Catalyst | 22.86m | 6s | Centron | NORR

[Patrick.1980]

Surround it by trees, widen the sidewalk on 14 Street, and add 25 other buildings of around the same scale in all directions. No one will notice any weird colour and material choices. It's the secret to urban density the world over.

If that's not enough on it's own, by the time all that happens in about 25 - 50 years, the exterior of this one will be up for it's lifecycle replacement anyways and the owner will go with something cheap and standardized.

This is usually the case in other cities with higher densities, lots of average filler buildings surrounded by a few nice ones.
Though the building is nothing to write home about I wouldn’t call it ugly, I’ve seen much worse. It’s unfortunate it’s on a busy corner, but outside of that it does its job.

 

[Surrealplaces]

It could be nicer looking, like maybe sticking to 3-4 colors instead of 5, but the result is retail on at grade and 75 residential units to an inner city avenue, that's not a high priority corridor. I'm happy.

 

[Habanero]

While it isn’t the prettiest building by any stretch, sometimes opinions get exaggerated via group-think. Every forum I’ve ever been on has its darlings, and its whipping boys. not necessarily without reason, but often exaggerated..

 

[potatopizzafan]

My main criticism is the absurd amount of materials and colour. If all the windows were black and they just stuck with the wood and white/light grey it would be fine. Seems to be a common thing where they are trying to do too much. KISS

 

[CBBarnett]

My main criticism is the absurd amount of materials and colour. If all the windows were black and they just stuck with the wood and white/light grey it would be fine. Seems to be a common thing where they are trying to do too much. KISS

This has been often debated question on this forum - beyond the always-present quality of materials argument (e.g. brick and glass are nice looking, we should have more of it), there's a second argument that is more unclear to me - why have so many different types of materials at all?

I can understand why developers avoid brick or high quality materials in some cases (cost), but never really understand the rationale of why so many materials. My preference is that all things being equal a plainer, simpler building with fewer materials tends to look better. Do those that pay for these new buildings have a different view?

I can't imagine any cost benefits to adding more types of materials, so is it all just preference?

 

[potatopizzafan]

The people in charge probably think the building is boring due to having to simplify the design because of cost. So they think "hmm how can we make this boring building more exciting", and decide that adding some random rectangles and different window colours will make it more interesting, because more = better. people with no taste trying to make a boring building "cool", like racing stripes on a corolla

 

[Surrealplaces]

Yeah, I've never figured out the need for so many colors. Personally (and this is just a personal opinion) 3 colors should be sufficient in most cases. On larger buildings you could get away with 4 or even 5 if there's a tower portion, but for smaller projects, 3 is good.

 

[adamyyc]

It just looks like they’re going to be recladding in 10-15 years.

 

[Always_Biking]

Too many colors, other than that it’s fine.

 

[Alex_YYC]

 

[haltcatchfire]

 

[konradiical]

Im ok with it. It will help kickstart development in this area for more dense living. Not every building will be beautiful. It isn't even that ugly, just busy. When more buildings start joining the street it wont be as noticable

 

[Surrealplaces]

 

[Surrealplaces]

The tarp is gone, and the sidewalk work looks to be complete, the only thing left is to get rid of the construction fencing.
I’m not a fan of the multi colour use, but outside of that to be honest, I think this is a good project that checks most of the boxes.

 

[Cowtown]

All in all, a good addition to the area, and 100 times better than what was there before.