[innsertnamehere]

New mega-proposal for Niagara Falls - two 58-storey hotel buildings with residential and conventions spaces:

6546 FALLSVIEW BV & 6503-6519 STANLEY AV - Current Development Application - AM-2024-003 - City of Niagara Falls

6546 FALLSVIEW BV & 6503-6519 STANLEY AV - Current Development Application in Niagara Falls Canada

niagarafalls.ca

Interestingly, the owner listed on the application aligns with the family name of the owners of the Hilton Hotel in Niagara, so perhaps the developer here is a bit more qualified than the others in the City given that they actually have a track record of building a 50-storey hotel?

 

[Koops65]

Yawn...

 

[Northern Light]

Well put @Koops65

The towers would be passable, if they were on a more generic, suburban site. But for such a prime spot, they are just too pedestrian.

The bases/podiums though look like an outright fortress and profoundly unwelcoming..........

Overall rating 'D'.

Edit to add, I just noticed this is aA

Fold the firm.

Whatever value it may once have brought to the table........is lost.

 

[maestro]

A yawn is too lenient. This is a gasp in how bad it looks in the skyline.

The towers are architecturally solid but, not as tallest twins in Niagara Falls. The podium is a disaster. The whole proposal conjures the Middle East

aA shouldn't fold. All firms are compromising more. Ultimately, it boils down to not enough people care in this province. All about building.

 

[Lenser]

This looks terrible. If you're going to go tall, do it with some style. As it stands, this would be an epic blight.

 

[LUVIT!]

I like them..If they were in Vladivostok!

 

[amh]

Fold the firm.

Whatever value it may once have brought to the table........is lost.

The hyperbole is a bit much, no? Of course, all the dreck that comes from all the other competent-at-best architecture firms doing highrise work is passable, but a—A should be folded because the quality of its output is - gasp - variable over the years.

I think most people underestimate the vast challenge that design firms face in Toronto and more broadly in Ontario: producing a huge amount of work for a whole range of challenging clients, on challenging project budgets, at ever-competitive fees that produce a race to the bottom in the industry.
God forbid architects want to make a living. They should all be put out of work regardless of their dogged attempts to do better design in increasingly challenging conditions. (And they aren't doing it because the salaries are impressive, that is for sure.)

 

[Northern Light]

Yes, all the dreck that comes from all the other competent-at-best architecture firms doing highrise work is passable, but a—A should be folded because the quality of its output is - gasp - variable.

I think most people underestimate the vast challenge that design firms face in Toronto and more broadly in Ontario: producing a huge amount of work for a whole range of challenging clients, on challenging project budgets, at ever-competitive fees that produce a race to the bottom in the industry.
God forbid architects want to make a living. They should all be put out of work regardless of their dogged attempts to do better design in increasingly challenging conditions. (And they aren't doing it because the salaries are impressive, that is for sure.)

You can think I'm harsh if you wish.......

To be clear, I am consistent, I have no time for G+C or Arcadis and KirKor, who consistently produce worse stuff than the majority of aA product.

That said, there are only a handful of aA projects over the last decade I find redeeming.

Peter's aesthetic was always towards cool (as in not warm) and I would argue sterile architecture. The 2 or 3 proposals that have made good use of colour have been A+ efforts and their best work. But what redeemed them, even while turning out
too many bland boxes, is that they got the small stuff right, a lot. They got decent material and executed a vision, whatever its merits with minimal VE'ing, at least as visible from the outside.

This proposal, however, is so utterly abysmal that it stains the firm's reputation. This is not about a midrise condo or office tower somewhere that could have used a shot of warmth or colour; its not a about a sleek hirise, that if differing from those around it might be an excellent study in contrasts, even if in reality it suffers from too much sameness in its envrions.

This is a signature site. If you can't do something you'd want to brag about to the grand kids, just walk away.

There's other money to be made.

Your take may differ.

 

[amh]

There's other money to be made.

Are you aware of what the industry currently faces? (Note: there will be many job losses. The next few years could get ugly.)

But no, I don't think you're being harsh, and I appreciate that design is subjective. (I'm not a fan of this proposal either, by the way.) I do, however, think you are being hyperbolic and perhaps wilfully ignorant of what it means for an architecture firm to "walk away" from a project.

 

[Northern Light]

Are you aware of what the industry currently faces? (Note: there will be many job losses. The next few years could get ugly.)

Yes.

I do, however, think you are being hyperbolic

Perhaps........a bit......

and perhaps wilfully ignorant of what it means for an architecture firm to "walk away" from a project.

No, not really. One can say this for any profession where you need to attract and retain customers/clients, particularly large ones, as part of sustaining your business.

I just manage and expect something better from myself than 'just good enough'; and I accordingly also ask that from others.

We all make mistakes, myself included, not every project or work product will be a masterpiece; but the effort matters, and here, it really doesn't show.

 

[amh]

We all make mistakes, myself included, not every project or work product will be a masterpiece;

So fold your company since that indicates there is "nothing left to bring to the table."
Anyways, I digress.


I have a number of feelings toward this one but a huge improvement to the way it reads would be a variation in height from one tower to the other. It's understandable why they'd both position themselves to provide as many rooms as possible with a view of the falls, but if the orientation can't be played with, it would be nice to have one of the towers at a lower height than its counterpart. The shaping of the balconies isn't really doing anything for me, and it distracts from the motif of horizontal erosions on the other elevations.

 

[Northern Light]

I have a number of feelings toward this one but a huge improvement to the way it reads would be a variation in height from one tower to the other. It's understandable why they'd both position themselves to provide as many rooms as possible with a view of the falls, but if the orientation can't be played with, it would be nice to have one of the towers at a lower height than its counterpart. The shaping of the balconies isn't really doing anything for me, and it distracts from the motif of horizontal erosions on the other elevations.

The towers could be so much better, the podiums to me are the really awful bit. I can only say 'complete re-think' because they are so far from anything I would consider reasonable.

 

[Koops65]

My response wasn't so much about the design, as about the whole tall tower in NF thing... Getting tired of all these proposals that go nowhere.

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

...city of vapour architecture. /sigh

 

[abovegrade]

They look like a dystopian West Berlin... iconic but in a creepy way.