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I'm currently out east, and I've been getting a bunch of targeted ads, lately for Sovereign, Broward, and various other smaller projects in the burbs, touting how great of an investment they are. I requested the info package for Broward recently as I was curious, and it looks to be at least 30-40% sold already. I haven't looked into sovereign much but I noticed the starting price on the recent ad I saw was lower than before, so could be at risk still.
 
The incentive for PSE has to be quite large. Funding for the building and operations. They have a big budget so people think they’re ‘rich’ somehow but they don’t have uncommitted cash flow.

The scale is a problem. You need to grow or move at scale for it to make sense. Like a self contained program or faculty that doesn’t really interact with the rest of the university much. And one that doesn’t need super specialized facilities.
 
I hope we see a boat load of five/ones pop up if we get a building boom. Time to re-introduce a recent question. Which major project will be the next to break ground? As far as I know there are only a few that were rumored as possibly close, due to permit action etc.. West Village Tower III, Sovereign, and Gallery First and Tenth.
What is a “five/ones”?
 
With all the office-to-other-use conversions going on/being planned downtown, I wonder if the University of Arts has thought of ditching their SAIT digs and moving downtown. I’m sure one of those office buildings would make a great campus, including a residence!
 
Was at Backlot last night. Hit on the bartender, gave him my number, dude is friggin straight ☠️ 🤣

Honestly though, it will be such a shame to lose Backlot. I worry about their ability to reopen as I imagine their rent is quite low given that the building is ancient and kinda rickety.
 
Since I started this conversation, I'll elaborate on what a 5 over 1 is:

A 5 over 1 is typically a residential mid-rise consisting of a single 1-storey concrete podium with 4, 5, or 6 wood-framed storeys above.
They have popped up all over our North American cities and contribute to American and Canadian cities all looking the same.
They are the result of poor zoning policies; widely adopted building codes, fire codes, regulations, bylaws, and a single loophole that was able to be exploited all over North America due to the said widely adopted building codes.
5 over 1's have become another conversation starter for standardization and globalization across our cities.
Standardization of infrastructure is necessary to an extent such as when it comes to utilities. However, it has trickled to the surface as it is inexpensive and lazy to reuse the same design over and over again with minor changes. The problem began when towns and cities all adopted the same building codes as it is costly and time-consuming to write them from scratch.
Again, standardization of our surface facilities is in large part due to costs, however it is also partly contributed to a rapid increase in population and the rise in globalization. Canada can be used as a prime example of the consequences of this.


Another example is if you look at our shit grade schools they're building now. They're cheap, simple, and easy to build. But why have we settled for this crap? Well, because our population is growing at an unsustainable rate. To add to this poor design, the developers have been constructing portable classrooms to these schools BEFORE they're finished constructing the initial building!
1676844555207.png


Anyway. 5 over 1's are bland, boring, and they get environmentalists, politicians, and the unworldly clapping like seals.

Do we want every city or even every country looking the same? Do we want cheap, boring infrastructure with 0 character? Do we want quantity over quality?
I personally do not want to live in a world where traveling and tourism becomes obsolete due to everything and every society looking and functioning the same way. I resent globalization and policy adoption to a large extent as I believe it destroys diversity rather than encouraging or producing it.


 
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Was at Backlot last night. Hit on the bartender, gave him my number, dude is friggin straight ☠️ 🤣

Honestly though, it will be such a shame to lose Backlot. I worry about their ability to reopen as I imagine their rent is quite low given that the building is ancient and kinda rickety.
Since I moved away from downtown to Airdrie, I haven’t been to Backlot, but I am sad to hear of its impending closure.
 
With all the office-to-other-use conversions going on/being planned downtown, I wonder if the University of Arts has thought of ditching their SAIT digs and moving downtown. I’m sure one of those office buildings would make a great campus, including a residence!
If someone was willing to pay for their building I’m sure they’d move.
 
Since I started this conversation, I'll elaborate on what a 5 over 1 is:

A 5 over 1 is typically a residential mid-rise consisting of a single 1-storey concrete podium with 4, 5, or 6 wood-framed storeys above.
They have popped up all over our North American cities and contribute to American and Canadian cities all looking the same.
They are the result of poor zoning policies; widely adopted building codes, fire codes, regulations, bylaws, and a single loophole that was able to be exploited all over North America due to the said widely adopted building codes.
5 over 1's have become another conversation starter for standardization and globalization across our cities.
Standardization of infrastructure is necessary to an extent such as when it comes to utilities. However, it has trickled to the surface as it is inexpensive and lazy to reuse the same design over and over again with minor changes. The problem began when towns and cities all adopted the same building codes as it is costly and time-consuming to write them from scratch.
Again, standardization of our surface facilities is in large part due to costs, however it is also partly contributed to a rapid increase in population and the rise in globalization. Canada can be used as a prime example of the consequences of this.


