Duke Tower Kitchener | 39 fl | completed

[kitborn]

Duke Tower Kitchener is currently pouring walls for the 33rd floor.

   

[Bjays93]

I want to like this building I really do. But it's a disaster

[urbd]

I want to like this building I really do. But it's a disaster

I would stop trying to like it if I were you, it won't work

The projects that get built in this region are extremely subpar in terms of architectural design. I always imagine what would happen if they were proposed in DT Toronto, Vancouver, or any other city. Of course they would never approve them.

[tomh009]

I want to like this building I really do. But it's a disaster

I would stop trying to like it if I were you, it won't work

The projects that get built in this region are extremely subpar in terms of architectural design. I always imagine what would happen if they were proposed in DT Toronto, Vancouver, or any other city. Of course they would never approve them.

The project budgets in downtown Toronto are of a different order of magnitude than here. But, in any case, none of those cities have, as a rule, architectural approval requirements for new buildings.

Personally, I don't consider this city subpar, but of course we all have a right to our own opinions.

[ac3r]

We do have some architecturally good buildings here. The Clay and Glass Gallery, John M. Harper Branch of WPL, the Perimeter Institute and so on. It's just the new residential buildings that are very subpar. Charlie West is clean and minimal, but this building is unfortunately really cheap looking as are a lot of the other ones going up (nevermind the mess that are the student buildings - for a good student building look up Broadcasting Tower in Leeds). The local architecture firms here need to be a little more daring with their work. It doesn't necessarily take huge budgets, just imagination. One day I'd love to see something unique like this building in Toronto in our city:

[westwardloo]

I would stop trying to like it if I were you, it won't work

The projects that get built in this region are extremely subpar in terms of architectural design. I always imagine what would happen if they were proposed in DT Toronto, Vancouver, or any other city. Of course they would never approve them.

The project budgets in downtown Toronto are of a different order of magnitude than here. But, in any case, none of those cities have, as a rule, architectural approval requirements for new buildings.

Personally, I don't consider this city subpar, but of course we all have a right to our own opinions.

Its hard to say, obviously we are not at the scale of a city like, Vancouver, Calgary, toronto or Montreal. But what we are building in the region reminds me a lot of the Yaletown building in Vancouver from the 90's. Definitely not lookers. It might be that we as a city need to grow through the phase of cheap developments and architecture first, then we can graduate into something aesthetical pleasing. If you pay attention to what is going on in Vancouver its like the developers are trying to one up each other to produce the most unique tower in the city. I think what the region needs is something like this to happen on a smaller scale. We need the developers like Perimeter, Momentuem, Vive or Zhers to challenge each other to produce projects with a little more quality.  It amazes me that the region seems to be decades behind other cities when it comes to developments. look at what is being proposed/ constructed at Vaughan metro center or Square one. I think KW should be able to produce similar quality proposals to the suburbs of toronto. 

I hope the Francis street is a show stopper or at least a cohesive design. DTK is an embarrassment to the region in my opinion. Landmark place in Hamilton might be a bit uglier, but it wasn't built in the 21 century

[ac3r]

MartinSimmons, Edge, Walter Fedy etc do some good work here so we definitely have talent in the region. It's just that they only do high quality work. A firm like SRM gets hired to do dozens of proposals/developments and we end up seeing this flood of low quality buildings going up. They are almost single handedly responsible for the student developments that we're now stuck with. Unsurprisingly, they are the ones who designed DTK.

[westwardloo]

MartinSimmons, Edge, Walter Fedy etc do some good work here so we definitely have talent in the region. It's just that they only do high quality work. A firm like SRM gets hired to do dozens of proposals/developments and we end up seeing this flood of low quality buildings going up. They are almost single handedly responsible for the student developments that we're now stuck with. Unsurprisingly, they are the ones who designed DTK.

Couldn't agree more, I like all of those firms, I would add ABA into that conversation of talented architects. Unfortunately the architecture firm can only do as good of a job as the developer wants. Its hard to know if SRM is just firm filled with the lower end of the talent poo that is cheap enough that developers flock to when they want to build cheap building or if SRM is restricted by the developer value engineering the design down to what we are seeing at DTK.    

Driving by DTK today, I do think if they had just gone with the black mullion and spandrel you can see in the middle units this building would look a little bit better. The grey mullions and spandrel on the corners really look so cheap.

[Rainrider22]

I am not shy to say that every week with more glass and metal in place, I like this building. I think the final product is going to look ok.

[tomh009]

Couldn't agree more, I like all of those firms, I would add ABA into that conversation of talented architects. Unfortunately the architecture firm can only do as good of a job as the developer wants. Its hard to know if SRM is just firm filled with the lower end of the talent poo that is cheap enough that developers flock to when they want to build cheap building or if SRM is restricted by the developer value engineering the design down to what we are seeing at DTK.    

[westwardloo]

Couldn't agree more, I like all of those firms, I would add ABA into that conversation of talented architects. Unfortunately the architecture firm can only do as good of a job as the developer wants. Its hard to know if SRM is just firm filled with the lower end of the talent poo that is cheap enough that developers flock to when they want to build cheap building or if SRM is restricted by the developer value engineering the design down to what we are seeing at DTK.    

Pool* my bad 

[westwardloo]

I am not shy to say that every week with more glass and metal in place, I like this building.  I think the final product is going to look ok.

For me it continues to get worse with each piece of glass, but to each their own. I like Circa 1877 and most people on this forum seemed to think it was the ugliest building in the region. 


I will say this building will probably look good compared to to the monstrosity that Drewlo is building on a king st. 

[ac3r]

I'm actually really curious to see the final Drewlo buildings. I don't think they'll be any better than the colourful Lego block looking student apartments in Waterloo, but Drewlo usually builds really generic looking buildings such as Wilson Towers and Fallowfield Towers so this is quite a change for them. It won't be great, but at least it'll help activate the street life on this side of downtown, especially with Market Flats going up just across the street. Now...if someone could just develop the parking lot on the block between Cedar and Madison, the east end would really start to feel transformed.

[taylortbb]

Now...if someone could just develop the parking lot on the block between Cedar and Madison, the east end would really start to feel transformed.

Building permits are already issued for that site, and there's a render at https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...9#pid73229 . Building permits were issued a year ago though, right before Covid. So no idea what the current state of things is.

[urbd]

We do have some architecturally good buildings here. The Clay and Glass Gallery, John M. Harper Branch of WPL, the Perimeter Institute and so on. It's just the new residential buildings that are very subpar. Charlie West is clean and minimal, but this building is unfortunately really cheap looking as are a lot of the other ones going up (nevermind the mess that are the student buildings - for a good student building look up Broadcasting Tower in Leeds). The local architecture firms here need to be a little more daring with their work. It doesn't necessarily take huge budgets, just imagination. One day I'd love to see something unique like this building in Toronto in our city:

Yes this is exactly what I meant, that recent residential towers are uninspired and cheap. Funny you mention this tower in Toronto, which was designed by Saucier + Perrotte - architects of the first phase of Perimeter Institute.