201 & 217 Hespeler Road | 13 + 17 fl | Proposed

[bravado]

It looks like the redevelopment of Hespeler Road is actually going to happen ahead of the LRT Phase 2. More rental units! 

Link to Urban Design Brief

https://www.cambridgetoday.ca/local-news...ad-5258671








Existing empty car dealership:

[bravado]

Highlights for me:
1. More rental units, that's 2 rental buildings in Cambridge in 1 week.
2. Distinctive design... I can't tell if it's good, but it is bold.
3. "Secure indoor bicycle parking" - Hopefully this is a real deal, not just a soulless afterthought.
4. 1000 sq metres of open space on the top of the parking structure seems quite ambitious and useful.
5. Specifically referring to "affordable" in the plan, whatever that actually means.

[ac3r]

I think I might have to join team BANANA because the architecture in this region just keeps getting worse and worse and worse and worse. It's like 12 year old kids design this stuff. Give me a napkin and a used matchstick held between my lips and I could design a better building than most of the garbage that gets proposed here. Wtf is this design‽

[bravado]

I think I might have to join team BANANA because the architecture in this region just keeps getting worse and worse and worse and worse et alii. It's like 12 year old kids design this stuff.

Is it reasonable to call the crap shapes tacked onto the parking garage "flair" or is there an even better architectural term for it?

[cherrypark]

Imagine having a School of Architecture in the city and some of these get proposed. Goodness.

[ac3r]

I think I might have to join team BANANA because the architecture in this region just keeps getting worse and worse and worse and worse et alii. It's like 12 year old kids design this stuff.

Is it reasonable to call the crap shapes tacked onto the parking garage "flair" or is there an even better architectural term for it?

Here's a start...lol: https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/shit

I've mentioned elsewhere on this forum that we have one of the best and most highly rated architecture schools in the world but keep ending up with terrible buildings here. While not every building can be an award winner, you can still at least try. There's so much local talent as well, but it continues to be untapped. Loriane Wong - a second year University of Waterloo School of Architecture student - recently won an award for her proposed design of the former WRPS building on Frederick Street. Viktors Jaunkalns recently won a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence award for his work on the Western North York Community Centre. Local students in Waterloo Region have amazing ideas and they regularly showcase this stuff in exhibits, lectures and so on...but because nothing exciting seems to happen here, they study and fly out of here, resulting in the sort of talentless crap we keep seeing get constructed.

We've got historically prestigious architects that have done plenty of work here such as John E. Lingwood and have buildings from great firms like Patkau Architects and Teeple Architects. Hell, Rick Haldenby - perhaps one of the most important professors at the University of Waterloo, who founded the universities Rome program in Trastevere, Rome, Italy - was awarded the Order of Canada not long ago for his work. And yet...95% of what we build here is absolute garbage. Even Haldenby agrees and he appears to be increasingly jaded by these sort of projects that keep getting proposed/approved here. When you lose the respect of one of your regions most important contemporary architects and scholars, then you know you're doing it wrong.

[westwardloo]

HAHA This may be the ugliest proposal the Region has ever got and that is saying something. I don't know where to start, the Orange roof, the 90's inspired circle "flairs", the unnecessary seemingly random change of  building shape/ balcony locations. It literally says "high quality" in the design brief. I just don't understand how developers/ architects don't take a little pride in what they build in this region? These proposals somehow keep getting worse. These types of developments fuel NIMBIES. I would be ok with a well designed tower being built in my neighbourhood, but if a monstrosity like this is ever proposed I will fight side by side with all the NIMBIES from the old berlin neighboorhood who don't want this region to change at all.

[ac3r]

I guess the architects are fans of post-modernism lol, because this looks like the kind of thing they would have built in the 1980s.

[bravado]

What's the chance that this gets whittled down to a more sane proposal in the application process? Usually good buildings get made mediocre, can it work the other way? Bad is converted into mediocre?

[nms]

And yet...95% of what we build here is absolute garbage. Even Haldenby agrees and he appears to be increasingly jaded by these sort of projects that keep getting proposed/approved here. When you lose the respect of one of your regions most important contemporary architects and scholars, then you know you're doing it wrong.

Is this a follow the money kind of thing (as in design and function beat out the desire for the maximum profit margin with older buildings)? Or is it more of a, "I can just as easily add or remove this element in CAD or [insert architectural drafting program here], so why not?" When local industrialists and commercial owners lived in the area, you ended up with projects like the Kaufman factory at King and Victoria or the the Mutual Life head office at King and Union. Even the additions to the Mutual Life building were generally well done.

[bravado]

This design that only a mother could love has been approved:

https://www.cambridgetoday.ca/local-news...le-6246181

[cherrypark]

This design that only a mother could love has been approved:

https://www.cambridgetoday.ca/local-news...le-6246181

That is going to work even worse in reality once they end up with pre-cast panels.

[ac3r]

At least it's in Cambridge, right? :'P

[clasher]

Holy shit that looks worse than simcity 2000 buildings.

[bravado]

At least it's in Cambridge, right? :'P

Once the LRT is built in 20 years I can finally get over there to Kitchener to fight you