Another example is if you look at our shit grade schools they're building now. They're cheap, simple, and easy to build. But why have we settled for this crap? Well, because our population is growing at an unsustainable rate. To add to this poor design, the developers have been constructing portable classrooms to these schools BEFORE they're finished constructing the initial building!
View attachment 457432

Anyway. 5 over 1's are bland, boring, and they get environmentalists, politicians, and the unworldly clapping like seals.

Do we want every city or even every country looking the same? Do we want cheap, boring infrastructure with 0 character? Do we want quantity over quality?
I personally do not want to live in a world where traveling and tourism becomes obsolete due to everything and every society looking and functioning the same way. I resent globalization and policy adoption to a large extent as I believe it destroys diversity rather than encouraging or producing it.


Damn mass produced buildings! Everything looks the same!

nyc.png
 
Since I started this conversation, I'll elaborate on what a 5 over 1 is:

A 5 over 1 is typically a residential mid-rise consisting of a single 1-storey concrete podium with 4, 5, or 6 wood-framed storeys above.
They have popped up all over our North American cities and contribute to American and Canadian cities all looking the same.
They are the result of poor zoning policies; widely adopted building codes, fire codes, regulations, bylaws, and a single loophole that was able to be exploited all over North America due to the said widely adopted building codes.
5 over 1's have become another conversation starter for standardization and globalization across our cities.
Standardization of infrastructure is necessary to an extent such as when it comes to utilities. However, it has trickled to the surface as it is inexpensive and lazy to reuse the same design over and over again with minor changes. The problem began when towns and cities all adopted the same building codes as it is costly and time-consuming to write them from scratch.
Again, standardization of our surface facilities is in large part due to costs, however it is also partly contributed to a rapid increase in population and the rise in globalization. Canada can be used as a prime example of the consequences of this.


Another example is if you look at our shit grade schools they're building now. They're cheap, simple, and easy to build. But why have we settled for this crap? Well, because our population is growing at an unsustainable rate. To add to this poor design, the developers have been constructing portable classrooms to these schools BEFORE they're finished constructing the initial building!
View attachment 457432

Anyway. 5 over 1's are bland, boring, and they get environmentalists, politicians, and the unworldly clapping like seals.

Do we want every city or even every country looking the same? Do we want cheap, boring infrastructure with 0 character? Do we want quantity over quality?
I personally do not want to live in a world where traveling and tourism becomes obsolete due to everything and every society looking and functioning the same way. I resent globalization and policy adoption to a large extent as I believe it destroys diversity rather than encouraging or producing it.


I’ll agree that 5/1’s are generally boring, but what reasonably affordable housing isn’t these days? Are high rises or single family homes any less boring?
I like the 5/1 and would be okay with more of them. The large 5/1s in the burbs that take up a whole block are not as nice, but they do a job. I’d rather have numerous 5/1s than a sea of high rises of endless burbs of single family homes.
I would much rather have a lots of Catalysts , Marda’s and 19+2s than towers on the park.
 
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Anyway. 5 over 1's are bland, boring, and they get environmentalists, politicians, and the unworldly clapping like seals.

Do we want every city or even every country looking the same? Do we want cheap, boring infrastructure with 0 character? Do we want quantity over quality?
I personally do not want to live in a world where traveling and tourism becomes obsolete due to everything and every society looking and functioning the same way. I resent globalization and policy adoption to a large extent as I believe it destroys diversity rather than encouraging or producing it.
Our cities already look the same, and always have, at least if you compare by similar eras, and to to be honest it's pretty much the same around the world. Cities in a given country generally look the same as other cities in a given country or region. Will the current 5/1 designs make all cities around the world look the same? Probably not, they might look more similar to what we've had in the past, but each country tends to have different typical materials. 5/1s have been in use for centuries, Places like Middle east and Europe have had the model for centuries.

Some 5/1s are better than others. The ones shown in the videos are boring, especially the ones in the U.S. where they build them in large blocks, but for the most part the ones here are better. We have seen some decent variance when comparing projects like, The Fifth, 19+2, Marda, Montgomery Square, CY33, August etc.. None of them are architectural prizes, but they do the job. University Ave is a good example of that. It's going to be a good solid avenue built on 5/1s.

Unfortunately you are probably right about someday travelling the world and everything looking the same. We're already at that stage with new buildings, especially high-rises. It's the same thing with fashion. I remember traveling countries 30 years ago, and the fashion would be different in every country you went to. These days it's the same most places. With globalization, that's the trend.
 
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