General Construction Updates

[darwink]

I was chatting to an architect once about what to do with all of the underground parking if "parking" was no longer a needed use. Her suggestion, which I thought was brilliant, was conversion to hydroponic agricultural uses. I am sure there would be some mechanical design issues to sort out, but I thought it was a brilliant idea.

And self storage sites. Good locations can rent for $45 a square foot (of course, not counting circulation space).

 

[Mountain Man]

Fewer people are driving. Fewer people are even getting their driver's license. That's less theoretical than autonomous vehicles.

Why do you feel underground has limited potential if it were "designed right"? There's already millions of square feet of underground office space and millions more in underground retail in Canada. Why not manufacturing? Delving into science fiction, these garages make more sense to me as potential high yield farms than the theoretical skyscrapers.

By what % is the drop in people getting their license though? I think we will still need lots of parking for the foreseeable future. Underground farms would be an interesting idea for sure though!

And self storage sites.

That was the first thing that came to my mind.

 

[Habanero]

I suppose underground hydroponics operations could be doable, but wouldn't above ground be more viable? You would use far less electricity by having the natural light.

 

[Mountain Man]

I suppose underground hydroponics operations could be doable, but wouldn't above ground be more viable? You would use far less electricity by having the natural light.

The issue is if all the space currently allocated to parking underground is no longer required, how can we re-purpose it. Above ground would be better obviously, but that's not addressing the hypothetical problem.

 

[Oddball]

Interesting, I hadn't heard of the West Springs development. I suppose it was only a matter of time. A lot of that land is or at least was acreages and even ranches now within city limits. I'm not surprised that the time has come for many of them. They really have to get on the West-Leg of the ring road if that's the case. Traffic is already rough up there.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Interesting, I hadn't heard of the West Springs development. I suppose it was only a matter of time. A lot of that land is or at least was acreages and even ranches now within city limits. I'm not surprised that the time has come for many of them. They really have to get on the West-Leg of the ring road if that's the case. Traffic is already rough up there.

I hadn't much about it either except for the Gateway portion, which i knew was under construction, but I didn't even really know where it was. I tend to hyper focus on DT, Beltline and surrounding areas a lot, and miss stuff like West District.

 

[maestro]

By what % is the drop in people getting their license though? I think we will still need lots of parking for the foreseeable future. Underground farms would be an interesting idea for sure though!

That was the first thing that came to my mind.

There's a few studies around. Averaged out it's probably a 20% decline in the last 25 years. I expect this only to accelerate as the urban living explosion continues. Legislation currently forces developers to built far too many residential spots in downtown Calgary. There will be even fewer of these spots needed in these buildings in the future. What will happen to them?

 

[MichaelS]

There's a few studies around. Averaged out it's probably a 20% decline in the last 25 years. I expect this only to accelerate as the urban living explosion continues. Legislation currently forces developers to built far too many residential spots in downtown Calgary. There will be even fewer of these spots needed in these buildings in the future. What will happen to them?

Car guys like me who live downtown will be more than happy to rent them for cheap to park their collection. Of course, in this scenario, I need to convince the wife of expanding the collection first.....

 

[maestro]

We're not talking about a couple hundred parking spots here. Most buildings will have policies that only residents of the buildings can rent spots from other residents too.

 

[MichaelS]

We're not talking about a couple hundred parking spots here. Most buildings will have policies that only residents of the buildings can rent spots from other residents too.

Oh I know, I was being a bit facetious late last night when I typed that. We have 2 parking stalls with our condo, one for our regular car and one for my "ridiculous" car, as my wife so lovingly puts it. When (if) I get another ridiculous car, as of now it would cost me $150 a month to rent a parking stall in my condo building from someone else (give or take, based on the ads I see in the lobby). My hope is in a few years, the demand will be a lot lower, and I can get that 3rd stall for a lot less.

I say all this knowing full well I am in a very, very niche group, and in no way can ever make up the demand that will be lost when the general population starts scaling back car ownership.

 

[Silence&Motion]

While perhaps not as fanciful as thinking about hydroponic farming, I always figured the most likely scenario is that gates will be installed around the parking stalls and they'll become storage rooms. When I was living in a condo I would have killed for a proper place to store and repair my bicycle.

A more distopian view: growing inequality and skyrocketing property values make subterranean living the only way for low-wage service class workers to live close to their work.

 

[Oddball]

While perhaps not as fanciful as thinking about hydroponic farming, I always figured the most likely scenario is that gates will be installed around the parking stalls and they'll become storage rooms. When I was living in a condo I would have killed for a proper place to store and repair my bicycle.

A more distopian view: growing inequality and skyrocketing property values make subterranean living the only way for low-wage service class workers to live close to their work.

So you're from Toronto you say...

 

[Beltline_B]

Here’s some info on that proposal for 14th St. at Scarboro.

http://bowdev.com/

 

[Oddball]

Interesting, I didn't realize that the synagogue that used to be there had been torn down. Shows how much I go to that part of 17th these days. As usual it will all come down to the execution for something like this, but the scale seems about right. Are they starting any time soon?

 

[darwink]

If I lived there I would consume far too much of awful Little Caesar's Pizza