Midtown Lofts | ?m | 6 fl | Complete

[KWchick]

I remember when the General Pizza was Tommy's Fruit Market.

oh that is a neat memory!

i bet you remember lots of stores that are long gone eh?

[Lens]

"Residents of Midtown will have exclusive access to a private parkette, professionally landscaped outdoor terrace on the second floor and fitness amenity. A variety of spaces from studio, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms lofts and loft towns are available."

[panamaniac]

If the render is accurate, it looks like the brickwork will be similar in colour to that now going up on the new Google building.

[rangersfan]

Thanks for posting the render, I attempted to find one a few different times and was not successful.

Looks like it could be pretty interesting.

[TMKM94]

Will there be retail space? it doesn't mention anything about retail space on there website,

[tomh009]

Indeed. My bet is that there is no retail, it only mentions "mixed condo units". Not ideal, but I can accept some condo buildings without retail -- for example, Kaufman Lofts has no retail, yet I think it doesn't detract from the streetscape.

[Spokes]

Thanks for posting this. I like it. Good scale for the location, and seems to be an interesting design.

I was really hoping for retail at ground level, so if indeed that's not happening, I'll be disappointed.

[mpd618]

The midtown zoning is mixed-use, which does not allow ground floor residential uses.

[tomh009]

The midtown zoning is mixed-use, which does not allow ground floor residential uses.

It's MU-2, medium-intensity mixed-use.
http://www.kitchener.ca/en/businessinkit...s/MU-2.pdf


"Location of Dwelling Unit: Shall not be located on the ground floor unless located within a building used only as a multiple  dwelling."

So ground-floor residential is, in fact, allowed as long as it's a 100% residential building.

[MidTowner]

I had thought that back at Wonderful Waterloo something was posted about this including retail, and maybe even trying to accommodate the existing retail tenants at the site.

It would be extremely disappointing to see this part of King lose retail space, however marginal some people might consider it to be. I can't recall what stage they're at in terms of getting the variances, but I would hope that the municipal government would be disinclined to approve the variances since this is not the type of development that should be promoted on this stretch. I like the scale, think the form looks interesting judging by that render, but feel strongly that commercial should be part of any development on this stretch of King.

[tomh009]

I like the scale, think the form looks interesting judging by that render, but feel strongly that commercial should be part of any development on this stretch of King.

How is the on-street parking availability (for commercial) in this stretch of King Street?  I can't tell now with the street being all dug up. 

[MidTowner]

How is the on-street parking availability (for commercial) in this stretch of King Street?  I can't tell now with the street being all dug up. 

There's street parking on Shanley, Andrew, and other nearby streets, but also a "parkette" to be included in this development. Oh, and two Ion stations within walking distance!

[ac3r]

Not really liking the design. We have one of the most prestigious architectural schools in Canada in our region. What is with all these terrible brick work designs they build here, or the cheap stucco looking stuff they've put up at the Barrel Yards, which also dot the entire city (think the two out by Fairview Park Mall that went up ages ago)? Have any of you visited the architectural school in Cambridge? You can see dozens of amazing neo-modern building designs from students. It'd be nice to see some of their work translated to real life:

I know this is just a simple 7 floor condo but...it's along the main road downtown/uptown...some glass facades or more contemporary building materials would be nice. Something that says Waterloo Region is a technological and artistically innovative city. City Centre and One Hundred Victoria are the only two developments going up that are remotely architecturally pleasing. Everything else has this awful 1990s pseudo-post-modern look. This looks similar to One Victoria which to be honest is an eye sore next to the beautiful UoW Pharmacy building, being a good 80% dark brick work that in 20 years isn't going to age too well. It just looks so cheap.

[panamaniac]

Not really liking the design. We have one of the most prestigious architectural schools in Canada in our region. What is with all these terrible brick work designs they build here, or the cheap stucco looking stuff they've put up at the Barrel Yards, which also dot the entire city (think the two out by Fairview Park Mall that went up ages ago)? Have any of you visited the architectural school in Cambridge? You can see dozens of amazing neo-modern building designs from students. It'd be nice to see some of their work translated to real life.

I know this is just a simple 7 floor condo but...it's along the main road downtown/uptown...some glass facades would be nice. Something that says Waterloo Region is a technological and artistically innovative city. City Centre and One Hundred Victoria are the only two developments going up that are remotely architecturally pleasing. Everything else has this awful 1990s pseudo-post-modern look. This looks similar to One Victoria which to be honest is an eye sore next to the beautiful UoW Pharmacy building, being a good 80% dark brick work. It just looks so cheap.

I'm confused - Kitchener is all about the brick. 

[ac3r]

I'm confused - Kitchener is all about the brick. 

I understand what you're saying. Kitchener was an industrious city in the past. But so was Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver. There are lots of gorgeous old factories and apartment buildings built centuries ago that are being modernised, but virtually all the new projects going up are still these cheap looking condos. I realise most of the developers are small and don't have reputable architectural firms behind them, nor the money, but why are they shying away from more intriguing designs? Collaborate with the school or something - I mean most of the tech firms here pull talent from local students, why not involve the architecture and design students.

I have a lot of friends who study architecture at UoW and see all these things going up and say, once they graduate, they'll most certainly be working in Toronto instead of here because there are more opportunities to design and build more innovative and contemporary projects, because everything that gets approved in this city looks like this or this. City Centre, the pharmacy building etc were exceptions due to their status symbol, but the rest of these projects are going to age horribly - visually and physically - in 15-20 years.