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Who knows if/when it will happen at this point, but I found some renders of the Barron Building revitalization and expansion that I don't believe we've ever seen here. Designed by the same group who redesigned The Windsor into a residential building, and a ton of other stuff.

http://jason-spear.squarespace.com

Barron+2.jpg

Barron+1.jpg
 
Mountain Man said:
They should renovate that building into Lofts or something, would be a great residential building.
Click to expand...

I have a hunch that Barron is one of the several office buildings currently being considered for conversion to residential :) Obviously don't quote me on that, just a hunch, but I think people would kill to live there, especially being on Stephen Ave.
 
I know im gonna get hate for this like over at the Westbrook forum so take it with a pinch of salt but whatever the city is doing is clearly not working. They need to make radical changes and fast because our property taxes are only going to increase more and create a lifeless city if this nonsense goes on any longer. They should drastically limit greenfield development or even freeze it for a period of time, make detached homes expensive in the process whether through some sort of building fee or even limited supply will be enough to let this happen. I'm sure everyone read the Calgary Harold article so its obvious whatever we're doing is not working. Approving more neighbourhoods is only increasing the problem, @Mountain Man has a point, people will continue buying if they can get affordable large homes in the suburbs, its as simple as that, you give and people take. When I see families I know living in relatively newer communities like Taradale or Martindale, they're now selling their homes and moving even further north to Skyview and Cityscape. These were the same families i knew that moved up from Whitehorn and Rundle. Most places in the city of Calgary don't need an LRT line for automobile enthusiasts, I can only think of hospitals, Universities and the Core as places where people almost absolutely require the LRT to reach daily. Most other individuals are working in areas that can allow you to get in your car and jump on the nearest freeway and arrive without worrying about any parking fees. Building around LRT's is definitely a great start but how many of these families living in the suburbs with 3 cars parked up on their driveway even care? Malls are good example of where there's almost no need for using transit unless u don't have a car because theres no parking fees, why would someone living in the suburbs in the middle of winter even care about waiting for the bus outside then arriving to the LRT station and then walking from the station to the mall? The City is going to have to start forcing taste on to people by making them live in the inner city to help create it a dense vibrant place, once that is achieved, people will automatically prefer living where theres a vibe like central London for example.
 
Last edited:
From the Courtyard 33 thread
gsunnyg said:
I know im gonna get hate for this like over at the Westbrook forum so take it with a pinch of salt but whatever the city is doing is clearly not working. They need to make radical changes and fast because our property taxes are only going to increase more and create a lifeless city if this nonsense goes on any longer. They should drastically limit greenfield development or even freeze it for a period of time, make detached homes expensive in the process whether through some sort of building fee or even limited supply will be enough to let this happen. I'm sure everyone read the Calgary Harold article so its obvious whatever we're doing is not working. Approving more neighbourhoods is only increasing the problem, @Mountain Man has a point, people will continue buying if they can get affordable large homes in the suburbs, its as simple as that, you give and people take. When I see families I know living in relatively newer communities like Taradale or Martindale, they're now selling their homes and moving even further north to Skyview and Cityscape. These were the same families i knew hat moved up from Whitehorn to Rundle. Most places in the city of Calgary don't need an LRT line for automobile enthusiasts, I can only think of hospitals, Universities and the Core as places where people almost absolutely require the LRT to reach daily. Most other individuals are working in areas that can allow you to get in your car and jump on the nearest freeway and arrive without worrying about any parking fees. Building around LRT's is definitely a great start but how many of these families living in the suburbs with 3 cars parked up on their driveway even care? Malls are good example of where there's almost no need for using transit unless u don't have a car because theres no parking fees, why would someone living in the suburbs in the middle of winter even care about waiting for the bus outside then arriving to the LRT station and then walking from the station to the mall? The City is going to have to start forcing taste on to people by making them live in the inner city to help create it a dense vibrant place, once that is achieved, people will automatically prefer living where theres a vibe like central London for example.
Click to expand...

I think Calgary is going to reach a critical point in the not too distant future where our outward growth will start to cause major infrastructure issues. Crowchild is a good example of the kind of work that needs to be done when adding onto the demand at the end of the line overwhelms the existing infrastructure. Not sure what the solution will be, but once people start to realize how growth on the fringes of the city is starting to impact their taxes, then perhaps we will start to see change. I think what Calgary will have to do is grow out to it's existing boundaries, then other municipalities will have to take over the suburban growth so we can focus on infrastructure n the existing city limits while other municipalities handle the new infrastructure required for new suburbs. I also think the cost of new schools and fire / police should be added onto the cost of a new home in the burbs, especially when inner city schools are closing and being redeveloped.
 
I agree. Changes are needed for sure. The city has their mind in the right place, and they've done some good things, but obviously not enough. Usually money is the one thing that people respond to.

The city's options are:
1) increase the new development levy some more. I know they increased it from something like 7K to 15K, maybe it needs to be up around 30K?
2) incentives for inner city development, whether, that means a tax break for owners, or a break for the developer, I don't know, but that's a possibility.
3) third possibility would be to change zoning in many areas to allow higher density.

gsunnyg said:
I know im gonna get hate for this like over at the Westbrook forum so take it with a pinch of salt but whatever the city is doing is clearly not working. They need to make radical changes and fast because our property taxes are only going to increase more and create a lifeless city if this nonsense goes on any longer. They should drastically limit greenfield development or even freeze it for a period of time, make detached homes expensive in the process whether through some sort of building fee or even limited supply will be enough to let this happen. I'm sure everyone read the Calgary Harold article so its obvious whatever we're doing is not working. Approving more neighbourhoods is only increasing the problem, @Mountain Man has a point, people will continue buying if they can get affordable large homes in the suburbs, its as simple as that, you give and people take. When I see families I know living in relatively newer communities like Taradale or Martindale, they're now selling their homes and moving even further north to Skyview and Cityscape. These were the same families i knew hat moved up from Whitehorn to Rundle. Most places in the city of Calgary don't need an LRT line for automobile enthusiasts, I can only think of hospitals, Universities and the Core as places where people almost absolutely require the LRT to reach daily. Most other individuals are working in areas that can allow you to get in your car and jump on the nearest freeway and arrive without worrying about any parking fees. Building around LRT's is definitely a great start but how many of these families living in the suburbs with 3 cars parked up on their driveway even care? Malls are good example of where there's almost no need for using transit unless u don't have a car because theres no parking fees, why would someone living in the suburbs in the middle of winter even care about waiting for the bus outside then arriving to the LRT station and then walking from the station to the mall? The City is going to have to start forcing taste on to people by making them live in the inner city to help create it a dense vibrant place, once that is achieved, people will automatically prefer living where theres a vibe like central London for example.
Click to expand...
 
UrbanWarrior said:
I have a hunch that Barron is one of the several office buildings currently being considered for conversion to residential :) Obviously don't quote me on that, just a hunch, but I think people would kill to live there, especially being on Stephen Ave.
Click to expand...

It is. I reported on that in the Office Conversion thread. It is one of (3) buildings that Strategic Group are going to convert to residential.
 
 
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