darwink
Senior Member
sales prices at $600 a square foot instead of $1600.
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- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
JoeUrban
Active Member
And also Centre st especially north of 16th avenue
jianxia15
Active Member
Infill project at 17ave and 24a st SW. A mix of residential and office/commercial.
CBBarnett
Senior Member
These look pretty solid. I like the simple forms and big windows with less random protrusions of window boxes. Orientation to the street is good.
A lot of our our infill is getting quite good from a form perspective. A few areas we need to push next:
- Resolve street-wall gaps - our current paradigm leaves tons of space that is unused everything is contextual with setbacks. Prevents consistent streetwalls like you'd see in New York, Montreal or other cities for many of their rowhome developments.
- Figure out retail infill - we have so few examples and they often haven't been good. If developers can figure out a consistent, quality way to add low-scale, infill walkable retail with good street/neighbourhood interaction we could see whole new clusters and districts emerging where they haven't had any before.
- Fix the streets - so many of our main streets are still commuter sewers with poor connections across and purely conveyance function rather than what they should be; a street that supports the liveable of the area it exists in. 17th Avenue in this area is a good example. It's not bad by Calgary standards, but that's not a complement. Whole areas need far more attention to reduce speeds, add street parking, and make it nicer to live on and near these streets. Make any front setback that remains more productive - either patios, trees or hedges.
- When possible, advocate for better materials when finished - it's less important than the form and other items, but brick and stone often can help message confidence in a development and location, inferring a level of permanence. We need our emerging higher-density infills to have this.
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
Street-walls the way they are are a product of developers trying to sell these developments to neighbors. By not messing with the existing setbacks they think it is an easier sell.
Developers do not like commercial in their residential developments, they're huge overhead. In the right places the needs to push for retail, even if it sits empty in the early days, as infill communities add density the right tenant can add value to your development.
On fixing the streets I actually wonder if angled parking eating up some of setbacks should be used more. Give the community the parking they crave, slow down traffic by adding the element of people backing up into traffic.
I don't know if I have a lot of issues with materials but what I do have an issue with is esthetics... There's an infill of 20th Street SW that has decent materials but is an esthetically awful design. Utility rooms and numerous vents facing the street, a random and pointless tree box (just put them in the ground).
CBBarnett
Senior Member
Yeah totally agree about materials - it's a nice to have but the orientation and design is far more important. In Maslow's "hierarchy of infill needs", materials are near the top where building orientation is near the bottom.
jianxia15
Active Member
Infill townhome in Bankview at 19 Ave and 17a St SW.
outoftheice
Active Member
Not sure if this is the right spot to ask this question or not but we are house hunting and are considering a semi-detached infill because of pricing. My biggest concern is that the shared wall with the neighbouring unit will allow a lot of sound to transfer, especially if I set up a home theatre system in the basement. I know that construction quality will depend a lot on the builder but I also know that modern construction techniques mean that many of the issues that were present 20 years ago are no longer a concern. Does anyone have any experience living in a modern semi-detached infill who can offer their perspective on sound transfer or just the experience in general? Thanks in advance.
CBBarnett
Senior Member
I live in a semi-detached with one shared wall, built 2013 or 2014.
Perhaps we have been lucky with neighbours, but sound and noise is a zero issue over 5 years. Layout might play a role too - most of the shared walls are mirrored and taken up by staircases and closests. So while you probably could hear noise if you really tried or it was really loud, the design doesn't make it easy.
Surprisingly big energy savings than I was expecting as well - sharing walls helps a lot.
Biggest issues are more with age and built quality - after about 10 years since construction, you can really see where the developer paid attention and had better attention to detail, and where they didn't. Not an issue unique to semi-detached though.
The part that hasn't come up yet but I assume will eventually is things like roof and exterior repairs where both properties are impacted. Will take some coordination, but will cross that bridge when it's necessary in the coming decade or so.
DiscoStu
Active Member
We lived in a now-ubiquitous boxy duplex for almost a decade. Shared-wall noise was never a problem, I was actually quite impressed at how good it was.
Things that WERE a problem though:
• Like a lot of these places, it was built by a small developer with not much experience, so the long-term build quality was suspect in some areas, and terrible in others (our balconies weren’t sloped properly, and the eavestroughs were under built, so we had drainage and water issues almost from the start). It mainly affected our side, but some issues affected the neighbours too…which of course can pose problems. Luckily our first neighbours were great so we solved these issues amicably. But then they moved and were replaced by new neighbours. Things went south (see below!).
• Our second neighbours were hippie hot-tub party people. The hot tub was placed adjacent to our bedroom window, so 2-3 times a week we went to sleep listening to them getting drunk and high, all to the lovely smell combo of weed and hot tub chemicals. Not the end of the world, but still.
