316 King Street North | 15 fl | Proposed

[urbd]

Yeah, I definitely prefer the two-bedroom unit over the five-bedroom student housing. And I agree that 3 bedroom units would be nice, but I understand that there are financial  reasons. I'm happy to see this kind of transformation, although I'm surprised to see it so soon.

It's not really surprising that this is the first to see this transformation. This was basically the first of the student specific, 5-bedroom, "highrise" developments in Waterloo. Based on my memory, it was built around 2006-7 by Andy's Apartments on a model that wasn't yet proven, hence the low cost finishes and no amenities. Most students were living in basement apartments or SFHs converted for 8-12 students, so this was luxury accommodation in comparison.

Here's the streetview looking north from King & Hickory in April 2009:

For such a crappy building, it does have a pretty impressive yet odd penthouse unit!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=...277&type=3

Andy (of Andy's Apartments) lived in that penthouse while he owned the building, I believe.

I've always found this funny. It's like the Playboy mansion of Waterloo. There are parties there every single weekend with crazy lights.

[Coke6pk]

Double doors from the shower onto the balcony... that screams Playboy mansion right there! LOL

Coke

[panamaniac]

Playboy Mansion on a very, very bad day, perhaps.

[urbd]

Playboy Mansion on a very, very bad day, perhaps.

haha yes... but the Playboy Mansion is quite tacky actually.

[KevinL]

The penthouse at 317 was flooded, apparently by a disgruntled departing tenant. https://www.therecord.com/news-story/888...-building/

[ac3r]

This project has since been updated since it was originally posted. In March 2020, the developers made a second submission. In November 2020, they made a third submission (only including shadow studies etc). There was apparently a formal public meeting in February of 2021 but I didn't pay any attention to that.

Since the TinyEye pictures are gone from the original post, here are two really bad renderings I found in the March 2020 Urban Design Brief. It definitely looks very...Waterloo...in other words, ugly. Can't tell if they were trying to go for some faux-historial look with this or not:

Since this is still up on the Zone Changes page on the City of Waterloo website, who knows what's going on with this... There are a hell of a lot of stalled projects in that city that have not made any moves in years, but which have not officially been cancelled either (87 Regina, 26/26 Princess and Strata, for example).

[tomh009]

Oy vey!

[ijmorlan]

Since the TinyEye pictures are gone from the original post, here are two really bad renderings I found in the March 2020 Urban Design Brief. It definitely looks very...Waterloo...in other words, ugly. Can't tell if they were trying to go for some faux-historial look with this or not:

Wow. So they’re taking an existing tower and building on a bunch of additions, including a front wall part of which is built to look like it was originally part of an old building. It’s fake façadism! I didn’t know that was a thing.

[Vojnik_Vahaj]

It's not really surprising that this is the first to see this transformation. This was basically the first of the student specific, 5-bedroom, "highrise" developments in Waterloo. Based on my memory, it was built around 2006-7 by Andy's Apartments on a model that wasn't yet proven, hence the low cost finishes and no amenities. Most students were living in basement apartments or SFHs converted for 8-12 students, so this was luxury accommodation in comparison.

Here's the streetview looking north from King & Hickory in April 2009:




Andy (of Andy's Apartments) lived in that penthouse while he owned the building, I believe.

I've always found this funny. It's like the Playboy mansion of Waterloo. There are parties there every single weekend with crazy lights.

Noted. May have to crash one with my buddies.

[Vojnik_Vahaj]

Since the TinyEye pictures are gone from the original post, here are two really bad renderings I found in the March 2020 Urban Design Brief. It definitely looks very...Waterloo...in other words, ugly. Can't tell if they were trying to go for some faux-historial look with this or not:

Wow. So they’re taking an existing tower and building on a bunch of additions, including a front wall part of which is built to look like it was originally part of an old building. It’s fake façadism! I didn’t know that was a thing.

Hey, as long as it looks good, I'm cool with it

[ac3r]

That doesn't look good, unfortunately...haha.

[Vojnik_Vahaj]

That doesn't look good, unfortunately...haha.

the first floor facade is ok to me. The rest is pretty ugly though