Mountain Man
Senior Member
Yes it will be a hockey arena, and yes the old building had a hockey arena. The last section above shows the hockey arena and gym.
SAIT Campus Centre | 24m | 5s | SAIT | GEC
- Thread starter MichaelS
- Start date
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
Nimbus
Active Member
No swimming pool in this new version? Too bad, and a bit of a potential missed opportunity with the Eau Claire YMCA gone now.
DougB
Senior Member
SAIT gets $30M donation for construction of new campus centre
SAIT announced a "transformative" $30 million donation on Thursday, saying it will go toward the construction of the new campus centre.
manshakesfistatcloud
New Member
Separated at birth???
Roaring Flames
Senior Member
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
Looking at those renderings feels like watching a bootlegged VHS.
haltcatchfire
Senior Member
Oh good, random rectangles. I was getting worried they had been forgotten.
DiscoStu
Active Member
It's a bit hard to tell what direction is what, but I'm hoping there's a nicer fronting towards the C-trian station...as opposed to just having the ass-end of the building with loading docks etc, like the old one.
Roaring Flames
Senior Member
It's the train station side. You can see the connecting +15
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
Grabbed some screenshots from SAIT's project website, included the descriptions they've added in in the screenshots.
The CTrain Station side is a loading dock heavy, as the other renders showed, but somewhere has to be 'back of house'. I'd say at least there's some glass on this elevation as the previous building really failed to open up to the station, this one does a better job north of the +15, which is where most people exiting the station would walk anyways.
Edit: Also just noticed a typo on the last photo's description. Give $30 million to get your name spelt wrong, thank you to the Yalor Family...
The CTrain Station side is a loading dock heavy, as the other renders showed, but somewhere has to be 'back of house'. I'd say at least there's some glass on this elevation as the previous building really failed to open up to the station, this one does a better job north of the +15, which is where most people exiting the station would walk anyways.
Edit: Also just noticed a typo on the last photo's description. Give $30 million to get your name spelt wrong, thank you to the Yalor Family...
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DiscoStu
Active Member
Yeah, I guess it's atleast an improvement, although was hoping for something a little more engaging. As you said, atleast the north side is a little nicer and they kept the docks to the section that gets the least amount of traffic. A nicer ass-end, but still an ass I guess.
darwink
Senior Member
I think the project has shrunk a bit if not in footprint then in fit out included in scope. The cost estimate on Alberta major projects is now $169 million down from $180 in their last public capital plan.
I was hoping the station would be built right into the building, but this is still an improvement. A nicer fronting for sure. I can't tell from the videos or renderings, but what I was really hoping for was to see that fence between the building and the station gone, but seeing as it would require a rebuild of the station I suppose the fence will stay....maybe a nicer fence will be built.
ByeByeBaby
Active Member
It's a major building that needs loading docks, I think that can be generally agreed on. Looking at the existing footprint here, there's only two sides that could possibly have loading docks; the southwest side along the LRT tracks and the north side where there's parking.
From a transit-promoting, pro-pedestrian point of view, it makes sense to want to get the loading docks and cars away from the transit line. But in reality, here's the situation:
The red lines are the tracks, which are total physical barriers no matter what you do (unless you rebuild the entire LRT here, which would cost as much as the campus centre itself). The green lines are the pedestrian accesses to the LRT; the +15 at the south end stays, so that's available. The only other place to put the loading docks would be on the north side, right at the cyan line, the route pedestrians take to the middle of the campus. Putting the loading docks there would look pedestrian-friendly from the train as you go by, but would actually have the maximum pedestrian conflict.
The building can't actually meaningfully open up to the train station, because there's tracks (and a three foot height difference) in the way. Even if the station was rebuilt to be side-platform, there would still be the impossible barrier for people on southbound trains (which is everybody, half of the time). Holt Renfrew doesn't meaningfully open up onto the LRT station across the street, because it's across the street.
The fact that so much loading is adjacent to the LRT is actually a good thing to make the campus itself more pedestrian friendly, which is great for the actual transit users who become pedestrians the second the train stops. I'm glad that there's a little nicer design to face the tracks because all things being equal it's better to have something nice to look at, but to me the pedestrian focus should be (and seems to be in the design) on the places pedestrians can actually physically access. I'm glad it's not quite the ugly blank wall it was, although a good mural could have had a similar effect; pity there was never anybody around there who knew anything about art.
From a transit-promoting, pro-pedestrian point of view, it makes sense to want to get the loading docks and cars away from the transit line. But in reality, here's the situation:
The red lines are the tracks, which are total physical barriers no matter what you do (unless you rebuild the entire LRT here, which would cost as much as the campus centre itself). The green lines are the pedestrian accesses to the LRT; the +15 at the south end stays, so that's available. The only other place to put the loading docks would be on the north side, right at the cyan line, the route pedestrians take to the middle of the campus. Putting the loading docks there would look pedestrian-friendly from the train as you go by, but would actually have the maximum pedestrian conflict.
The building can't actually meaningfully open up to the train station, because there's tracks (and a three foot height difference) in the way. Even if the station was rebuilt to be side-platform, there would still be the impossible barrier for people on southbound trains (which is everybody, half of the time). Holt Renfrew doesn't meaningfully open up onto the LRT station across the street, because it's across the street.
The fact that so much loading is adjacent to the LRT is actually a good thing to make the campus itself more pedestrian friendly, which is great for the actual transit users who become pedestrians the second the train stops. I'm glad that there's a little nicer design to face the tracks because all things being equal it's better to have something nice to look at, but to me the pedestrian focus should be (and seems to be in the design) on the places pedestrians can actually physically access. I'm glad it's not quite the ugly blank wall it was, although a good mural could have had a similar effect; pity there was never anybody around there who knew anything about art.