[ChazYEG]

In most countries in the world, a 10 story residential building with retail street level is as basic as you get. Seems a bit too much hype for a city of 1.6 million people!!

This has a lot to do with North American car centric culture. And sometimes we all yearn and hype up for what we don't have, which is wild. In Brazil, for example, where most cities are denser and more vibrant, with lots of mid-rise with retail covering the streets of downtowns and other neighbourhoods, everyone gets super hyped up if they start building a North American style residential neighbourhood.

 

[YEG imagineer]

Just noticed today. Astroturf on the small green spaces in front of the building. How did they get away from living landscaping? Anyways, it will look like trash soon enough.

 

[MattPT]

Just noticed today. Astroturf on the small green spaces in front of the building. How did they get away from living landscaping? Anyways, it will look like trash soon enough.

This is tricky, because the alternative is real grass that is half dead in a few months after install from dog pee. I used to live near Vibe lofts, and it was a perfect example of this. Great landscaping…for like the first two months…then awful. But the turf can have its own challenges when it comes to odours from dog pee as well.

 

[Tropical]

Give me struggling grass over plastic any day.

I honestly would support any reasonable efforts to ban it in the fronts of buildings. Even if it's grandfathered in.

 

[fromyeg]

INS now looks to be open meaning all CRUs are now open. (Of note real grass along 84th Ave as well as some prairie grass.)

Also, the aforementioned AstroTurf in question:

I generally don’t like AstroTurf, but given how a lot of the grass near 112St looks I can see why they picked it.

An example from just off 112th:

 

[johnnyboy]

I understand it's much cheaper, but those astroturf squares could have easily been raised planters with enough room to sit on the edge. Unfortunately, that probably presents even more problems.

 

[strata]

I may be in the minority here, but I think the turf looks great.

 

[archited]

^ Count me in as well. It is better than looking at winter-scarred plots because of road salt applications or grass that can't deal with extremes in urban environments. Vacuum cleaner = one and done.

 

[ADob]

Ah, but not great for the environment, alas.

 

[IanO]

Typically not a fan, but in some circumstances it is the right option.