary purpose isn't to generate electricity anyway. It's already shaded by a still-growing tree in the front yard, and two immature trees in the southern neighbour's yard.

It's probably true that this development will add some shading, but I don't think that should be a consideration at all. Nor for planting street or other trees.

[ac3r]

Went past this site today and it appears they've started digging a foundation as well as putting up walls and piles. A bit odd because the building hasn't been approved yet, but maybe they're really confident it will be?

[taylortbb]

I posted the current permits earlier, https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...0#pid96630 . They're currently doing shoring for the soil remediation, which I guess that have to do regardless of what they build.

I'm sure it'll become construction shoring if the building is approved, but if they think it's likely it seems logical to get started on the soil remediation.

[GtwoK]

Permits for the building just submitted on thursday

Proposing a 25 storey mixed used building comprised of ground floor commercial; 231 residential units and 108 parking spaces in structured parking (above and below ground).

[Lebronj23]

From the docs 

[attachment=8117]

[ac3r]

Can't tell if that's better or worse than the initial architect sketches when I posted it. Still, yuck, SRM.

[tomh009]

More glass now and less concrete, so I'd say it's somewhat better. And much less bad than DTK Condos.

[Spokes]

It's better, IMO

[ac3r]

True. The podium looks horrific though. The design reminds me of what they used on Duke Tower. It's like both were designed by children who only have the most basic and naive concepts of aesthetics to go by. Hopefully they use good material at the very least.

[tomh009]

Podium still better than DTK Condos. No random stripes of coloured precast concrete!

[panamaniac]

Indeed, I don’t see much in common in the two podiums (podia?).

[ac3r]

Well, the front façade has some faux wood or brick and I'm guessing some generic metal. The other sides all seem to use monochromatic colours with a fairly monolithic design choice just like Duke Tower. The bar for architecture in this region shouldn't be "well at least it isn't as bad as the absolute worst". We should be advocating to develop this city to be functional and have our buildings look good so there is some pride there. That's what annoys me about working in this region a lot...the bar is so low you can't even trip over it.

[cherrypark]

Is it that hard to justify the cost of at least a little more glazing at street level or something that isn't a concrete brick? It never makes sense to me that the street engagement - the part that everyone feels most - gets new to no creativity. SRM is particularly bad with this - certainly not a single one of their architects must walk by the things they build?

[taylortbb]

SRM is particularly bad with this - certainly not a single one of their architects must walk by the things they build?

From what I hear from those at developers that have looked at hiring SRM, it's not that the architects there are totally incompetent, it's that the firm is shameless in what they're willing to do to hit a price.

MartinSimmons or ABA will, at a certain level of cheaping out, tell you "no, we don't want our name on that, if you want to do that you'll need a new architect" . SRM on the other hand will happily be as shitty as necessary to save a penny or two, and the owner won't mind because he's got his Ferrari*.

There are some projects SRM has done that aren't terrible, like 48 Ontario, or The Scott, which was bland but generally well received here. But they're not the projects where the developer's objective is "pinch every penny, I don't care if it only saves $5k" .

* Cannot definitively confirm actual Ferrari ownership, but I believe this to be true