• They also had 3 dogs, who daily used our side of the lawn as their toilet. Again, not the end of the world, but urge to kill rising.
• During Covid, they went to BC for a year and turned their place into an AirBnB rental…which eventually turned into a party house for teens (because they couldn’t go clubbing). It got crazy enough that the cops showed up almost every weekend for a month. This was basically the last straw.
So as you can see, the biggest issue with the duplex was not the property itself (although I didn’t want to be left holding the bag)…it was the fact that no matter how nice of a place you have, you’re never fully in control of your property because you can’t control who you’re sharing with. For you, it may not ever be an issue. For us, it turned into a bit of a nightmare scenario, so we made like a tree and got outta there.
Things that WERE a problem though:
• Like a lot of these places, it was built by a small developer with not much experience, so the long-term build quality was suspect in some areas, and terrible in others (our balconies weren’t sloped properly, and the eavestroughs were under built, so we had drainage and water issues almost from the start). It mainly affected our side, but some issues affected the neighbours too…which of course can pose problems. Luckily our first neighbours were great so we solved these issues amicably. But then they moved and were replaced by new neighbours. Things went south (see below!).
• Our second neighbours were hippie hot-tub party people. The hot tub was placed adjacent to our bedroom window, so 2-3 times a week we went to sleep listening to them getting drunk and high, all to the lovely smell combo of weed and hot tub chemicals. Not the end of the world, but still.
• They also had 3 dogs, who daily used our side of the lawn as their toilet. Again, not the end of the world, but urge to kill rising.
• During Covid, they went to BC for a year and turned their place into an AirBnB rental…which eventually turned into a party house for teens (because they couldn’t go clubbing). It got crazy enough that the cops showed up almost every weekend for a month. This was basically the last straw.
So as you can see, the biggest issue with the duplex was not the property itself (although I didn’t want to be left holding the bag)…it was the fact that no matter how nice of a place you have, you’re never fully in control of your property because you can’t control who you’re sharing with. For you, it may not ever be an issue. For us, it turned into a bit of a nightmare scenario, so we made like a tree and got outta there.
CBBarnett
Senior Member
Yes neighbours are definitely the most likely source of frustration - building quality is all over the place and good and bad isn't neatly lined up to a type of house or not. Quality doesn't seem to always line up with prices either.
My duplex has a older single family home next door on the other side and is often the source of yelling and an occasional police call. Wouldn't even call it an issue for us but could easily see with a different scenario could be frustrating.
My favourite place I have ever lived was an older condo walkup. Had a stellar set of neighbours and everyone got along - the building seemed to find the right mix of regular people, long time residents and a shorter-term renters. Created a very stable and very accommodating atmosphere.
The physical condo building was a disaster though - made it really cheap to buy, but just constant issues. It was just too old and was on 2nd or 3rd life cycle for everything. Absolutely terrible noise transfer, but people made it work and instantly turned the music off at 11pm. Good neighbours > built quality.
My duplex has a older single family home next door on the other side and is often the source of yelling and an occasional police call. Wouldn't even call it an issue for us but could easily see with a different scenario could be frustrating.
My favourite place I have ever lived was an older condo walkup. Had a stellar set of neighbours and everyone got along - the building seemed to find the right mix of regular people, long time residents and a shorter-term renters. Created a very stable and very accommodating atmosphere.
The physical condo building was a disaster though - made it really cheap to buy, but just constant issues. It was just too old and was on 2nd or 3rd life cycle for everything. Absolutely terrible noise transfer, but people made it work and instantly turned the music off at 11pm. Good neighbours > built quality.
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Alex_YYC
Senior Member
Infill on 37th St SW.
DiscoStu
Active Member
"Hell is other people"
- Sartre
The quality of neighbours makes a huge difference for sure, and you can have good or bad neighbours at every price point. Although I think expectations get adjusted too at every price point.
I do still like infills. They provide a nice bridge between condos and detached homes, and are a great option for people who want to live in inner-city neighborhoods but are beyond the condo life. Young families, retirees, DINKS etc. For us it was a great fit for the time...but after our issues, we were able to swap out our duplex for a slightly smaller detached home for almost the same price in a similar neighbourhood, so for us it was a no brainer. I may still eventually have bad neighbours (or be a bad neighbor!), but at least there will always be a buffer, and I won't be as deeply intertwined financially with someone out of my control.
Mull
Active Member
I am sure this is discussed elsewhere here, so apologizes for the repeat question, but what is the deal/plan with with Government of Alberta owned river lots in Roxboro and other communities?
No trespassing, fenced off lots, doing nothing but taking maintenance dollars.
No trespassing, fenced off lots, doing nothing but taking maintenance dollars.