What do you think of this project?

  • Total voters
    64
Agreed with many points. While I love the Stantec Tower, seeing empty lots very close by makes such a tall building questionable given why tall buildings were traditionally built (but obviously it is not that simple). Not to pick on a fellow Great Plains city, but Oklahoma City might soon have the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere (dubious) but much of their downtown still looks like this:
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Point being that filling up our downtown with mid rise and high rise in the 20-30 storey category first will be much more important to having a good downtown than two very tall hotels, and we should refocus on building up when there are fewer places to go.
 
ADob said:
Good old Edmonton good-enoughism!
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Edmonton is basically a large union town - good stable unionized public jobs in health care, government and the university. Of course there is a private sector and petro chemicals element that is very important, but the public sector jobs form the backbone. Calgary is a private sector corporate city and has been for a long long time - its much more competitive than Edmonton, it appreciates and strives for international recognition because in a globalized market it knows the importance of being recognized and therefore ensures its city infrastructure (airport, convention center, hotels, public transit etc) are constructed and coordinated to support its mission and goal of being an internationally recognized global city. The civic leaders in Edmonton are very comfortable, don't crave global prominence as much as Calgary's civic leaders, are less willing to take risks and are not as skilled in this realm when compared to Calgary's leaders. Most of Edmonton's mayors have been much less concerned with being "pro-business" than Calgary's leaders. Honesty, is anyone really surprised that Calgary is so far ahead of Edmonton on many levels? Edmonton is a very nice city with a high quality of life and its relatively large population for a Canadian city ensures it has almost equal level of services, entertainment, shopping and cultural options as Calgary. Its not possible for a province the size of Alberta to have two alpha dog cities. I think most Edmontonians are happy with what it is and this is reflected in who they vote for in civic, provincial and federal elections.
 
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BASE said:
It's impossible not to compare. That render is gorgeous. They really are on a hot streak down south and while I don't think they're arena will be any better than ours they certainly are kicking us around in the convention center & library segments which are two we should reasonably be able to compete with.
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I am ok with our Convention Center and Expo center - together they are doing just fine. They needed a new one - so they built one. As far as their Library- and ours for that matter - just really expensive public bath houses.
 
Sure, but it's in a different league and they will continue to see massive benefits from it.

Edmonton's convention centre continues to underwhelm and does not even have a direct-connect hotel which excludes us from bidding on many, many events/conferences.
 
Another twin tower project in Calgary? They really do like to build in twos!

Good on Cowtown to be expanding its skyline in a major way after a slow 5 odd years. I don't think Edmonton should focus on trying to compete in the 200 meter + tower category, we just don't have the corporate base to do so. And for me, I think a series of mid rise buildings with good street interaction does much more for a neighbourhoods vibrancy than a one or two behemoth towers would. If Edmonton continues to densify with infill, build quality mid rises, it will greatly improve the central neighbourhoods of the city.
 
Which is great to see coming, but there is a very real challenge before us in terms of accelerating significant/transformational projects in the Downtown core.
 
IanO said:
Which is great to see coming, but there is a very real challenge before us in terms of accelerating significant/transformational projects in the Downtown core.
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I think the city is putting $30M into Winspear, $40M into Warehouse Park, plus the money into Beaver Hills/MPhair Parks, plus 10s of millions into new Event Centre plus a new dt LRT to Westend.

Is that what you are referring to?
 
Warehouse Park transformational, but i'm talking about major commercial or residential projects.

Those are all positive and a step forward, but at this pace it's going to take another generation before Downtown has anywhere near a critical mass.
 
Edmonton definitely takes the slow and steady approach when it comes to progress. The Ice District and Stationlands finally pushed Edmonton forward but we need to maintain momentum. Our core has so much potential but I think there needs to be a bit more ambitiousness. At least more developers willing to try things. We have some of those but we also have the ones that are willing to see our city stagnant with their big promises but very poor follow through.
 
Calgary is corporate O&G on steroids and their skyline is abnormal for a city of that size. I think Edmonton's skyline and facilities also punches above our weight and having a building as tall as Stantec and the JW is impressive. I'm not really into all the "yahoo" stampede vibe - that type of stuff suits Calgary and their never ending boosterism which is symptomatic of their corporate identity and ranching history. Edmonton should focus on what it does well - the summer festivals and strength of its communities, its public education, support for the arts, UofA etc. However, city admin and developers need to try harder to raise the bar on public safety and making downtown a safer and more engaging place. Also, find out how the downtown library was approved and make the changes needed to ensure something like that is not repeated.
 
Here's the reality: unless downtown is cleaned up and kept clean and does not look like Zombieland, then 'revitalization' will never ever happen. This council and the previous one dropped the ball by not being more assertive in condoning social disorder. This is not an attack on the vulnerable. But with the lack of rules and the free-for-all that was enabled, those who preyed on the vulnerable moved in and claimed the DT prize.

City hall was more worried about appeasing social justice advocates than ensuring the core remains a place for business and entertainment, ensuring the transit and pedway systems are not a 'shelters' for people to consume drugs etc.

Even if we started today, we're looking at least another 20 years before it's the DT we all dream about. But unless there is a more business-oriented council elected, I'm afraid we will be stuck in a vicious circle. (Like, seriously, from a biz perspective, who gets rid of the ability to pay for parking at machines?!)
 
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^ Disagree completely. Very few people are pro-social disorder -- the real debate is how to deal with it. The problem with a get-tough approach downtown is that it simply moves the problem elsewhere. Have you been down Stony Plain Road lately? Social disorder is on the rise and the area is a complete mess, but few seem to care because they don't live there and don't see the human suffering up close.

Downtown needs whole lot more work, but tired solutions based on outdated tropes are not the answer.
 
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