[O-tac]

That's how I would describe myself also. I like towers, but only if it's a good fit. Condo towers around the Beltline have generally been a good addition, with some like the Royal, being great additions. I think the issue for me is the office only towers we have in Calgary have been poorly thought out. Downtown's in the position it's in because we've built tower after tower replacing smaller buildings with retail with office towers having, restrictive lifeless podiums. Some of the businesses may have had questionable reputations, but at least they added street life. Here's some replacements that I can think of.

707 5th street	no outside retail at base	replaced a small building with 3 retail units including restaurant
The Bow	no outside retail at base	replaced hotel with retail units at base.
Telus Sky	no outside retail at base	replaced Art central which had 10 units facing centre street and 7th ave
Brookfield place	no outside retail at base	replaced 15 retail units facing 6th ave, 7th ave and 1st street.
EAP	1 outside retail unit at base?	replaced Penny Lane mall which included Cowboys and Ceili's
City Centre	1 retail unit semi accessible from outside	replaced French Maid, and Don Quijote's

I can't recall what was in place before some of the other towers were built (Jamieson Place, Livingston Place, etc..)

It all adds up to a good sized loss of small businesses. Many of those businesses were open on weekends and after hours, and in the end these towers did nothing for the urban environment except damage it. I can live with Telus Sky because it's a super cool building and the light art does have a positive effect on the urban environment It also has a residential port, so overall not a terrible trade. The others on the other hand

A depressing summary. Corporate towers seem to suck the life off the street. I think we should look to places like Montreal and how they’ve managed to build block long buildings (mixed use) that actually have on street retail and retain character.

 

[O-tac]

Great list/summary, but one quick correction I can think of. The Bow has (had?) A Starbucks on the ground level with an exterior door, West side of the tower.

Could you actually use that door from outside? I’ve only seen it from the lobby and don’t recall.

 

[MichaelS]

I want to say yes, but am not sure. I only had a coffee there once, and I remember just noticing the huge amount of people ducking in and out with their order via an app. This was a number of years ago, so still something I thought was "new" so it stood out to me.

 

[Silence&Motion]

You know Calgary is maturing when: Most of the people on a skyscraper forum are against an 800' tower because it could have a negative effect on the urban environment. I remember the early days of SSP when the battle cry was MOAR HEIGHT!

I think this is an evolution that has occurred in a lot of cities. People looked at their parking-lot riddled downtowns in the 1990s and thought: "I wish we had more skyscrapers. Then our city would be more vibrant like New York or Chicago." And after 30 years of building boring corporate fortresses, they realized that, while many of the parking lots are gone, the downtown is just as dead as ever.

 

[Tarsus]

That's how I would describe myself also. I like towers, but only if it's a good fit. Condo towers around the Beltline have generally been a good addition, with some like the Royal, being great additions. I think the issue for me is the office only towers we have in Calgary have been poorly thought out. Downtown's in the position it's in because we've built tower after tower replacing smaller buildings with retail with office towers having, restrictive lifeless podiums. Some of the businesses may have had questionable reputations, but at least they added street life. Here's some replacements that I can think of.

707 5th street	no outside retail at base	replaced a small building with 3 retail units including restaurant
The Bow	no outside retail at base	replaced hotel with retail units at base.
Telus Sky	no outside retail at base	replaced Art central which had 10 units facing centre street and 7th ave
Brookfield place	no outside retail at base	replaced 15 retail units facing 6th ave, 7th ave and 1st street.
EAP	1 outside retail unit at base?	replaced Penny Lane mall which included Cowboys and Ceili's
City Centre	1 retail unit semi accessible from outside	replaced French Maid, and Don Quijote's

I can't recall what was in place before some of the other towers were built (Jamieson Place, Livingston Place, etc..)

It all adds up to a good sized loss of small businesses. Many of those businesses were open on weekends and after hours, and in the end these towers did nothing for the urban environment except damage it. I can live with Telus Sky because it's a super cool building and the light art does have a positive effect on the urban environment It also has a residential port, so overall not a terrible trade. The others on the other hand

Good points. One point of clarification, The Bow itself is built on what was an empty parking lot, with maybe one business on it iirc. The real crime was the York hotel portion.

