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864-872 King St W | 55, 44, 38, 16 fl | proposed
#1
This is one of the many Vive projects that I dug up after looking through the growing together documents, it is located on the old CTV property and King/Pine.

The proposal includes 4 towers ranging between 16 and 55 floors, the tallest tower is located at King/Pine, the second tallest is fronting King and connected to the tallest tower via a 18 floor tower, then along Pine there is the 16 floor building and the 38 floor building is located to the rear of the site.

Exact unit counts aren't available nor are bicycle parking counts, however from the preliminary zoning plans there is 1222 parking spaces for a rate of 0.63 per unit, so this should be around 2000 units. However this is still very preliminary so that will likely change.

The property will not need to get a ZBA/OPA as the new SGA-4 zoning allows for this development, however Vive might still require a ZBA for setbacks as that is the issue they have with many of their other projects as they go through development.

The preliminary phasing indicates that Vive will start with the 38 floor tower first, before proceeding to phase 2 which contains the 55 floor tower, phase 3 is the 16 floor tower and finally phase 4 is the 44 floor tower.

The podium is 6 floors and primarily contains parking, however residential and commercial uses are facing the street so parking is contained to the site. There is ground floor commercial fronting King and Pine, 693.1 sqm below the 55 and 44 floor tower, then a 492.7sqm commercial space that is marked as ambulatory, so that might have some relation to the hospital.
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#2
There is no model available in any of the documents, however there is the site plan, which I have attached below, sorry about the quality.
   
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#3
This would be exciting if it wasn't from Vive. All they seem to do is buy property, hire a local architecture team to throw together a vague plan, propose it, it gets approved and then they shelve it. The only project they've managed to get started in probably a year is the Sylk Towers project. The other 8 seem to be DOA despite initially planning and proposing them years ago.

They sure have deep pockets to keep it going...about half of the staff on their payroll seem to be accounting/financial/marketing related employees.
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#4
If my interpretation of this phot is correct, the development includes 850 King St W, the small office building that is currently used by Grand River Hospital for some outpatient services. It's the building under the pink tower. I wonder whether Grand River Hospital is in active discussions to occupy all of the lower levels of these towers.
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#5
Vive has now submitted the first ZBA of for this project, since Vive is phasing this project each phase is going to get a different ZBA. The first phase is going to be the 44 floor building marked as Tower A on the original picture I posted. The building itself looks almost like 1001 King St S just taller and different colours so presumably this might be precast, it really has that feel.

The building will contain 455 units, of which 304 are 1 bedroom and 151 are 2 bedroom. The building will also contain 261 parking spaces, contained in the podium and 2 floors of underground parking, due to this being set back from the road the parking podium looks hideous in the renders but there is hope for a future building to block it.

In the posted documents there are floor plans for each proposed unit, the smallest unit is a 1brdm at 544 sqft and the largest is a 2brdm unit at 847sqft.

Docs:
Phase 1 Docs
Phase 1 Floor Plans
Phase 1 Urban Design Brief

Renders:

Podium viewed from King St:
   

Tower viewed from the park behind the site:
   
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#6
(08-22-2024, 10:44 PM)ZEBuilder Wrote: Vive has now submitted the first ZBA of for this project, since Vive is phasing this project each phase is going to get a different ZBA. The first phase is going to be the 44 floor building marked as Tower A on the original picture I posted. The building itself looks almost like 1001 King St S just taller and different colours so presumably this might be precast, it really has that feel.

The building will contain 455 units, of which 304 are 1 bedroom and 151 are 2 bedroom. The building will also contain 261 parking spaces, contained in the podium and 2 floors of underground parking, due to this being set back from the road the parking podium looks hideous in the renders but there is hope for a future building to block it.

In the posted documents there are floor plans for each proposed unit, the smallest unit is a 1brdm at 544 sqft and the largest is a 2brdm unit at 847sqft.

