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General Construction Updates

outoftheice said:
What does the community feel is so terrible about that proposal? Looks like a good fit for the neighbourhood to me?
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I think so too, but of course community association meetings being what they are..... Most of the people with opposing comments came across as un-informed. The main gripe from members was that Hillhurst/Sunnyside already has more than the city average percentage of affordable housing. There were also some comments against extra traffic and parking. It was pointed out that HSC is near the centre of the city and lots of transit and thus why they have a higher percentage. It was also pointed out that people living there wouldn't be able to park there car in other parts of the neighborhood, and that statistically speaking the people who rent these units have a low rate of car ownership, and parking normally isn't an issue.
Some of the other people came across as idiots, complaining that they have enough drunk people in the neighbourhood?? and someone complaining that they already have a big enough issue with homeless people...another head scratcher lol.
 
It’s Hardy board. I don’t know too much about that product, but maybe it depends on which brand you buy? My neighbour put Hardy board on his house for siding about six years ago and it still looks brand new.
Patrick.1980 said:
I was going down 16th Ave., NW the other day, and I noticed that the lime green affordable housing project in behind the Tim Hortons is not aging very well.
I never had a problem with the lime green color but right now the panels look really sun bleached or something. It doesn’t look good. Whatever kind of material it is, it’s not ageing well.
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I'm not crazy about the colors (lose the orange), but the massing is good. It's a good use of land that can't be used for much else.
MichaelS said:
Homespace Society is developing a new assisted living facility on an empty lot in the downtown west end, at 933 5th Ave SW:
https://developmentmap.calgary.ca/#property/DP2018-3107

This is part of a large land sale by The City announced back in March:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-affordable-housing-land-1.4557811

It looks pretty good, especially for non-market housing.View attachment 148772
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I don't mind it. It's a bit all over the place in terms of design, but it's a breath of fresh air given all the weathered beige in the vicinity.
 
I really don't get it, why can't they build a tall highrise tower there (20+ storeys)? Just take all the other sites the city has been planning and combine them into one. I support affordable housing but the scale of this is just wasting land in such a high profile area in the city. If they wanted to build this somewhere else outside of downtown i'd be perfectly happy, heck they could build it behind my backyard and I wouldn't mind but such a small outdated building along the LRT line in a promising downtown area just doesn't sit well with me.
 
gsunnyg said:
I really don't get it, why can't they build a tall highrise tower there (20+ storeys)? Just take all the other sites the city has been planning and combine them into one. I support affordable housing but the scale of this is just wasting land in such a high profile area in the city. If they wanted to build this somewhere else outside of downtown i'd be perfectly happy, heck they could build it behind my backyard and I wouldn't mind but such a small outdated building along the LRT line in a promising downtown area just doesn't sit well with me.
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You would think that being right downtown along the LRT, that it would be prime for at least 15 floors. Might as well get the units in there, it's less units for community associations to oppose in other areas of the city. The only reason I can think of is that the parcel is just too small for a taller building. Maybe at this height they can get away with one elevator?
 
Not every building downtown should be as tall as we can build, we need some midrise and even lowrise downtown so we get some sun once in a while. It's ugly, but that assisted living building is a decent scale for that lot.

Good news about Kensington Manor, excited to see what replaces it. Who is the owner of that lot?
 
Good news for sure about Kensington Manor. The only downside is that it might not get replaced with low cost housing, but instead get replaced with expensive units. Maybe the HSCA will lighten up on the affordable housing project for 14th street.
 
AJX said:
You would think that being right downtown along the LRT, that it would be prime for at least 15 floors. Might as well get the units in there, it's less units for community associations to oppose in other areas of the city. The only reason I can think of is that the parcel is just too small for a taller building. Maybe at this height they can get away with one elevator?
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That might be it. There could be a number of financial reasons you would want a shorter building so you need less capital. As this project has only occurred as a result of the land being effectively free, cost sensitivity is a key factor (it is affordable housing after all). It also is a focused building, developed for assisted living tenants, so there could be a number of design/market factors for that tenant group that impacts the height/overall density.

Looking at the details: 74 units / ~0.12 hectares = 610 units / hectare. So it's not as if this thing is a low-density proposal, as it's denser than 99.99% of all sites in the city (city average is about 6 units / hectare, so 100x less dense).

Calgary hasn't yet hit the problems that Toronto and Vancouver have, where development constraints on SFH neighbourhoods redeveloping are applying incredible pressure on more developable areas to increase their density further. Ultimately I would hope this scale of development starts spreading much further afield than current development trends (e.g. 16th Ave N) but land supply in core areas remains fairly large so we aren't seeing it yet.
 
Surrealplaces said:
Good news for sure about Kensington Manor. The only downside is that it might not get replaced with low cost housing, but instead get replaced with expensive units. Maybe the HSCA will lighten up on the affordable housing project for 14th street.
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Great redevelopment site for sure, but the gentrification displacement in Hillhurst-Sunnyside is quite literal in this case. That area has really become a microcosm of the Vancouver / Toronto SFH restricted redevelopment issue I mentioned in my last post. Density pressure is increasing on the corridors, but affordability is a struggle as most land supply is locked in high-cost SFH in the area.
 
CBBarnett said:
Great redevelopment site for sure, but the gentrification displacement in Hillhurst-Sunnyside is quite literal in this case. That area has really become a microcosm of the Vancouver / Toronto SFH restricted redevelopment issue I mentioned in my last post. Density pressure is increasing on the corridors, but affordability is a struggle as most land supply is locked in high-cost SFH in the area.
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Perhaps, except there is oodles of that vintage and price of units not only available in the area, but all over the inner city.
 
MichaelS said:
Homespace Society is developing a new assisted living facility on an empty lot in the downtown west end, at 933 5th Ave SW:
https://developmentmap.calgary.ca/#property/DP2018-3107

This is part of a large land sale by The City announced back in March:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-affordable-housing-land-1.4557811

It looks pretty good, especially for non-market housing.View attachment 148772
Click to expand...
Are you kidding me ?!
This looks like a joke.
Quit trying so hard.
You could build it cheaper by removing all the tack-ons that make it ugly. :confused:
 
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