21 Weber St W + 149-151 Ontario St N | 20 fl | Proposed

[ijmorlan]

That's a pretty old rendering. The final design proposal has a lot more glass including some enclosing the heritage building. The tower itself is also now a lot more minimalist looking with better looking glass work.

I think this is better. I can’t speak to the overall look of the new building, but at a certain size for the new building it makes more sense for the heritage building to be completely inside it than for the new building to wrap around and over it.

[Spokes]

What is the status of this one?

[ac3r]

Not officially cancelled but also not really going anywhere.

[KaiserWilhelmsBust]

Not officially cancelled but also not really going anywhere.

It was actually taken over by a new entity and just appeared in front of Heritage Kitchener. That is where the 27 storey image came from, which I believe is actually a new design (but much closer to the original than the render that ac3r posted). 

So it looks like new group has dumbed it down and is pushing it forward

[Rainrider22]

Well, this is in the news again. Before the heritage committee yet again.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...ments.html

"Standing across from the Civic Centre Neighbourhood Heritage Conservation District, the proposed building’s 27-storey height has raised concerns about shadows that would be cast over residential homes in the area.:

I am having difficulty understanding how a shadow impacts heritage ? Shadows should not be part of a discussion on heritage impact. Using the term "has raised concerns" Who raised the concern ? I am curious on how many committee members live in the heritage area. If so, perhaps they should certainly not be part of any vote.

[ac3r]

This building looks terrible anyway so I could care less if it was not approved. I know some of the UW Architecture professors agree and was the subject of one lecture about a year ago.

[tomh009]

That's a pretty old rendering. The final design proposal has a lot more glass including some enclosing the heritage building. The tower itself is also now a lot more minimalist looking with better looking glass work.

The street level looks all right to me.

[panamaniac]

The concrete pillars in the narrow space in front of the duplex look nasty to me. I’d prefer a cantilevered design.

[Lebronj23]

Permit application submitted for this saying projected start date of construction is April 2024. Oh my god is this thing ugly..

https://pub-kitchener.escribemeetings.co...ntId=14947

[tomh009]

Permit application submitted for this saying projected start date of construction is April 2024. Oh my god is this thing ugly..

A picture is worth a thousand words. But this weirdness makes the preserved houses at Ophelia look spectacular. Oy vey!

   

[bravado]

That's just so hilarious I love it. It's like some kind of statement from the architect that they can't make anything as pretty as this totally normal house anymore and that they're going to encase it in a shield of garbage.

[ac3r]

Lmfao that's gotta be one of the worst proposals yet. Somehow they just keep getting worse.

[coriander]

Is it really worth preserving... this? A plain-looking house? This kind of thing forces so many compromises to the building for... for what?

[ac3r]

It's a nice house, so why not preserve it? There's no reason to rid ourselves of historic buildings. Once they're gone, they're gone.

It's the tower that is a bad idea. It looks like shit. It would be so easy to make the tower look good, but very few architects in this region seem to have any talent. As I've said before...take a trip to the UWaterloo architecture school and see how good these students are. There's talent out there, but it never gets used.

[coriander]

It's a nice house, so why not preserve it? There's no reason to rid ourselves of historic buildings. Once they're gone, they're gone.

It's the tower that is a bad idea. It looks like shit. It would be so easy to make the tower look good, but very few architects in this region seem to have any talent. As I've said before...take a trip to the UWaterloo architecture school and see how good these students are. There's talent out there, but it never gets used.

In my opinion, preservation is something that should require special justification. Historical or architectural significance, not just being made of stone or being vaguely old. Cities aren't museums. 

I agree that this building looks ugly. I wonder how much of a role conformity to planning standards had to do with that (esp. articulation stuff?) At the end of the day though it isn't reasonable to expect every residential development to look great, even if some of these designs are real stinkers. Before too long they may be fading into a proliferation of high-rises anyway, at which point the salience of individual ugly designs is much reduced.