[ZEBuilder]

This is another under construction development in Kitchener. The development in its approved form contains 3 apartment buildings at 24, 23 and 19 floors in height, the development will contain a total of 946 units the exact breakdown of unit type is not known. Building A (24s) will contain 303 units, Building B (23s) will contain 375 units, Building C (19s) will contain 268 units. The project will contain 882 parking spaces including visitor, it will also contain 599 bicycle spaces (although the development is not in a cyclist friendly area of the city). The site will be entirely heated via heat pumps (extremely common among recent Vive projects). Vive currently has the site excavated 2 floors below grade, shoring work started in April/May of this year, the tower crane went up in mid/late August. Recently they have been forming the exterior walls against the shoring wall and have been forming the raft slab. I haven't been by recently but it is more than likely poured as it was ready to go in late September.

Render (apologies for the text across the screen this is the only render for the project that I have found it is via Zehr's instagram):

Site Plan:

 

[ben.thebean1]

They've done a good job with materials here to be able to make a cost effective (blocky) design without it looking too boring

 

[ben.thebean1]

Here's the site on Google Maps:

Streetview from June:

 

[tstormers]

They've done a good job with materials here to be able to make a cost effective (blocky) design without it looking too boring

Well they definitely fit with the buildings around them. I was going to say they looked very 70's apartment blocks. just with some patterns.

Not everything can look like a Absolute World in Mississauga, but I do hope the KW area gets a signature building to be proud of in all of the new downtown developments.

 

[ZEBuilder]

Well they definitely fit with the buildings around them. I was going to say they looked very 70's apartment blocks. just with some patterns.

Not everything can look like a Absolute World in Mississauga, but I do hope the KW area gets a signature building to be proud of in all of the new downtown developments.

The buildings by Vive are going to look pretty out of place compared to the existing neighbourhood just by how massive they are in comparison to the existing buildings. The tallest building along that stretch is 11 floors so two of the buildings on this site are going to be more than twice the height but design wise it fits in pretty well seeing that they're just blocks.

Being from Kitchener the changes that have occurred in the last 10 years have been impressive to say the least, the LRT was just starting construction 10 years ago, now we have record breaking ridership on public transit, in 2017 we got our first 25+ proposal with Charlie West, now we're getting 50+ with Station Park E, 417 King St W, 50 Borden Ave S Tower 1 and Tower 2. So the changes in such a short span of time have really been impressive for a city less than 300k and something to arguably be proud of. Design wise there hasn't been something that would blow anyone away on UT. But from showing people in Kitchener all of the projects by far the one that everyone likes the best and are seemingly proud of is Station Park E. Certainly it isn't impressive by Toronto standards but compared to Kitchener 10 years ago its pretty amazing. But certainly there is room for improvement, with the amount of land still left and the city rezoning all of downtown something even better should hopefully be coming.

 

[Paclo]

The architect here is Reinders + Law. Below are some better renderings from their LinkedIn post regarding groundbreaking at the site:

Reinders + Law Ltd. - Architecture + Engineering on LinkedIn: Excited to attend the Ground-Breaking Ceremony for our new 24 storeyâ¦

Excited to attend the Ground-Breaking Ceremony for our new 24 storey purpose-built rental development at 3241 King Street in Kitchener, ON. Congratulation to…

www.linkedin.com

The latest permit here mentions 28-storeys, while all other sources claim Tower A is 24-storeys, hmmm

 

[ZEBuilder]

The latest permit here mentions 28-storeys, while all other sources claim Tower A is 24-storeys, hmmm
View attachment 515759

The foundation permit is the only permit that says 28 floors, the actual balance of construction permit for the tower that's still in the application phase says 24-storeys as of Monday when I last checked, on the SPA it only says 24 as well.

The only way I could see it being 28 floors is if one of the city councillors started getting involved again, he's been very adamant on increasing buildings heights and density, there's two other Vive projects that don't have threads on here (I'm slowly getting to it, there's a surprising number that aren't on here) that have gotten height increases, one of 10 floors, the other while not approved yet, is currently looking at a 7 floor increase. However all of these increases have come at the ZBA/OPA stage so it would be interesting to see it occuring at the permitting stage.

 

[emphurent]

Update from Vive's Instagram.

And one I took at the top of Chicopee (left side).

 

[Matt.R.WR]

Some site photos from 06/20/2024. This one is moving quickly, so it's likely advanced further than these photos show.

Looking north along King St E. Work being done on the 10th floor.

A closer look at the building (Tower A), standing directly across from it on King.

And a 0.6x zoom in the same spot. Note the 6 storey building next door (left) for scale.

Peak urbanism, if you ask me. That gas station is new, not being torn down.

As I was about to leave, a truck rolled by with what looked like more precast. So I, of course, followed.

This is the closest I was willing to get, for the sake of not seeming stalker-ish and/ or trespassing. But it was indeed headed here (off loading on Cameo Dr).

Even at 10 storeys (or possibly 12 by now), this is already very visible when driving along HWY 8 into Kitchener. I haven't managed to get a photo of it from the highway yet, but I'll try and get one soon.

 

[Matt.R.WR]

Quick photo snapped morning of 10/03/2024, seen coming into Kitchener on HWY 8, just past the Sportsworld/ Maple Grove interchange.

21st floor is done, working on 22nd. I'd expect it to top out by the end of the month.