The list shows how much vibrancy has been lost due to office towers. Downtown is a victim of its own success. It’s too bad the city couldn’t have envisioned this 30 years ago. They could have adjusted the game plan for more accessible retail.

 

[haltcatchfire]

The massive empty office lobbies should be up escalators on a second floor. Still providing corporate egotism but leaving the grade level as functional uses for the people.

 

[O-tac]

Daily Hive has the same puff piece as in the newspapers but included a link for feedback to the city before June 02.

New development for Stephen Avenue proposes tallest building in Western Canada (RENDERINGS) | Urbanized

A proposal for a new development in downtown Calgary, Stephen Avenue Quarter, includes what would be the tallest building in Western Canada.

dailyhive.com

Here’s the link:

https://login.microsoftonline.com/7262967a-05fa-4d59-8afd-25b734eaf196/saml2

I don’t have an account with the city and not sure about registration. Kind of annoying that you can’t just provide feedback without it.

 

[outoftheice]

This is the contact email listed for the DP File Manager. I would assume the fact that it is publicly listed means you can submit your comments directly to him. I'd encourage you to cc your Councillor when you do.

Gareth.Webster@calgary.ca

 

[Surrealplaces]

This is the contact email listed for the DP File Manager. I would assume the fact that it is publicly listed means you can submit your comments directly to him. I'd encourage you to cc your Councillor when you do.

Gareth.Webster@calgary.ca

For sure, the files managers usually take the comments seriously and are interested in opinions. Back in the day when I used to go down to city hall to look at DPs sometimes the file managers would sometimes come down with the plans looking for feedback.

 

[BKha]

It’s funny how things change. 20 years ago everyone was in awe of supertalls and they were marvelled at.
They’ve lost their lustre in recent years…even China isn’t allowing any more to be built. They’re often seeing nowadays as wasteful vanity projects.
I still admire skyscrapers, and they give a certain Gotham City vibe but I understand the sentiment. They are more wasteful than low rise buildings, not to mention shadowing issues and issues we have seen at the street level. Modern Super-talls especially, have large monolithic podiums.

I’ve been to some of the tallest skyscrapers. The Willis Tower, the former World Trade towers, Burj Khalifa, Petronas Towers, IFC in Hong Kong…. And other tall ones in various cities. One thing they all have in common is they are nice to look at but offer little else.

The Petronas Towers, Burj Khalifa IFC have malls at the base, And the malls are quite busy but there’s not much street life or vibrancy around the area other than the mall itself. They might as well be out in a suburb somewhere. The cool street life in those cities is found in other areas.

I like skyscrapers to, but I like them more when they weren’t so many on the planet. There have been so many supertalls built in the last 20 years I don’t even keep track of them anymore. They aren’t near as majestic as they used to be.
It feels like it’s harder to build a nice mixed used development that adds street life than it is to build a supertalls.

 

[Mountain Man]

Could you actually use that door from outside? I’ve only seen it from the lobby and don’t recall.

Yes you can access it from Centre St, there is a 2' curb with a guardrail mostly blocking the way though.

 

[O-tac]

Of course there has to be some obstacle!

 

[O-tac]

This is the contact email listed for the DP File Manager. I would assume the fact that it is publicly listed means you can submit your comments directly to him. I'd encourage you to cc your Councillor when you do.

Gareth.Webster@calgary.ca

Thank you. I sent him an e-mail. I'm hoping if enough of us mention our concerns that it will give the city some breathing room to 'reflect' on this and quietly send it back to the drawing board.

 

[Thrillhou]

Yes you can access it from Centre St, there is a 2' curb with a guardrail mostly blocking the way though.

There is actually retail on both ends. This might come as a shock but the other end is a CIBC bank...

 

[O-tac]

That's right! I don't count banks as retail. They should have a different designation. If only they could be blocked from occupying high traffic prime locations that would be better suited to other uses.