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The Bright Building (749 King St W) | 18 + 3 fl | U/C
IN8 while we're at it too.

I find it so sad that the worst developers in this region are buying up all the best land during this construction boom. Their terrible buildings are going to be a stain on our skyline for the next century and when more reputable developers want to start building here, all those good locations are going to be gone already and filled with their trashy work. Sadly, everyone at the City of Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge who works on council or in the planning department is evidently so short sighted that they somehow can't look at these proposals and stop to think "hmm, this looks awful, we should object to the design". They basically just rubber stamp any proposal they get with no thought.

We desperately need a design review panel here to save our cities.
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(05-22-2022, 11:52 AM)ac3r Wrote: IN8 while we're at it too.

I find it so sad that the worst developers in this region are buying up all the best land during this construction boom. Their terrible buildings are going to be a stain on our skyline for the next century and when more reputable developers want to start building here, all those good locations are going to be gone already and filled with their trashy work. Sadly, everyone at the City of Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge who works on council or in the planning department is evidently so short sighted that they somehow can't look at these proposals and stop to think "hmm, this looks awful, we should object to the design". They basically just rubber stamp any proposal they get with no thought.

Unless I'm badly mistaken, the planning department cannot deny any application based on the design, if the proposal is within the zoning bylaws.

A design panel, sure, if we had one.
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That may be the case (I'm not very familiar with the rules here) but you'd think they could still do something if it was ugly enough. If a developer wanted to build a building that looked like a giant cock I'm sure they'd object to that.
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From yesterday:

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This is a lot closer to the sidewalk then I remembered
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[Image: 1zE2yxO.jpg]
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I'm really coming around on this one.
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It looks quite brutalist right now (and not in a good way; I like brutalism but it's still just plain concrete) but the renderings made this seem like it could be okay. It's from Martin Simmons Sweers who are usually alright. Not a spectacular design but at least something new and nice for midtown. We'll have to see how it looks afterwards.

It'll be interesting to see how midtown develops. Not many plots of land along King or other streets for sale yet, but there have been a few. With the unfortunate SRM building going up across from the hospital, the Sun Life project (which seems to finally be progressing...?) and the CTV studios for sale next door, maybe that'll encourage property owners to think of selling whilst the market is still doing okay and then it could start drawing in more developers here. It feels like such an ugly, barren place to be right now. I don't want to see tons of towers go up here - mid rises and row houses would be great for now, but at least some change would be nice to see.
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(07-05-2022, 11:39 AM)ac3r Wrote: It looks quite brutalist right now (and not in a good way; I like brutalism but it's still just plain concrete) but the renderings made this seem like it could be okay. It's from Martin Simmons Sweers who are usually alright. Not a spectacular design but at least something new and nice for midtown. We'll have to see how it looks afterwards.

It'll be interesting to see how midtown develops. Not many plots of land along King or other streets for sale yet, but there have been a few. With the unfortunate SRM building going up across from the hospital, the Sun Life project (which seems to finally be progressing...?) and the CTV studios for sale next door, maybe that'll encourage property owners to think of selling whilst the market is still doing okay and then it could start drawing in more developers here. It feels like such an ugly, barren place to be right now. I don't want to see tons of towers go up here - mid rises and row houses would be great for now, but at least some change would be nice to see.

Agreed on that development pattern, but I also feel like the midtown streetscape is incredibly disappointing for having just been redone with the ION. I almost always take the IHT between downtown and uptown, whether walking or biking, because it's much more pleasant despite it being twice the distance. Drop in on any tram street in the Netherlands and you'll still find 2 lanes of car traffic and 2 tram tracks, but you'll also find cycling facilities, wider sidewalks, and more trees (sometimes you even find more car parking). Meanwhile midtown is just... grey and dead.

I noticed from a quick streetview trip that the Netherlands tends to locate their OCS poles in the edge of the sidewalk, which 1) hides them among the trees and other noise, and 2) reduces the amount of dead space between the tram tracks.

I really think streetscape improvements are needed in midtown alongside development, but I can't see it happening unfortunately.
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Yeah unlikely. They just spent a lot of money reconstructing it during the LRT construction. I think it'll be a barren, grey transit corridor for the next few decades. Maybe some new buildings along the road can help at least add some life to the street. And given how ugly the path of the LRT is along there, they could always periodically add dividing fences between the train and the road. Leave gaps where people can still view out the train windows, but then use decorative fencing to obscure the track bed and poles from view, using decorative glass or metal designs or even green walls that could grow. Or they could have just used green track. But all of this would have cost money and the region didn't want to spend 1 cent more than necessary on this thing.
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[Image: m0UjIXU.jpg]
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Up to 12 floors now. A bit plain but at least it doesn't pretend to be anything more than that.

   
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(07-06-2022, 12:21 PM)ac3r Wrote: And given how ugly the path of the LRT is along there, they could always periodically add dividing fences between the train and the road. Leave gaps where people can still view out the train windows, but then use decorative fencing to obscure the track bed and poles from view, using decorative glass or metal designs or even green walls that could grow. Or they could have just used green track. But all of this would have cost money and the region didn't want to spend 1 cent more than necessary on this thing.

There is about 2m of space between the trains on the two tracks. Couldn't they install a series of 1m-wide concrete planters between the two tracks, planted with something like cedars to provide some visual separation? Or is there a requirement that visibility between tracks cannot be obscured?
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Space for service or emergency vehicles? Although I don't think emergency vehicles use the LRT right of way even though I think it was constructed with that in mind.
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