Cube | 25.91m | 7s | Strategic Group

I don't find my experience as a pedestrian any worse on a 1 way street as opposed to 2 way, and my experience as a driver is far superior on a 1 way. As a cyclist I really enjoy going with the flow of traffic and can usually link several blocks together withoug hitting a red, it's obviously worse going against the flow as you hit pretty much every light.

Basically I think a street should be judged on what it has to offer, not the direction and speed of traffic. What I would like to see is wider sidewalks on 11th and 12th, that would do far more for the pedestrian realm than messing with traffic.
 
One Way streets being far superior depends on where you're driving to. The study posted earlier shows that they aren't always superior for drivers. I actually don't find 11th to be noticeably better than 10th ave. The flow is somewhat better, but if you are driving around that area of the Beltline and are going to more than one spot or simply passing through, having to loop around various blocks to get to where you want to go can make it longer as shown in the study.
The study also shows that businesses do better on two way streets. It's not a surprise that 4th street, 1st street, 8th street and 17th ave have better vibrancy than 11th and 12th ave. Even 10th ave which has businesses on only one side of the street is as vibrant as 11th or 12th.
 
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I wonder how potential renters will respond to no balconies or, it appears, no windows that open. I guess that is the challenge with these office conversions versus new constructs.
 
Where's the vomit emoji when you need it. Strategic really pushes the envelope when it comes to heaping piles of garbage.

Yep. There should be a blacklist or something of the sort...i really don't understand how a group with so much capital can't even spend the money for a decent rendering.
 
I didn’t snap a pic if this one, it looks exactly the same as @Calgcouver s pic, but there were workman hauling stuff out of the building. I guess they must be guttung it still.
 
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I think this building is going to be challenging to rent out given all of the other rental options within a few blocks.
No balconies. Unless they are replacing them all, there may not be any windows that open. With only 66 units, there probably won't much in the way of amenities either.
 
It's a pretty good location, with the Coop right there. I'm guessing it's pretty much all one bedroom units; the building is around 8400 gross sq ft per floor, which at 66 units with the ground floor retail comes in 760 sq ft total per unit; less circulation space it's probably closer 600 sq ft per. I think there's potentially a gap in the market -- there are a number of buildings (Versus, Arch, Metropolitan) that are new with all the bells and whistles, calling themselves "luxury" and charging $1500+ for a one-bedroom, and a number of others from the 70s and 80s that are super-basic with no laundry and often no dishwasher and can only get $1000 for a one bedroom. But there's not much in the middle ground. I could see a market for people who don't need a health club or balconies, but don't want to carry their clothes to the laundromat or live in something really dated. I could also see it potentially in the furnished short-term executive rental space; I wouldn't want to live forever without a balcony, but if I was spending a month here on work, I'd rather have a full apartment than a hotel room.
 
I would guess some one bedrooms and lots of bachelor suites.
It's a pretty good location, with the Coop right there. I'm guessing it's pretty much all one bedroom units; the building is around 8400 gross sq ft per floor, which at 66 units with the ground floor retail comes in 760 sq ft total per unit; less circulation space it's probably closer 600 sq ft per. I think there's potentially a gap in the market -- there are a number of buildings (Versus, Arch, Metropolitan) that are new with all the bells and whistles, calling themselves "luxury" and charging $1500+ for a one-bedroom, and a number of others from the 70s and 80s that are super-basic with no laundry and often no dishwasher and can only get $1000 for a one bedroom. But there's not much in the middle ground. I could see a market for people who don't need a health club or balconies, but don't want to carry their clothes to the laundromat or live in something really dated. I could also see it potentially in the furnished short-term executive rental space; I wouldn't want to live forever without a balcony, but if I was spending a month here on work, I'd rather have a full apartment than a hotel room.
 
I think people overestimate the importance of one way streets. There are very few studies that point to any benefit to transitioning one way streets to two way streets. And further any benefit that is realized is usually lost to a host of confounding variables such as other urban/pedestrian development improvements that happen concurrently with the one to two way transition.

The one way nature of the traffic flow isn't the problem here. It's the fact the sidewalks are narrow, the street frontages suck, there aren't a lot of retail bays that can support restaurants, and so on. If this area had the Cadillac sidewalks of East Village and was full of retail bays with built out kitchens, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

This project will at least help move people into the area, which will in turn help support the first level retail.
 
Not a lot of studies that show benefits of conversion to two way, but there are studies nonetheless. No studies that I'm aware of point to the benefits of one way traffic other than for traffic flow itself. I think you're correct that conversion to two way doesn't automatically make a street vibrant, it takes more than that, but if you make it into a two way street you have much better chance.....especially for roads that have up to 4 or 5 lanes.

I think people overestimate the importance of one way streets. There are very few studies that point to any benefit to transitioning one way streets to two way streets. And further any benefit that is realized is usually lost to a host of confounding variables such as other urban/pedestrian development improvements that happen concurrently with the one to two way transition.

The one way nature of the traffic flow isn't the problem here. It's the fact the sidewalks are narrow, the street frontages suck, there aren't a lot of retail bays that can support restaurants, and so on. If this area had the Cadillac sidewalks of East Village and was full of retail bays with built out kitchens, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

This project will at least help move people into the area, which will in turn help support the first level retail.
 

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