3D Model - Future Waterloo Region Skylines

[bravado]

User ericmacm posted on r/Waterloo this series of 7x 3D image models of the “future skylines of KWC overlaid on google earth imagery. Very creative and a good visual.

Reddit post

This is their description of the project:

Hey /r/waterloo!
I hope you're all having a great long weekend. I figured it was time for me to post one of my projects - my 3D SketchUp model of the future skylines of Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge in Google Earth. More or less, this is what the region is going to look like skyline-wise in the coming decade.
This version of the model contains 125 new towers across all three centres. This is obviously a drastic change from what currently exists in much of the area, but it is not surprising given the growth of the region in the past decade, along with new transit investments through iON and GO. I have a lot of optimism for the region to emerge as one of Canada's dominant centres in the future.
I work on lot of other skylines across Canada and have many in the works. If you're interested in my work, feel free to give me a follow on Instagram @pancanadianskylines! 

Instagram

[TMKM94]

Thanks for sharing this, it's very exciting to see what our region will hopefully look like.

[ZEBuilder]

As a side project I've been modelling the future skyline of KW, inspiration for it was originally taken from pancanadianskylines on Instagram who is ericmacm (first post in this thread is about his model). Since his last post about the model there's been a bunch of additional proposals that have popped up. Roughly 30 or so buildings throughout Kitchener alone (SPA,CoA, ZBA/OPA), not to mention some of the very large projects up in Waterloo, as well I've included the proposals that were made public through the Growing Together documents, which are obviously just concepts but it still allows for a neat perspective into the future skyline.

The massing for the projects is as accurate as I can get with the publicly available documents (CoA, ZBA/OPA), if the height isn't known for the project I generally assumed 3m per floor, however if a developer tends to use a different floor to floor height I used that instead. The models themselves aren't all that detailed, so there isn't any shape changes in the buildings, so if the project uses significant step backs (Charles Place) those aren't included so they may seem slightly bigger than actuality.

I can't find topographical data for KW and putting projects into Google Earth turned into a hassle so everything is all at the same elevation so it's not the best but again it gives a rough estimate. 

Regardless it's really interesting to see how 10 years ago a project like 100 Vic were considered tall and now look like babies compared to other projects, same thing goes for Charlie West and Duke Tower. Now our definition of tall are projects like Station Park Tower 5, 417 King St W and 50 Borden and even now we're starting to get multiple projects approaching that height.

In the model I have everything colour coded, Green means the building is complete, Yellow is under construction, Orange means it has approval (ZBA/OPA, SPA), Blue is a proposal, finally Pink is all the new stuff from Growing Together. If there's a close up or an area that you're interested in I can post it on here as well. The 3 pictures I have just provide a general overview.

Downtown from McLennan Park:
   

Downtown from Union/Belmont:
   

Downtown from Krug/River:
   

[tomh009]

Nice! Can you do a DTK view from closer up, maybe from Victoria Park area?

[ZEBuilder]

DTK looking towards King/Vic from Victoria Park:
   

DTK looking towards King/Ottawa from Victoria Park:
   

[tomh009]

Thanks! That last image really shows how much is (projected to be) happening in the east end.

[CP42]

That’s awesome!

What are the two towers between station park and the bright building? 
Assume it’s in the empty land where the night club used to be. I remember seeing that was owned by Melloul Blamey/HIP but don’t recall seeing any info on a proposal.

[ZEBuilder]

That’s awesome!

What are the two towers between station park and the bright building? 
Assume it’s in the empty land where the night club used to be. I remember seeing that was owned by Melloul Blamey/HIP but don’t recall seeing any info on a proposal.

Yeah it's the empty land where the old district night club was. There isn't anything formally submitted to the city yet but in the Growing Together documents there's a site plan for a 30 and 26 floor tower so I decided to include it.

HIP has agreements in place with the property owners on Walter so their property extends King-Walter now, obviously its just a concept plan at this point in time so it might change but it's at least what HIP is thinking right now.

[Square]

So, 57 storeys is the highest or tallest proposed building right now? Guess we have to wait until July until NAV Canada and the Region have a new flight plan. Curious if we will get proposals for 60+ storey buildings.

[ac3r]

You just very well might! :'P