[haltcatchfire]

This should have been what was built at the Verve & The Riff land.

Looks nice. These continuous balconies will be littered with privacy screens though.

 

[maestro]

Great Gulf has the reach to move this forward even when other developments flounder. I hope not. After a second look, even the courtyard follows the corporate ideology of separation of space and everyone is potentially up to no good. The planters inconspicuously act as a barrier between the public and private domain and the placement of the benches do not encourage social interactions. The courtyard is just a flat space with a confined seating areas possibly just for patrons. It's not welcoming or a place to linger and interact.

East Village developments and the Chinatown proposals are game changers. This is just a curvaceous cool version of the Curtis Block or West Village. This would be a failure as the Rift.

 

[zagox]

Great Gulf has the reach to move this forward even when other developments flounder. I hope not. After a second look, even the courtyard follows the corporate ideology of separation of space and everyone is potentially up to no good. The planters inconspicuously act as a barrier between the public and private domain and the placement of the benches do not encourage social interactions. The courtyard is just a flat space with a confined seating areas possibly just for patrons. It's not welcoming or a place to linger and interact.

East Village developments and the Chinatown proposals are game changers. This is just a curvaceous cool version of the Curtis Block or West Village. This would be a failure as the Rift.

Anyone who is thinking about spending the better part of a billion dollars on buildings 150 metres from the largest homeless shelter in North America is going to ask for some separation between the public and private realms. Even Arris and the western part of EV have the highway and/or the tracks between them and the DI, this has neither.

Notice the clever perspective of the overhead render that hides the DI behind the towers? That was no accident...

 

[Jhawk]

I've heard bits and pieces about this one, but have never seen a rendering. Haven't heard anything relating to costing on this, so it might be a ways off yet, but had heard that GG is bullish on developing those two blocks, so here's hoping.

 

[haltcatchfire]

Tinted glazing on a Panago next to a generic interlock pathway isn’t going to inspire anyone to linger and interact either.

Great Gulf has the reach to move this forward even when other developments flounder. I hope not. After a second look, even the courtyard follows the corporate ideology of separation of space and everyone is potentially up to no good. The planters inconspicuously act as a barrier between the public and private domain and the placement of the benches do not encourage social interactions. The courtyard is just a flat space with a confined seating areas possibly just for patrons. It's not welcoming or a place to linger and interact.

East Village developments and the Chinatown proposals are game changers. This is just a curvaceous cool version of the Curtis Block or West Village. This would be a failure as the Rift.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

I don't really agree with Maestro's critiques on this. I have been agreeing with you often lately, but this one is absolutely a game changer for Calgary. Everything about this is new to the city, and indeed the province. The courtyard design is actually pretty thoughtful in that the openings are oriented to take advantage of the most possible afternoon and evening sunlight in the summer. The podium may be blocky, but it has one of the best scales for any podium in downtown Calgary. The only others I can think of in the city that are good scale like this are Evolution, 500 Block, and Verve (other than its atrocious street interaction). On top of all that plus the publicly accessible courtyard (public space privately owned is always a very nice touch), this development seems to include an entire city-block worth of pedestrian oriented retail, which this area of the city is sorely lacking. There's a ton of other awesome things I could say about this proposal, but it's pretty much all already been said by everyone else.

 

[haltcatchfire]

The trouble I fear is the location of this leads very little reason to enter the center circle as a cut through. That’s what I was getting at in regards to the Riff.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

The trouble I fear is the location of this leads very little reason to enter the center circle as a cut through. That’s what I was getting at in regards to the Riff.

That is true, but if the renders are any indication, there will be at least two restaurants in the courtyard area both with fairly significant sized patios.

 

[JonnyCanuck]

Great Gulf has the reach to move this forward even when other developments flounder. I hope not.

There is an added challenge in Calgary that they are not faced with in the Toronto market. A lot of people used to buy condos as investments ... not to live in ....but to rent out. This objective helped to fuel demand for new condo projects in the past. Now that we have a plethora of purpose rental on the market as competition, these new condo projects are going to take longer to green light, and longer to sell out.

 

[DougB]

Anyone who is thinking about spending the better part of a billion dollars on buildings 150 metres from the largest homeless shelter in North America is going to ask for some separation between the public and private realms. Even Arris and the western part of EV have the highway and/or the tracks between them and the DI, this has neither.

Notice the clever perspective of the overhead render that hides the DI behind the towers? That was no accident...

For sure. Nothing will go up on the site until the DI relocates.

 

[JonnyCanuck]

This is a social issue that most major cities face. How do you attract buyers to buildings opposite or in close proximity to homeless shelters? You have all of the new development in East Village that is also home to the Drop-in Centre and Salvation Army. As far as I know, neither of those facilities are relocating.
There is known friction caused by the Alpha House being located directly across from the front door of the Vetro building. There are disturbing incidents on that block all of the time. I would not want to live in Vetro for this reason and I am sure there are many owners who regret ever buying in that building.
The Wexford Development project if it ever gets off the ground is located directly across the street from The Mustard Seed/Inn from the Cold.

The humanitarian in all of us would like to think that all can co-exist in harmony but is that realistic?

 

[Mountain Man]

At some point I would expect the DIC to move, that's too prime of real estate to house a homeless shelter. Where it would move to is the big question, the DIC is ideally placed to serve it's "clientele".

 

[Surrealplaces]

The Alpha House has been a real problem,, not just for Vetro, but for everyone within a 2 block radius.

This is a social issue that most major cities face. How do you attract buyers to buildings opposite or in close proximity to homeless shelters? You have all of the new development in East Village that is also home to the Drop-in Centre and Salvation Army. As far as I know, neither of those facilities are relocating.
There is known friction caused by the Alpha House being located directly across from the front door of the Vetro building. There are disturbing incidents on that block all of the time. I would not want to live in Vetro for this reason and I am sure there are many owners who regret ever buying in that building.
The Wexford Development project if it ever gets off the ground is located directly across the street from The Mustard Seed/Inn from the Cold.

The humanitarian in all of us would like to think that all can co-exist in harmony but is that realistic?

 

[Silence&Motion]

The humanitarian in all of us would like to think that all can co-exist in harmony but is that realistic?

It happens in other cities. I used to live around the corner from a shelter of similar size to Alpha House in Toronto (+100 beds). It had very little impact on the neighbourhood. I think the big difference is that there was sufficient density and street life in the neighborhood that the dozens of people who used the shelter just blended in with the hundreds of people walking around the neighborhood. Additionally there was a level of "eyes on the street" that kept people feeling comfortable.

Alpha House wouldn't be an issue if this section of the Beltline wasn't so bleak. Blame the terrible street level treatment of all the new architecture in the area. Blame the car sewer that is 1st SE. It's hard to see how this area becomes significantly better even if Alpha House vanished tomorrow.

 

[maestro]

There is an added challenge in Calgary that they are not faced with in the Toronto market. A lot of people used to buy condos as investments ... not to live in ....but to rent out. This objective helped to fuel demand for new condo projects in the past. Now that we have a plethora of purpose rental on the market as competition, these new condo projects are going to take longer to green light, and longer to sell out.

Perhaps. Purpose built rental construction is dominated by a few locally based institutions in Calgary. Great Gulf has its own set of clientele that may be convinced to join in on the fun by buying into this project. Prices would have to start scaling up.