The only thing I think I don’t like are the railings. I’d also be curious to see what it would look like if the swapped the white at the top (and possibly inside the balconies) with the red brick. This may make the building feel too dark, I’d just be curious to see how it would look.
Admit it — you would have missed me if I hadn’t shown upI knew Doug would be back for this one
It’s not so much fighting density — more trying to manage it to achieve a really good outcome. As you are all likely aware by now, my concern is that taking a quirky “Main Street”, particularly one with east-west orientation in a northern city with prevailing westerlies, and lining it with 6 storey buildings, is more likely to “kill” it than enhance it. I think a much better outcome could have been achieved by keeping the building heights along the Main Street more “human scale” and putting the taller buildings/higher densities a block over, where the greater scale and shadowing would have far less impact on the Main Street’s public realm.
I wouldn’t describe Paris as a northern city. Do you also feel that Jan Gehl’s decades of research and writings on the importance of human scale to placemaking are ridiculous? Any thoughts as to why, on a sunny Saturday afternoon during a chinook, the south-facing patio at the Ship & Anchor Pub on 17th AV SW will be teeming with people — meanwhile the south-facing patio at the pub across the street from the 6-storey Treo building on 33rd AV SW won’t even have its chairs out?
Paris is at 48 degrees north latitude, about the same as Victoria, so yes it's definitely a northern city. Anyway the reson I mention Paris is that's it's considered one of the most human scaled Cities in the world (along with most big European Cities). Does Jan Gehl think Paris or Barcelona fail on a human scale? By bringing him up you actually support my argument!
So I guess Calgary is doomed to see its quirky Main Streets replaced with aluminum-glazed strips of chain franchises
. But hey, I have an idea for an attraction to spice up Marda Loop — now when I come off Crowchild at 33rd as I come down the slope from the raised interchange I feel like I am in an X-wing fighter descending into one of the Death Star’s channels for a bombing run. I think the Marda Loop BRZ should exploit that sensation by setting up a Star Wars themed zip line ride that zooms along above 33rd. Pilots would try to hit the target in the centre of the 20th Street intersection with a virtual bomb. RNDSQR and other developers of properties along 33rd could get in on the action by installing turrets on the tops of their buildings that would shoot at you as you zoomed by in your zip line X-wing fighter. Residents with units that face 33rd could stand on their balconies dressed as Storm Troopers and shoot lasers at passing X-wing fighters. It would be radical!
Hi Doug, i am curious why you think a 16m building is so much more appropriate for the 33 Avenue right-of-way than a 22m building? Best practice in building height to ROW width to create the appropriate sense of enclosure is a 1:1 ratio, measured from building edge to building edge.
www.strongtowns.org
So I guess Calgary is doomed to see its quirky Main Streets replaced with aluminum-glazed strips of chain franchises