MissingMiddle said:
Typically structures are only designed for the loads they will see, extra capacity isn't built in (unless for example they plan for it, like Arris). If they changed the use of the parkade floors to something else, there would be some extra capacity from the reduction from cars to people, but not enough for a whole building on top.

You'd probably have to excavate underneath and strengthen everything, like a top-down foundation approach but on an existing building. It's possible, but probably not worth just starting from scratch given that GC's don't really do that in Canada.
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For the rooftop parkade to park conversion at 4th Street, here's my rough math based on no expertise and 5 minutes of googling. I don't know if it's correct:

How big is the area and how much load is available?
~245 stalls where the current pop-up park is. Guestimate of ~6,500sqm
~1500kg average vehicle.
= 367,500kg minimum of load available or 56kg / sqm

How much does soil weigh?
1 m3 of moist soil = 1,500kg
= 245m3 of soil

V = L * H * W
H = V / L* H
H = 245m3 / 6,500m2
H = 0.037m ~ 3.7cm of soil for the area of the whole roof. So enough depth to grown boring lawn grass of questionable quality but not much else.

Of course, we wouldn't do such a shoddy job as my math. You don't need soil everywhere or anywhere if you went a light-weight urban farm/hydroponic setup.

Whatever you do it's more useful than an unneeded parkade level and we could match the level of effort for whatever retrofit to match the lifecycle of the parkade itself so that the whole thing can come down in 15 - 30 years and be replaced with something permanently better.
 
The best use for the City Centre Parkade, and likely Gulf Canada Square is likely demolition. I can't think of viable reuses of 70's era, monolithic concrete structures with large footprints.
 
Not to mention there's hardly room to walk along both sides of that block, along 10th ave, on a busy night. It's just a monstrous structure killing what is turning into one of the top streets in the City. The city should just sell it off to a developer that's got the deep pockets to tear it down and turn it into 2 condo/rental/hotel towers with a well-built podium. The City could work out a deal where the roof of the middle part of the podium (maybe 3-4 stories), between the two towers, could potentially be used as part of public space for something like a basketball court or even a rooftop bar/lounge. At this point recladding or renovating the parkade would be like putting lipstick on a pig.
DougB said:
The best use for the City Centre Parkade, and likely Gulf Canada Square is likely demolition. I can't think of viable reuses of 70's era, monolithic concrete structures with large footprints.
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gsunnyg said:
Not to mention there's hardly room to walk along both sides of that block, along 10th ave, on a busy night. It's just a monstrous structure killing what is turning into one of the top streets in the City. The city should just sell it off to a developer that's got the deep pockets to tear it down and turn it into 2 condo/rental/hotel towers with a well-built podium. The City could work out a deal where the roof of the middle part of the podium (maybe 3-4 stories), between the two towers, could potentially be used as part of public space for something like a basketball court or even a rooftop bar/lounge. At this point recladding or renovating the parkade would be like putting lipstick on a pig.
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No one doubts that this idea would be awesome, but have fun trying to find someone to pay to demolish it when there's empty lots on almost every side. Especially when those empty lots can't even get developed (yet).

They need to fix the pedestrian realm along 10th. Widen the sidewalks so there's enough space to walk and have a patio, have a separated bike lane, and trees on the north side with proper ground prep. There's no reason for that much street parking with so many lots and parkades.
 
CBBarnett said:
For the rooftop parkade to park conversion at 4th Street, here's my rough math based on no expertise and 5 minutes of googling. I don't know if it's correct:

How big is the area and how much load is available?
~245 stalls where the current pop-up park is. Guestimate of ~6,500sqm
~1500kg average vehicle.
= 367,500kg minimum of load available or 56kg / sqm

How much does soil weigh?
1 m3 of moist soil = 1,500kg
= 245m3 of soil

V = L * H * W
H = V / L* H
H = 245m3 / 6,500m2
H = 0.037m ~ 3.7cm of soil for the area of the whole roof. So enough depth to grown boring lawn grass of questionable quality but not much else.

Of course, we wouldn't do such a shoddy job as my math. You don't need soil everywhere or anywhere if you went a light-weight urban farm/hydroponic setup.

Whatever you do it's more useful than an unneeded parkade level and we could match the level of effort for whatever retrofit to match the lifecycle of the parkade itself so that the whole thing can come down in 15 - 30 years and be replaced with something permanently better.
Click to expand...
The park is a good attempt to better utilize the parkade, but most of the time it will either be to hot or too cold. I love the idea of the green house on top of the parkade, and as you mentioned today's lightweight hydroponic technology, is highly productive and doesn't carry much weight compared to soil. I'm sure it could easily be done.
 
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