West Village Towers | 149.95m | 42s | Cidex Group | NORR Dubai Yahya Jan

General rating of the project

  • Great

    Votes: 8 7.3%

  • Very Good

    Votes: 15 13.6%

  • Good

    Votes: 39 35.5%

  • So So

    Votes: 13 11.8%

  • Not Very Good

    Votes: 15 13.6%

  • Terrible

    Votes: 20 18.2%
  • Total voters
    110
Mountain Man said:
Even if they do plant trees, they have been having a tough time keeping sidewalk trees alive the last few years...
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Use whatever trees they planted on the south side of 12 Ave from Macleod Trail to 5 St SE (in front of Cowboys Casino and where the new arena is going); or mirror whatever they did to nurture them, In the summer, these trees create a canopy over the sidewalks. They look great and appear to be surviving our weather changes.
 
JonnyCanuck said:
Use whatever trees they planted on the south side of 12 Ave from Macleod Trail to 5 St SE (in front of Cowboys Casino and where the new arena is going); or mirror whatever they did to nurture them, In the summer, these trees create a canopy over the sidewalks. They look great and appear to be surviving our weather changes.
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That stretch is part of the "Greenway" in the Beltline ARP, so a very a-typical spec. Very expensive from what I have heard.
 
Another issue that affects our street trees is contamination from road salt - this could be mitigated by a curb around the tree well but that’s of course an additional expense. Also, I believe the City will water the trees for the first year or so, but after that they are on their own (or it’s up to adjacent property owners), so many of them fail unfortunately.
 
That podium needs trees to block it out. Does anyone know why they never have any evergreens on city streets? This one needs greenery year round.
 
Evergreens are widest at the base, so they pretty much take over the sidewalk until they are about 25' tall and you can trim the lower branches without killing it. The trees the city uses most these days are Elms and Bur Oaks, the latter is a bit hardier but takes about 10 years to not look scraggly lol.
 
I see this as a major problem around the inner city. The reason developers go with the absolute bare minimum tree coffin design, is because that is what is prescribed by the City of Calgary's standard spec. If developers deviate from this and attempt to incorporate larger, more impactful trees (including Silva cells) into their projects, the City forces them to execute a Perpetual Maintenance Agreement. This requires them to cover all maintenance and replacement costs (for the life of the project). If the City has rip up sidewalks and repair utility work, this agreement pushes the cost of the corresponding landscape repairs (sidewalk replacement, tree replacement, etc.) onto the landlord or the condo board. Since most groups do not want this trailing liability on their books, they opt for the stick figure trees that you see today.

The inner city councilors need to champion this and broaden the City's standard specifications, to allow developers to enhance our public realm.
 
haltcatchfire said:
Want to see what type of tree a city tree is? https://maps.calgary.ca/TreeSchedule/ Once you zoom to a few block radius it'll locate a dot and info for each tree.

Here are the trees that grow best in Calgary (when planted properly and subsequently maintained ;))
https://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Parks/P...-Management/Top-Tree-Species-for-Calgary.aspx
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Here is another link for the tree nerds out there: http://www.prairietrees.ca/prairie-tested-trees/ it's an extensive list of trees that have been tested to see whether they grow in our climate.
 
Mountain Man said:
Evergreens are widest at the base, so they pretty much take over the sidewalk until they are about 25' tall and you can trim the lower branches without killing it. The trees the city uses most these days are Elms and Bur Oaks, the latter is a bit hardier but takes about 10 years to not look scraggly lol.
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So obvious I can't believe I didn't think of it. Regardless, this project could use year round tree cover to hide it from innocent bystanders.
 
Urb said:
I see this as a major problem around the inner city. The reason developers go with the absolute bare minimum tree coffin design, is because that is what is prescribed by the City of Calgary's standard spec. If developers deviate from this and attempt to incorporate larger, more impactful trees (including Silva cells) into their projects, the City forces them to execute a Perpetual Maintenance Agreement. This requires them to cover all maintenance and replacement costs (for the life of the project). If the City has rip up sidewalks and repair utility work, this agreement pushes the cost of the corresponding landscape repairs (sidewalk replacement, tree replacement, etc.) onto the landlord or the condo board. Since most groups do not want this trailing liability on their books, they opt for the stick figure trees that you see today.

The inner city councilors need to champion this and broaden the City's standard specifications, to allow developers to enhance our public realm.
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How often does this happen would you think? Any specific examples you know about ?
 
Most projects will have a Landscape Architect involved, so there should be a degree of expertise involved in the type of tree and the location in which it goes. I think we need more trees to be a bit more mature when they are planted, and as other have said, maintenance (watering at least) is key.
 
The issue is the landscape architects can only select from the City standard specifications (stick man trees).
 
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