This will wipe out the last complete pre-war commercial block in the city. I was hoping that the facades on 7th would be retained but there is nothing in the plans, just some generic looking streetscape. If this was on any of the numerous massive empty lots in the city I would be all for it but as it stands, this will be one of the worst heritage blunders since Olympic Plaza/ Arts Commons/ City Hall redevelopment gutted 8th ave


They also plan to remove the retail space on the old Sport Chek building (the Clarence Block) and use the facade as some sort of entrance entrance to the interior courtyard.

So in total:
Around 15 heritage buildings will be demolished. 9 completely with 4 retaining the facade (the Hudson block has already been gutted at some point)
 
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Hmmm…. Both exciting and concerning at the same time.
 
Same thing happens on my end.
 
It's interesting that the Reddit thread is full of people who see no value in saving any of the buildings this project would destroy.

As I can't see how this will go ahead given the doom and gloom surrounding the economy here I'm not too worried about losing that block.
 
Ugh....why can't developers keep their dirty paws off established buildings and/or heritage buildings? DON"T TOUCH STEPHEN AVE!!! The only thing that needs to be done is to renovate the Stephen Ave streetscape (sidewalks, lamps, benches, road, etc.). DO NOT TOUCH THE BUILDINGS (except that little shitty one with the white tin siding that looks out of place).
 
Haha - perhaps because these developers with dirty paws own the properties they want to develop.
Urban4Lyfe said:
It's interesting that the Reddit thread is full of people who see no value in saving any of the buildings this project would destroy.

As I can't see how this will go ahead given the doom and gloom surrounding the economy here I'm not too worried about losing that block.
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I’m not really sensing doom & gloom these days. Maybe the last couple of years but not now.
 
Urban4Lyfe said:
It's interesting that the Reddit thread is full of people who see no value in saving any of the buildings this project would destroy.

As I can't see how this will go ahead given the doom and gloom surrounding the economy here I'm not too worried about losing that block.
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Younger crowd that hasn't learned the lesson yet.
 
FCC1982 said:
I’m in the “Excited” camp.
I can’t get past page 13 of the documents without the link breaking on the City DP map site. There must be some tower elevations in there somewhere.
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Pg 14 is a really nice elevation drawing of the current 7th Avenue streetscape that is getting demoed.
Pg 15 is east elevation of the podium at centre street.
Pg 16 is west elevation of the existing buildings at 1st St SW and a bit of the podium behind them.
Pg 17 is a section of the underground parkade.
Pg 18 is a ground level plan of the lane.
Pg 19 is a ground level plan of the lane with colour.
Pg 20 is a tree management plan.
Pg 21 is a site plan.
Pg 22 are partial hybrid rendered elevations of the grade level at the interior of the lane.
Pg 23 is a site servicing plan.
Pg 24 is a site grading plan.
 
We'll have to wait and see what the renders look like, and what materials they're using for the tower's. But so far I'm into it, I really like that the courtyard links 7th and 8th Ave.

Not going to lie though, I could care less about the buildings along 7th. It's sad to see old buildings go, but most of them have been sitting empty for years and are all in various stages of decay. To try incorporating them into a new facade would probably just end up looking tacky. That being said, the podium facing 7th does look a little overbearing as is, especially when you remember it's north facing and will probably never see direct sunlight.

As far as the residencial towers blocking out Telus Sky they probably will block the view from the south. But it would be sweet if the tower's included some kind of LED display as well. I'd love for the downtown skyline to fill up with LED displays on towers.
 
The Familia said:
Ugh....why can't developers keep their dirty paws off established buildings and/or heritage buildings? DON"T TOUCH STEPHEN AVE!!! The only thing that needs to be done is to renovate the Stephen Ave streetscape (sidewalks, lamps, benches, road, etc.). DO NOT TOUCH THE BUILDINGS (except that little shitty one with the white tin siding that looks out of place).
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I like that one. Every good street needs one and only one shitty little white tin siding building.
 
I do believe that building is a heritage building still, someone posted a picture of it a long time ago (may have been on SSP) and it was quite a nice little building. Whether any of that remains is a different story.
 
Project would become a lot more appealing if they scrapped the awkward looking office building and weirdly tall podiums and moved the 2 tall building the the west side of the block and work it in with the church and bank.

A list of my concerns (in no particular order) would be as follows:

- loss of heritage buildings.
- monolithic podium.
- Toronto style of slapping a sky scrapper over top of heritage buildings resulting in awkward ugly looking podium interaction.
- Telus sky artwork becoming blocked from the south.
- The West Village Tower effect where we get great renders and they turn out like shat.
 
haltcatchfire said:
Pg 14 is a really nice elevation drawing of the current 7th Avenue streetscape that is getting demoed.
Pg 15 is east elevation of the podium at centre street.
Pg 16 is west elevation of the existing buildings at 1st St SW and a bit of the podium behind them.
Pg 17 is a section of the underground parkade.
Pg 18 is a ground level plan of the lane.
Pg 19 is a ground level plan of the lane with colour.
Pg 20 is a tree management plan.
Pg 21 is a site plan.
Pg 22 are partial hybrid rendered elevations of the grade level at the interior of the lane.
Pg 23 is a site servicing plan.
Pg 24 is a site grading plan.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that hcf, I would have thought tower Elevations would be there. Possibly just not uploaded by the City yet.
 
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