Vertikal (471-481 King St E) | 23 & 19 fl | U/C

[tomh009]

Unrelated but I found a funny quote on the first page of this thread. From 2011, it's in regards to whether to waive the development fees for this project as the city was doing that at the time to promote development:

“I think it’s a good idea,” Etherington said. “The downtown finally seems to have some healthy momentum and I am in favour of anything we can do to add to that momentum.”

Over a decade later I think we can say they lost any momentum they had, it's been a slow build. :'p

The quote is from 2011 but Drewlo didn't buy the property until 2016.

And yet ... I'm still happy to have a (still incomplete) Drewlo project on a property that has been an eyesore for more than 50 years.

[Bjays93]

Unrelated but I found a funny quote on the first page of this thread. From 2011, it's in regards to whether to waive the development fees for this project as the city was doing that at the time to promote development:


Over a decade later I think we can say they lost any momentum they had, it's been a slow build. :'p

The quote is from 2011 but Drewlo didn't buy the property until 2016.

And yet ... I'm still happy to have a (still incomplete) Drewlo project on a property that has been an eyesore for more than 50 years.

Hate to break it to ya Tom but it remains an eyesore 😂

[tomh009]

The quote is from 2011 but Drewlo didn't buy the property until 2016.

And yet ... I'm still happy to have a (still incomplete) Drewlo project on a property that has been an eyesore for more than 50 years.

Hate to break it to ya Tom but it remains an eyesore 😂

Arguably, yes. But every month it's getting a bit closer to completion. It will take a long time to match the five decades of decrepit car dealerships with trash-strewn lots.

[ac3r]

Hate to break it to ya Tom but it remains an eyesore 😂

It'll always be an eyesore, sadly. :'P The design is wack.

[westwardloo]

The design is beyond wack. This will easily be the ugliest buildings in the region. I would probably take the car dealership over what is being built. At least with the car dealership there is potential for a well designed building in the future. This will sting the eyes for a long long time.

[ac3r]

I would have preferred the gravel lots myself.

[prisecaru0]

I personally disagree. It has been an eyesore during construction and was a ugly piece of property for the past couple years. The reason i beg to differ is that the street level facade is quite nice. There is a assortment of brick and stone and there will be quite some nice retail space on the ground floor. I will try take some pictures when i pass by again but it truly isn't some monstrosity to be avoided.

[westwardloo]

I personally disagree. It has been an eyesore during construction and was a ugly piece of property for the past couple years. The reason i beg to differ is that the street level facade is quite nice. There is a assortment of brick and stone and there will be quite some nice retail space on the ground floor. I will try take some pictures when i pass by again but it truly isn't some monstrosity to be avoided.

haha there is an assortment of randomly picked brick and stone colours that complement each other like oil and water. Developments like these frustrate the hell out of me. I get Dewlo is looking to make a cheap rental, but the tower in the parks of 60's look better then this piece of shit. You can develop a nice looking tower with cheaper materials. I am pro-development most of the time, but projects like this give the NIMBY crowd a weapon to use when opposing a development. I wouldn't want to look at this building every day.  I have said it before, but I continue to be baffled by how bad most of the developments are in this region. I get we are not toronto, but Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Markham, hell even Hamilton get much better designed buildings. There have been a couple recent proposals in Kitchener I am excited for, unfortunately i would be surprised if 25% of those towers actually get built in the next decade.

[ac3r]

Yep. It's basically a grab bag of materials, like they just bought whatever was the cheapest thing at the time and forced some high school kid with a passing interest in architecture to "design" it.

As westwardloo said, it's just a bunch of random shit that does not match in any shape or form. It's just weird. And the tower is even worse, particularly the staggered grey and black stripes that run up the side of the tower for some bizarre reason. I don't understand how someone even manages to graduate out of university and become a licensed architect if this is what they're capable of doing. I would fail anyone who presented this to me. The class criticisms (students have to present works and then a team of either students or professors will critique the work) would probably make them drop out. I guarantee if you paid a visit to the University of Waterloo School of Architecture you would not see anything whatsoever that remotely looks like this. Their students produce amazing work.

Which then begs the question, who are these architecture firms?! Haha. How do you have a whole team of people working in an office that is capable of collectively approving this design? How did Drewlo get handed these design plans and conclude that this was what they want to be standing on this site for the next century? Just...no.

[tomh009]

haha there is an assortment of randomly picked brick and stone colours that complement each other like oil and water.

Are you talking about the university area now?

Developments like these frustrate the hell out of me. I get Dewlo is looking to make a cheap rental, but the tower in the parks of 60's look better then this piece of shit.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I honestly do not expect this to look as bad as a lot of Northdale buildings do. But we'll find out once they actually complete the building and we can judge what it looks like instead of guessing from the renders.

[CedarHillAlum]

haha there is an assortment of randomly picked brick and stone colours that complement each other like oil and water.

Are you talking about the university area now?

Developments like these frustrate the hell out of me. I get Dewlo is looking to make a cheap rental, but the tower in the parks of 60's look better then this piece of shit.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I honestly do not expect this to look as bad as a lot of Northdale buildings do. But we'll find out once they actually complete the building and we can judge what it looks like instead of guessing from the renders.

I'm fairly certain that if you show the 270,000 residents of Kitchener pics
of this site from 10 years ago (as shown in post #702) and the current state and ask them which they prefer, 269,995 - all except the 5 or so negative nabobs who comment here, would choose the current status and what it is becoming.

[bravado]

I couldn't figure out why you Kitchener weirdo guys were so heated about this building and I passed it today on my travels downtown - holy moly this has been in progress for how long? What a hot mess.

[ac3r]

A long time!

Come stop by again during the Half Centennial Construction Celebration 100 years from now where we'll be celebrating the halfway point of the construction of this building.

Soooo much better than the gravel lots at least! One day there is gonna be a thriving chiropractor and dentist office on the ground floor and that will make up for granting Drewlo the site approval. :'D

[SF22]

The real question is, will Vertikal be finished before the Frederick/Lancaster building? That one hasn't started yet, so Vertikal has a good headstart, but Frederick also seems to be dragging its feet getting started, so I think it's a fair race.

[nms]

Perhaps they are hedging their bets on which exterior surface treatment will last the longest?