emphurent
Active Member
As UT expands coverage of the GTA, it's finally about time to fill in the missing threads for Waterloo as Kitchener is mostly documented.
As a lot of the major changes have already happened in Waterloo (seriously if you haven't been in 10 years, it's a different landscape around the universities), I'm starting with a fairly large student building located on University Avenue, filling in the final corner of a now pretty major intersection. (Albert and University could use a pedestrian scramble!)
This project is nearing top out, and is the tallest in the immediate area. These photos were taken yesterday between snow storms.
This is an interlocking precast build which has allowed it to grow very quickly.
On a not totally unrelated note, this is the first time I've walked this part of the student area, and as I said before on another thread for a nearby building, the student district in waterloo gets way too much flack for how well it's actually turned out.
This photo with the tower in the back shows how urban and built up it really feels. This was all single family homes less than 10 years ago, but it's now quite pleasant to walk with retail sprinkled around. Never could this have happened at this pace in Toronto, and never could this have happened on side streets like it did here. It's really quite impressive. Only gripe would be that now that the street is an apartment street, the public realm should be made consistent.
To further my point, this cross through alley I found with a lovely mural is something even Toronto forgoes sometimes where it'd be well used.
And for the final photo, the tower as seen from the alleyway.
As a lot of the major changes have already happened in Waterloo (seriously if you haven't been in 10 years, it's a different landscape around the universities), I'm starting with a fairly large student building located on University Avenue, filling in the final corner of a now pretty major intersection. (Albert and University could use a pedestrian scramble!)
This project is nearing top out, and is the tallest in the immediate area. These photos were taken yesterday between snow storms.
This is an interlocking precast build which has allowed it to grow very quickly.
On a not totally unrelated note, this is the first time I've walked this part of the student area, and as I said before on another thread for a nearby building, the student district in waterloo gets way too much flack for how well it's actually turned out.
This photo with the tower in the back shows how urban and built up it really feels. This was all single family homes less than 10 years ago, but it's now quite pleasant to walk with retail sprinkled around. Never could this have happened at this pace in Toronto, and never could this have happened on side streets like it did here. It's really quite impressive. Only gripe would be that now that the street is an apartment street, the public realm should be made consistent.
To further my point, this cross through alley I found with a lovely mural is something even Toronto forgoes sometimes where it'd be well used.
And for the final photo, the tower as seen from the alleyway.
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