Oliver | 121.3m | 35s | Centron | Gibbs Gage

Always_Biking said:
True people do gravitate to interesting places, but the main reason the commercial core empties out after work is the people who work there don't live there. That and there aren't many business open after hours.

It might be a boring building, but it's sitting right along the train tracks, so I'm not expect an architectural marvel here, and those 850 units helps put people in the core. I'm happy to see this going ahead.
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This exactly. Every major city has it's icons but it's the other 99% of buildings that are more important. Getting the basics right at a sustainable level of density is the main goal, especially for such a central site. As I have mentioned many times before - in the city centre it's increasingly not the buildings that are the issue, it's the public realm that goes with them + development rules that make good public realm more difficult.

Whatever this ends up looking like, I suspect it will get a "good enough" score by me as long as it doesn't have too many parking ramps, curb cut parking lanes and a bunch of other auto-oriented nonsense that the most centrally located apartment building in Calgary's history clearly doesn't need.
 
Yeah I tend to agree. I get why people like beautiful buildings and it's good to strive for that, but the reality is most buildings aren't going to be beautiful. What's important for downtown Calgary is there are dense residential projects being built on empty lots.

I've noticed a big difference in downtown Calgary over the last 15 years due to all the residential that has been built in and around the core. It's hard to remember what the core was like on evenings and weekends 15 or 20 years ago, but it's changed *alot*, and for the better. Most of that is due to the 30-40 residential high-hrises built in the core - boring or otherwise.. If we keep on the same path we've been on in the last 15 years, we'll be alright.
 
We'll see how the new design looks. For me the lower bar is somewhere around the Aura\1512\Redstone design. If it's at least to that level I'll be fine with it. Most of the rental towers lately have been better IMO. Underwood, Versus, 500 Block, One Tower, West Village Towers....have been at least above that bar. I have a feeling this one will be in the Aura\Redstone\1512 camp. I'm good with it.

I'm happy to see 800 odd units fulling up an empty lot on a parcel that's a difficult sell for residential.
 
Always_Biking said:
True people do gravitate to interesting places, but the main reason the commercial core empties out after work is the people who work there don't live there. That and there aren't many business open after hours.

It might be a boring building, but it's sitting right along the train tracks, so I'm not expect an architectural marvel here, and those 850 units helps put people in the core. I'm happy to see this going ahead.
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Actually my point has as much to do about the functionality of this block's design . It's about as boring as it can get. I've lived in some of the densest residential communities that wouldn't be considered vibrant so I will stand by adding 850 units and a few overvalued CRUs does not create urban vibrancy on it's own.

This building will stand for a very long time. It's important to consider it as more than just replacing a parking lot beside a rail corridor. The parking garages built 40 years weren't a big issue. Now they are planning eyesores as the city has grown and developed.
 
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maestro said:
Actually my point has as much to do about the functionality of this block's design . It's about as boring as it can get. I've lived in some of the densest residential communities that wouldn't be considered vibrant so I will stand by adding 850 units and a few overvalued CRUs does not create urban vibrancy on it's own.

This building will stand for a very long time. It's important to consider it as more than just replacing a parking lot beside a rail corridor. The parking garages built 40 years weren't a big issue. Now they are planning eyesores as the city has grown and developed.
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You are correct that simply adding density on a given street isn't automatically going to make it vibrant. There are super dense neighborhoods in cities all over the place that aren't vibrant. Not every street can be vibrant. This building could be beautiful, but it wouldn't make any difference to the vibrancy on the street. The vibrant streets in Calgary are all streets flanked by mid and low rise buildings, many of which are crap really, but the collection of good businesses make it vibrant. The point many are making is the 1200-1400 people who'll live in the buildings will help support vibrancy in other areas of the core that are more vibrant, and also the general vibrancy of the core.
 
There is no excuse for a poorly designed podium. Developers in this city seemed trapped in the mindset that podiums need to be sleek and elegant, with mininmal signage and ability for retailers to customize their storefront. Look at the Centron development across the street from Place 10: a wall of reflective glass with a few small signs to indicate to passersby that there are actually businesses present.
 
Disraeli said:
There is no excuse for a poorly designed podium. Developers in this city seemed trapped in the mindset that podiums need to be sleek and elegant, with mininmal signage and ability for retailers to customize their storefront. Look at the Centron development across the street from Place 10: a wall of reflective glass with a few small signs to indicate to passersby that there are actually businesses present.
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I gotta give it to u on that one, most developers in Calgary and various other cities do an extremely poor job on podiums hence adding to this general growing animosity towards high rises in an urban realm. Place 10 is a perfect example of a beautiful building but a horrible retail podium. Can't even distinguish between the retail bays and the top floors. On top of that the heavy tint makes it even worse for shoppers and diners to window shop.
 
Well, no signs of the crane that was hinted at earlier by this time, but Centron Group has new renderings up on their website:
centrongroup.com

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