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General Construction Updates

Alex_YYC said:
Somethings starting construction on 20th NWAve. between 12th and 13th St.

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Unfortunately nothing too exciting, but still good decent infill. 8 units total.

It's good infill, but it seems a waste for 20th ave which has potential to become a decent retail corridor.

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It really is not an optimal solution at all in my opinion. There are other ways of reorganizing smaller slab-on-grade townhomes so that they don't produce this excessively hardscaped, car-dominated public realm experience. Limiting this to one curb cut and having the garages off of the rear with a narrow strata road would produce a much nicer public realm with these buildings. I think the reason that they organize the buildings this way is to maintain the required larger front setback. If the builder was allowed to push the building closer to the front property line and sidewalk, they could add the parking in the rear or centre of the site via a strata road.
Here is another bad Calgary example in Crescent Heights.
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This development and many others in Calgary have excessive hardscaping, no landscaping and a poor interaction with the street. This is because it is not a laned parcel, but there are still ways to organize that don't have excessively large, automobile dominated front setback areas.
Here are a few examples of slab-on-grade townhomes on laneless parcels in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood of Seattle. They keep access to one curb cut that has a centralized strata road so that the public realm allows for interaction with the street and landscaping.
Heres the first:

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Number 2:
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Number 3:
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Surrealplaces said:
Unfortunately nothing too exciting, but still good decent infill. 8 units total.

It's good infill, but it seems a waste for 20th ave which has potential to become a decent retail corridor.
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I think it's a long time indeed for 20th to really be a retail corridor. There's plenty of shops on 20th today, but that's because 20th is intersected by all of the north-south retail corridors (and emerging corridors) in the area; Edmonton Tr, Centre, 4th, 10th, 19th. Virtually all of the retail on 20th is at those north-south roads. 16th Ave is a retail corridor -- a pedestrian-hostile one, but a corridor nonetheless -- and it has plenty of underused capacity for retail intensification. 20th won't become a thriving retail corridor until there's enough density in the area to support both it and 16th Ave, and that's Beltline levels of density. By that point, these 8 units will be in need of replacement.
 
ByeByeBaby said:
I think it's a long time indeed for 20th to really be a retail corridor. There's plenty of shops on 20th today, but that's because 20th is intersected by all of the north-south retail corridors (and emerging corridors) in the area; Edmonton Tr, Centre, 4th, 10th, 19th. Virtually all of the retail on 20th is at those north-south roads. 16th Ave is a retail corridor -- a pedestrian-hostile one, but a corridor nonetheless -- and it has plenty of underused capacity for retail intensification. 20th won't become a thriving retail corridor until there's enough density in the area to support both it and 16th Ave, and that's Beltline levels of density. By that point, these 8 units will be in need of replacement.
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20th as a whole would take a long time to fill up as a retail corridor, but I think there could be one or sections (one or two blocks sections) of 20th that resemble a layout and function similar to the strip along 19th ave NW, and area with a similar density.

I should mention that I don't think all developments along 20th need retail, but it would be nice to see developments along 20th with a bit higher density and a decent streetscape plan to allow it to someday have some decent walkable retail.
 
Surrealplaces said:
20th as a whole would take a long time to fill up as a retail corridor, but I think there could be one or sections (one or two blocks sections) of 20th that resemble a layout and function similar to the strip along 19th ave NW, and area with a similar density.

I should mention that I don't think all developments along 20th need retail, but it would be nice to see developments along 20th with a bit higher density and a decent streetscape plan to allow it to someday have some decent walkable retail.
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Agreed, I always kind of envisioned 20th Ave having retail at organic nodes being at its important cross streets: Edmonton Trail, Centre Street, 4 St NW, 10 St NW 14 St NW and 19 St NW).
 
Alex_YYC said:
Yoga place moving along.

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Hmmm, I don’t hate it. I know people are getting sick of the white and black fad, but don’t see it much on mid-rises outside of the core so I’m in for it on this one.
 
Calgcouver said:
Agreed, I always kind of envisioned 20th Ave having retail at organic nodes being at its important cross streets: Edmonton Trail, Centre Street, 4 St NW, 10 St NW 14 St NW and 19 St NW).
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That’s what I’d like to I see also. 16th Ave is a write off, but maybe 20th Ave can be salvaged into something by having a few vibrant nodes at those intersections. Once those nodes solidify the whole avenue can start to evolve and probably quicker Gan some think.
Given the amount of small developments we are seeing on streets like Bowness Road or 19th St., 20th Ave. could develop fairly quickly.
 
Drove down the entire stretch of 16th last week starting from Deerfoot until Stoney. Man I couldn't believe how many trees were cut down in the median planter boxes. Who ever thought elm's would survive in a planter box was not thinking. Also, the entire stretch is pretty dingy. Lots of broken sidewalks/medians, rusty curb poles, missing sidewalk links, dilapidated buildings, empty/abandoned lots, the list goes on. 16th Ave is definitely the biggest revitalization project the city attempted that can be declared an utter failure.
 
They didn't even attempt to revitalize it in any meaningful way. The last attempt was 100 percent car focused. What they did to 17th Ave East is an example of how they should approach revitalizing it.
 
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