Docs:
Phase 1 Docs
Phase 1 Floor Plans
Phase 1 Urban Design Brief

Renders:

Podium viewed from King St:


Tower viewed from the park behind the site:

So is the 38 storey building now 44 storey and only 3 buildings being 55, 44, and 16 stories?
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#7
(08-23-2024, 01:51 AM)Square Wrote:
(08-22-2024, 10:44 PM)ZEBuilder Wrote: Vive has now submitted the first ZBA of for this project, since Vive is phasing this project each phase is going to get a different ZBA. The first phase is going to be the 44 floor building marked as Tower A on the original picture I posted. The building itself looks almost like 1001 King St S just taller and different colours so presumably this might be precast, it really has that feel.

The building will contain 455 units, of which 304 are 1 bedroom and 151 are 2 bedroom. The building will also contain 261 parking spaces, contained in the podium and 2 floors of underground parking, due to this being set back from the road the parking podium looks hideous in the renders but there is hope for a future building to block it.

In the posted documents there are floor plans for each proposed unit, the smallest unit is a 1brdm at 544 sqft and the largest is a 2brdm unit at 847sqft.

Docs:
Phase 1 Docs
Phase 1 Floor Plans
Phase 1 Urban Design Brief

Renders:

Podium viewed from King St:


Tower viewed from the park behind the site:

So is the 38 storey building now 44 storey and only 3 buildings being 55, 44, and 16 stories?


In all likelihood Vive is still going to do all 4 of the buildings they are just are going for taller versions, the way the 44 floor tower is designed still allows for the other buildings to be as tall as they were planning without requiring extensive ZBAs, but Vive might just want to go taller.
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#8
ouch. Vive if somehow you read this forum hire an architect that knows how to use precast panels this is getting ridiculous. Randomly sprinkling white panels into a beige wall is not a thought out design. My 9 yearold nephew could and has designed nicer minecraft buildings.  Why go with grey paneling for 40 stories then decide to have white paneling for 4 floors? I don't even want to start with the podium. If it looks this bad in the render i can only imagine how bad this is going to look constructed. None of those windows will existing and we will end up with 6 floors of white and black concrete panels.  It pisses me off that it actually wouldn't cost the developer that much more money to design a building with the same materials and floor plate that actually looked good.
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#9
Vive and IN8 truly in a race to the bottom on any respect for the visual appearance of the communities they are building in. As Westardloo said, it doesn't have to break the bank to get a half ways competent designer and design. Only benefit on them sitting on approvals is the potential that someone might buy the land out and try again on the design.
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#10
*vomit emoji*

I want to buy out Vive so they stop proposing these horribly ugly buildings.
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#11
No words for this
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#12
44-storey tower proposed for former CTV Kitchener property 
A 44-storey tower with 455 rental apartments is being proposed for the former home of television station CTV Kitchener.

An online neighbourhood information meeting on the proposed development is scheduled for Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. Details on how to join the Zoom meeting can be found on the city’s website.
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#13
Vive, IN8, HIP and even Drewlo all need to be stopped.
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#14
(08-25-2024, 01:23 PM)Bjays93 Wrote: Vive, IN8, HIP and even Drewlo all need to be stopped.

Stopped ... how, and then what? We have absolutely zero rules for architecture outside the heritage districts. How are you going to deny a site plan or building permit based on the design? Or force a developer to design something that you like?

I'm not fan of this building, but we have no tools to force better design, so developers can do what they want. And I will argue that housing is still better than no housing.
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#15
(08-25-2024, 04:06 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(08-25-2024, 01:23 PM)Bjays93 Wrote: Vive, IN8, HIP and even Drewlo all need to be stopped.

Stopped ... how, and then what? We have absolutely zero rules for architecture outside the heritage districts. How are you going to deny a site plan or building permit based on the design? Or force a developer to design something that you like?

I'm not fan of this building, but we have no tools to force better design, so developers can do what they want. And I will argue that housing is still better than no housing.

I was being somewhat facetious obvi I don’t think they should literally be stopped, they’re merely supervillains who are ruining a once in a century, opportunity to completely redesign and reimagine our city and region. Once these are built we will be stuck with them for many many decades and they will be the legacy of Waterloo region. 

Soulless, cheap, impersonal, and inhuman. I mean genuinely many of these buildings would be at home in Soviet Russia so it’s simply sad that that is all this companies aspire to be. So no they shouldn’t literally be stopped, but yes it’s still something I genuinely take seriously because this is the legacy they are leaving behind and it’s one that says “I don’t care, Waterloo region isn’t worth it”
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