West Village Towers | 149.95m | 42s | Cidex Group | NORR Dubai Yahya Jan

General rating of the project

  • Great

    Votes: 8 7.2%

  • Very Good

    Votes: 15 13.5%

  • Good

    Votes: 39 35.1%

  • So So

    Votes: 13 11.7%

  • Not Very Good

    Votes: 16 14.4%

  • Terrible

    Votes: 20 18.0%
  • Total voters
    111
The aerial view of podium is interesting design wise but I just don't get the brown color selections or random panel shades... I know they were trying to pay homage to the rocky mountains, but are the mountains brown? BROWN?

The human level street view is even worse as it acts as an overbearing 30ft shear face wall. There should be some step back in the 9th ave face...
 
cowGaryBerta said:
The aerial view of podium is interesting design wise but I just don't get the brown color selections or random panel shades... I know they were trying to pay homage to the rocky mountains, but are the mountains brown? BROWN?

The human level street view is even worse as it acts as an overbearing 30ft shear face wall. There should be some step back in the 9th ave face...
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Borrow some real estate that is the expressway of 9th Avenue and we've got some room to create a fantastic public realm.
 
For towers: Colours is good, I think Union and Underwood Towers are good too. Evolution is nice, and i personally like Waterfront Phase 1. In terms of buildings that are U/C, i really like where Dominion is going. Sad we are not going to see the Hon Chinatown proposal, that was my favourite. I am looking forward to seeing the execution of the brick portions of the podium on Curtis Block, renderings look interesting.

Mid-rise: South Bank and Lido.

Here is a Surrey proposal i think is nice, for reference. It has limited retail at grade due to location.
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The Familia said:
I’m curious, in your opinion is there a 10/10 building in Calgary that has the perfect podium, tower, cladding, and design?
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I'd acknowledge that there are two types of podiums. One is a strong base like Colours. The second is a low rise or medium rise extending out from or beneath a tower or towers. The second I would never give a 10/10 because a tower or towers with an independant medium rise(s) filling space would be superior.
 
The solid wall with no setback of any kind is pretty harsh along 9th. If there's some kind of inset with glass front at the bottom for retail that would help. The beige colour choice is horrible. But let's be honest here, 9th ave is a one way hellscape of cars. I know new development should try to improve it but for the foreseeable future you have a car lot across the street and traffic whizzing by at high speed. This was never going to be a Kensington scale podium. The worst podium to me right now is Arris in East Village. Yuck!
 
Arris is not great, but it's miles ahead of this. It at least uses different materials to break up the bulk of the podium. In includes some interesting columns, uses higher quality material, and will have screens and billboards. This thing is just one gigantic, almost blank wall of cheap beige siding. It's going to feel incredibly oppressive when it's finished. I'd say it's one of the worst podiums being built in the country right now.
 
That shows Toronto's laughable heritage preservation policies. The tower's base is the same width as the tower. It's not a podium.
 
Toronto is king of horrendous podiums. Look no further that the Hudson's Bay Centre. Something more recent would be 1 York Street.

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The city spent millions to make the street more pedestrian friendly too.

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Haha! Hudson Bay Centre and 1 York Street were EXACTLY the podiums I was thinking of when I saw West Village towers. At least they used higher end materials. But they're all completely inexcusable. The fact that 1 York is across from a park (which is, in turn, across from the waterfront) is a tragedy. At least West Village will (conceivably) be blocked by future development on the south side of 9 AVE.
 
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