Charlie West (Charles & Gaukel) | 31 fl | Complete

[panamaniac]

The garage screen is offensive to say the least. A massive, essentially blank wall being built in 2020, across from an LRT staion is outrageous in my opinion. The city should.have never approved more height if it meant 6 floors of parking and the wall it created.

Essentially blank?  Subtle, perhaps.

[DK519]

The garage screen is offensive to say the least. A massive, essentially blank wall being built in 2020, across from an LRT staion is outrageous in my opinion. The city should.have never approved more height if it meant 6 floors of parking and the wall it created.

Aren't they attaching a massive piece of art to it?

Or did I misinterpret that?

[jamincan]

The massive piece of art is already there, it's just more subtle than suggested by renders and doesn't seem to photograph well.

[jeffster]

The massive piece of art is already there, it's just more subtle than suggested by renders and doesn't seem to photograph well.

I think that was in reference to a different piece of art work.

[dtkvictim]

The massive piece of art is already there, it's just more subtle than suggested by renders and doesn't seem to photograph well.

I think that was in reference to a different piece of art work.

From https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...hener.html

The Indigenous artist Luke Swinson’s work “The Blue Heron” will hang on the side of the Charlie West condo tower that is rising at Charles and Gaukel streets.

...

And Swinson’s giant “Blue Heron” will face south toward Victoria Park from Charlie West.

So yeah, it sounds like the developers also realized how awful it looks and were glad to cover it up.

[tomh009]

So yeah, it sounds like the developers also realized how awful it looks and were glad to cover it up.

I think you are assuming your personal opinions are motivating the developers.

[Momo26]

Can I see the art piece ?

[DK519]

Can I see the art piece ?

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7EtDRpAef_/

[Momo26]

I remember we talked about this a short while ago. It's already being covered up? I didn't even see it in person. Why?

[robdrimmie]

The piece by Swinson isn't being covered up. The speculation up thread is that this piece was commissioned to cover up the large wall for the parking garage. That large wall itself was presented in the renders and designs as a large art piece.

(I do not mean to suggest the large wall is or is not art, I haven't seen it in person and can't form an opinion on the matter until I do.)

[Momo26]

Okay got Yah! Art atop art perhaps. Art attack!

[dtkvictim]

So yeah, it sounds like the developers also realized how awful it looks and were glad to cover it up.

I think you are assuming your personal opinions are motivating the developers.

It's hard to imagine that the developer, the BIA, and the KWAG would all agree to cover up a brand new piece of art before the building is even completed if they thought it looked good. I have no idea what the discussions were between the parties involved, so you're right that I don't know what motivated them. Maybe I misread the room, but I thought people were generally in agreement that the parking garage cover hadn't turned out well (which is indeed how I feel), so seeing that as the motivation for covering it up felt like a fair guess...

[Lens]

I had heard about the heron piece in passing and assumed it was going on the alley side. This makes more sense considering the disaster currently facing the street.

What's really amazing is that Momentum spent the money making those custom panels and installing them without oh, I don't know, a small scale test to see how they'd look?

When compared to the renders it seems like they cheaped out on the metal panels on purpose to be able to install a large painted mural instead.

[danbrotherston]

A few nights I have seen welding flashes from one of the upper floors of the building, this wouldn’t be unusual but it was at night. After 8 or 9 PM. Does anyone know if/why they are doing work at that hour?

[dtkvictim]

I've seen/heard workers there after 8 quite regularly when walking by.