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We all know that buildings don't always turn out like the renderings. Last-minute changes and real-life materials can all cause discrepancies between the vision and reality of a project. In our Flash Forward Friday feature, we take a look at how different projects stack up.
Like so many recent Calgary developments, particularly the highrise projects in Victoria Park, the Arriva Towers development featured more than one residential tower. It seems to be a trend in Calgary, with high-profile developments like Bankers Hall, Suncor Energy Centre, Eighth Avenue Place, Alura and Neura, and Sasso and Vetro all hosting two towers. And like its immediate neighbours, the three-tower Arriva project would have made a definite impact on the skyline.
The first tower, designed by BKDI Architects for Torode Residential, features a two-storey brick and sandstone podium finish, capturing the historic warehouse vernacular of the neighbourhood. It would go on to contain 54,000 square feet of retail and commercial-use space, with the 34-storey tower above housing 200 condominium units. Renderings of the tower showed a pale green glass window envelope, with a pointed crown directed towards the downtown. At 128 metres, it became the tallest residential building in Alberta when it was completed in 2007.
While the finished project is a near-perfect reproduction of the renderings — complete with its red-lit spine — things didn't quite pan out the way they were originally envisioned. The two future phases of the development, which would have reached an even higher pinnacle of 163 metres, were shelved in 2009. Torode subsequently sold the site to the west, sandwiching two historic schoolhouses, which has since blossomed a similar soaring complex known as The Guardian, the province's new tallest residential buildings.
We will return next Friday with another comparison!
