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
Urb said:
Unfortunately, Parks is now rejecting elms as well, to limit the City's exposure to Dutch Elm disease...
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Elms are definitely my favourite trees, though once the Bur Oak are established, they fill out quite nicely, Central Memorial Park has a really nice one over by the washrooms. The downside is these trees are quite late to leaf in the spring and look like crap for the first few years.

I was in NYC in the fall and was quite jealous of the massive Maples they have in the parks there, stupid Calgary climate... lol
 
something going on with tower two

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I'm really liking the tower, I think once theres glass on the balconies it'll look even better. As much as the podium sucks along 9th Ave we cant really tell how the western edge along 11th St will turn out yet. I'd be happy if it could bring some life in that direction towards shaw millennium park.
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The podium edges aren't great - but that's to be expected along something like 9th Ave SE. If we would expect a different interface - then it needs to start with changing how 9th Ave functions - i.e. reduce the number of lanes, speed limits, one-way traffic direction. The developer is not going to build intricate, engaging, street facing retail here because it likely wouldn't be successful. The success of that type of retail is as much about the developer integrating it as it is about the type of street it operates on. This part of 9th Ave SE essentially operates as a freeway. I suspect that the developer sees this street as a barrier and a constraint, rather than something they want their development to engage. Want better development as it relates to street integration? Well then - it starts with the municipality building the right kind of street - which this is definitely not.
 
9th is practically a freeway west of 11th, any any attempt to re-purpose traffic lanes would create one hell of an uproar. I like streets like that, 9th isn't the street we should do that to though. There is a street in Jan Jose CA that looks like this, it was only a few blocks though, I sat on a patio there one time watching ferraris and lambos roll by lol.
 
Mountain Man said:
9th is practically a freeway west of 11th, any any attempt to re-purpose traffic lanes would create one hell of an uproar. I like streets like that, 9th isn't the street we should do that to though. There is a street in Jan Jose CA that looks like this, it was only a few blocks though, I sat on a patio there one time watching ferraris and lambos roll by lol.
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But why not? Traffic has already reached downtown. Multiple lanes stretching from the edge of the city to downtown is fine but once you reach downtown, sorry but the focus should be on pedestrians, cyclists, and transit. A freeway through downtown isn’t a human right.

Why do those living/working in the center of the city have to live amongst freeways because the rest of the population has made different choices?
 
haltcatchfire said:
But why not? Traffic has already reached downtown. Multiple lanes stretching from the edge of the city to downtown is fine but once you reach downtown, sorry but the focus should be on pedestrians, cyclists, and transit. A freeway through downtown isn’t a human right.

Why do those living/working in the center of the city have to live amongst freeways because the rest of the population has made different choices?
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I understand your perspective but there are not many high volume streets that go through downtown. There are plenty of avenues in the core that accomadate pedestrians and urban lifestyle. I walk to work downtown and live downtown. As the city grows, the need for these specific roadways will be imperative especially when the density increases. Many in those locations will have cars too.We have already taken lanes out for bicycles. It doesnt have to be either or, it can be both.
 
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I guess my care factor on it taking an extra twenty seconds to drive from 11th street to 1st SE is exactly zero. There’s no reason in my mind that 9th avenue needs to be four and five lanes. 2 would suffice.

There’s 5th avenue and Memorial for free flow options.

As you can guess I wouldn’t be opposed to parts of the inner city being completely car free streets.
 
Calgary as a city is built almost entirely on commuting, we have a dense downtown full of office towers and few residential towers. As much as growth in the Beltline and other inner city areas has been impressive, it's still dwarfed by the suburbs. If we were able to get the green line built and get a few more BRTs to mprove transit, clogging a major artery into downtown might not be so bad, but if something like that were even proposed today people would go ballistic. There are other roads we should focus on bringing pedestrians to (3St would be perfect) and creating a better urban realm, but 9th isn't one.

This is the closest to that Barcelona street you will see here.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.0378...z41I53H8V43MObqNgPaA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
 
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I'd like to see something better for 9th ave. Right now it's a 5 lane one way road that's more like a freeway, and it's only really busy for 4 hours a day. People are thankful we avoided the downtown penetrator, but 9th ave is pretty close to that.

I'd like to see it changed to a way road at the very least. 2 lanes in each direction with one lane taken away for widening the sidewalks, or for cycle tracks.
 
Commuting to downtown from the suburbs or not, it’s not essential for five lanes through downtown. Once you’re there, you’re there. A few blocks at the end of your trip on a standard width road is perfectly normal. It happens for 99% of traffic.

Does the guy who drives Bow Trail and turns south on 11th street to get to his workplace at 11th & 17th go ballistic because it’s no longer five lanes to his destination?

Bow is also already down to three lanes by the Buick GMC. It shouldn’t widen back to five just because a car or two per minute enters from the southbound 14th St. ramp and 11th St.
Mountain Man said:
Calgary as a city is built almost entirely on commuting, we have a dense downtown full of office towers and few residential towers. As much as growth in the Beltline and other inner city areas has been impressive, it's still dwarfed by the suburbs. If we were able to get the green line built and get a few more BRTs to mprove transit clogging a major artery into downtown might not be so bad, but if something like that were even proposed people would go ballistic. There are other roads we should focus on bringing pedestrians to (3St would be perfect) and creating a better urban realm, but 9th isn't one.
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