BMO Centre Expansion | 25m | 5s | CMLC

[jhbuilt]

This is taken approximately near the old entry gate bit west of the old coke stage. Where 17th ave will connect through. Lots of precast with brick veneer, nice color, but Kinda of assumed there would be more glazing along here, especially giving the pedestrian interaction here with the new pedestrian friendly station design and the 17th Ave connection.

 

[MissingMiddle]

View attachment 372759
This is taken approximately near the old entry gate bit west of the old coke stage. Where 17th ave will connect through. Lots of precast with brick veneer, nice color, but Kinda of assumed there would be more glazing along here, especially giving the pedestrian interaction here with the new pedestrian friendly station design and the 17th Ave connection.

Just to add, here's the render. Scale, context, and perspective might play a part, remember this building is gigantic, but who knows if it's changed since.

 

[MichaelS]

This is taken approximately near the old entry gate bit west of the old coke stage. Where 17th ave will connect through. Lots of precast with brick veneer, nice color, but Kinda of assumed there would be more glazing along here, especially giving the pedestrian interaction here with the new pedestrian friendly station design and the 17th Ave connection.

Your concerns were echoed by UDRP when this came through. You can see the panel's comments in the CPC material:

https://pub-calgary.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=146679

 

[jhbuilt]

Your concerns were echoed by UDRP when this came through. You can see the panel's comments in the CPC material:

https://pub-calgary.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=146679

thanks for posting that @MichaelS glad I wasn't the only one to think that. guess time will tell.
As others have said the massing once complete will change the balance and perspective.
maybe lighting and landscaping will beautify this brick wall.

 

[artvandelay]

Wow, the scale of this thing is going to be absolutely massive!

 

[Geo_Jedi]

View attachment 372759
This is taken approximately near the old entry gate bit west of the old coke stage. Where 17th ave will connect through. Lots of precast with brick veneer, nice color, but Kinda of assumed there would be more glazing along here, especially giving the pedestrian interaction here with the new pedestrian friendly station design and the 17th Ave connection.

If nothing else, a good opportunity for the next great BUMP mural!

 

[CalgaryTiger]

While the southwest side may have slowed down a bit, looking at the web cam today I see there's a bit more steel in the "back-of-house" area.

 

[outoftheice]

Definitely way more of a big blank wall being built by the train station than is shown on the renders attached to the construction fencing. Makes me a bit nervous as to public realm integration and what may have been value engineered out of the project already.

 

[The Familia]

That’s disappointing. Obviously long way to go and will wait to judge, but so far it is not looking like the render. Way too much brick wall and not enough glass.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Definitely way more of a big blank wall being built by the train station than is shown on the renders attached to the construction fencing. Makes me a bit nervous as to public realm integration and what may have been value engineered out of the project already.

View attachment 375265

I've also noticed the wall isn't completely flat... wonder what's behind the little bump in the wall.

View attachment 375266

So looks like they've dropped the windows. Looks like the 17th Ave extension will be leaving something to be desired. Not to mention that it isn't exactly what CMLC promised: "CMLC’s first horizontal infrastructure project in east Victoria Park, this extension will forge a new pedestrian and vehicular link to enable the smoother flow of traffic into and out of Stampede Park, and it will establish a new retail corridor that will catalyze further commercial development in the area." https://www.calgarymlc.ca/17th-avenue-extension

Unless they're planning for retail on the south side of 17th Ave... I think this retail corridor is "Stampede Trail". Here's some images from the CMLC website:

 

[Mountain Man]

Are you sure that's the same wall? Looks like the west wall in the render and the SW wall in the picture.

 

[outoftheice]

Definitely the same wall as the way it angles towards the Victoria Park LRT platform matches the angle on the construction fencing rendering as well as the two renderings posted by CalgaryTiger. So it's either a bait and switch from rendering to reality or the brick is actually an interior wall and there is still more exterior structure to be built but that looks unlikely based on how the building orients to the CTrain platform in all the renderings.

 

[The Familia]

Well WTF. There was more glass on the old round up Center than this. If this turns out to be a giant block of rock and nothing like the renderings than CMLC can also go to hell. Losing faith in this “entertainment district” every day it seems. Nothing seems to be going right with it.

 

[MissingMiddle]

Are you sure that's the same wall? Looks like the west wall in the render and the SW wall in the picture.

The whole building is built on a 45 degree angle, the progress pics we're seeing are the West corner of the South-West wall. It's being built as planned, a solid wall with trees and landscaping in front:

I mean it's not exactly Stephen Ave, but it's exactly what they said they'd do, you can even see the offset angles of the wall near the corner:

 

[gsunnyg]

I shared my concerns a while back. Forget glass, the fact there's no retail activation or housing units on top of the station side for a city-planned project just goes to show how pathetic our TOD's are in Calgary. Not even CMLC can figure it out.