Habanero
Active Member
I see 11 buildings in that pic that weren't there 5 years ago. Big changes for sure.
Not sure if anyone has seen this, but this is an updated video on what Seton should look like when complete. I like the looks of the Market Street, and living close by, I can confirm they have done a really good job with their digitization of currently completed buildings so I have hope that this is more of what the final product will be then what has been seen previously.
-Vimeo - RK Visualization
I have very little faith in Seton to create any actual urban living. As with all of these "new urbanism" developments, they like to brand themselves as "urban" because it's stylish, but when it comes down to it, they're still planned around car use - and everything else is a distance second. The amenities are scattered over huge distances that will make walking basically impossible for all but a few trips. Most of the buildings are set way back from the street, surrounded by parking lots and lawns.
Market street itself looks nice in the renderings. However, we now have more concrete evidence for what the street is going to look like. The first buildings have been built, and they both look like @#%$: (exhibit A, exhibit B).
I have very little faith in Seton to create any actual urban living. As with all of these "new urbanism" developments, they like to brand themselves as "urban" because it's stylish, but when it comes down to it, they're still planned around car use - and everything else is a distance second. The amenities are scattered over huge distances that will make walking basically impossible for all but a few trips. Most of the buildings are set way back from the street, surrounded by parking lots and lawns.
Market street itself looks nice in the renderings. However, we now have more concrete evidence for what the street is going to look like. The first buildings have been built, and they both look like @#%$: (exhibit A, exhibit B).
Not sure if anyone has seen this, but this is an updated video on what Seton should look like when complete. I like the looks of the Market Street, and living close by, I can confirm they have done a really good job with their digitization of currently completed buildings so I have hope that this is more of what the final product will be then what has been seen previously.
-Vimeo - RK Visualization
I'm not sure what you mean when you describe 'lowrise slabs set back from the sidewalk'. Almost all the residential they show in the video is close to the sidewalk. At times it looks like a video for The Bridges - same size and style of buildings and not much in the way of set backs.Call me one totally unimpressed by Seton so far. Big box and wide, lowrise slabs setback from the sidewalk. It's just has more multi-family planned than usual. Who cares.
Added to the bold part, don't forget the end consumer.What is so frustrating is that we know, in principles at least, exactly how to build good urbanism. You'd think that if we're going to allow the destruction a greenfield roughly the size of the beltline, we would make it count. And yet there's so little willpower in both the private and the public sector to stray from the status quo or to inconvenience cars in any way whatsoever.
Even if Market Street ends up looking exactly like the renderings, it will be a measly two blocks (400 meters) in a neighbourhood that's about 2 square-km (again, roughly the size of the beltline). Even worse, it's hemmed in by some incredibly anti-urban structures that look like they should be situated between an off-ramp and an airport, not on the main street of an "urban" community.
I agree. This is a big part of it. People can complain about the new subdivisions and the need to change their design (and I'm not disagreeing), but right now they are designed in a such a way that it makes economic sense to the developer and the buyers. What could we do to re-design this to assuage the complaints?Added to the bold part, don't forget the end consumer.