General Construction Updates

[Albertasaurus]

What's so bad with what Logel is doing? At the end of the day it's 790 reasonably priced units. Nothing fancy but probably the fastest way to get more units to market than bespoke designs for each building.

This sort of stuff is subjective, but Logel's design sort of encapsulates everything I hate about those auto-court style designs we see a lot of in the suburbs. Everything from the architecture reminiscent of Panorama Hills in the '90s to the colour palette of greys, browns and way too much black that I'm just fed up of seeing everywhere, to the fact that it is completely auto-centric are all off-putting to me. I agree it's great to get lots of housing units at an affordable price point but that doesn't mean it should look bad.

 

[O-tac]

Looking at the location this looks like the parcel across the street from Superstore that was originally supposed to be offices. The mixed use idea of Seton has been completely diluted to nothing now. The only office building is the white one across from the hospital. It's mostly medical.

This megaplex shouldn’t be on the main drag. Really blech!

 

[trtcttc]

This sort of stuff is subjective, but Logel's design sort of encapsulates everything I hate about those auto-court style designs we see a lot of in the suburbs. Everything from the architecture reminiscent of Panorama Hills in the '90s to the colour palette of greys, browns and way too much black that I'm just fed up of seeing everywhere, to the fact that it is completely auto-centric are all off-putting to me. I agree it's great to get lots of housing units at an affordable price point but that doesn't mean it should look bad.

It's not ideal that it's auto centric but I'm not sure what else is possible. I'm fairly certain these are condos and if buyers are wanting something different, I'm sure they'll build it. Reality is with the location and lack of transit options, not sure what a developer or buyer is supposed to do.
Agreed these developments can use some more colour and better designs.

 

[O-tac]

They’ll be next to a future transit station.

 

[CallmeCatbread]

They’ll be next to a future transit station.

You're right, but also people have been saying that since before Seton was built. We're long past the point of building for transit in that area. Seton is a complete and utter failure on every level. Even if the green line gets built in the timeframe we're looking at It will take decades before anything meaningfully changes down there.

 

[O-tac]

The Douglasglen condos are well underway. The site is so massive I couldn’t capture it all in one pic. They dug a mountain of dirt for the underground parking for all 3 buildings. Will be strange not seeing bails of hay in an empty field here anymore.

 

[O-tac]

One thing I notice in Seton (and even Auburn Bay) is that there are always people walking to the stores and coming back with groceries. In the warmer weather I walk from Auburn to Seton for groceries or snacks sometimes too. Compared to many new areas it is quite walkable. Is it perfect? No. But it is still nice to be able to walk sometimes to nearby amenities. As ugly as those new condos across from Superstore will be, there will be even more people who walk for every day errands.

 

[trtcttc]

They’ll be next to a future transit station.

That's probably a failure of our infrastructure planning that the infrastructure comes after the housing. There's no way to expect a person or family to move to Seton without a car and relying on the transit that is there now. All for the future promise of a transit line, that will at best be 5 years away? There's people that can commit to that kind of car-free lifestyle, but it's just not a big enough portion of the population that we can build housing just to suit them.

 

[O-tac]

I agree, and think that’s why that development is such a typical car oriented condo complex.