Seamusmuldrew
Active Member
Insti-ghetto? Jesus, it’ll be fine. We can already see just next door that the final product will be nothing spectacular, but nothing to act this way about either.
Century Gardens at Century Park | ?m | 7s | ProCura Real Estate | Gardner Architecture
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MacLac
Senior Member
She’s a big gal!
Edmcowboy11
Senior Member
This is great to see. East side of the site is now complete, now time to fill the south empty lot and maybe a lot on the west side.
whattheheck
Active Member
Why does it look like a building one would see in Pyongyang? Developers keep building crap and the 'urban' city hall continues to green light all of it. SMH
MacLac
Senior Member
Phase 3 of Century Gardens is supposed to start in Q2 of 2026 - in the lot just west of these first 2 Gardens buildings PLUS whatever is happening with the "Times Square" building, hopefully sorts itself out next year as well.
constance_chlore
Active Member
Gonna keep being a maverick and say that I still think the building looks decent. If there's something wrong with that picture, it's not the building but what's around it (the wide road and the parking lots). With some nice landscaping, this area could be really beautiful.
archited
Senior Member
^ At a minimum this building is not pretentious like so much else getting thrown together today. It is an honest expression of design and insofar as it is composed of pre-built panels & structural elements it was assembled in a significantly short time-frame adding value to the end result. I agree with you -- "the building looks decent". It would now be ideal to see it complemented with some exceptional landscaping.
ntt1
Active Member
109 St between 19 and 29 Ave can definitely do with some traffic calming. It's a well-known shortcut to avoid 111 St with people driving waay too fast for the amount of pedestrians, parked cars and fields nearby.
whattheheck
Active Member
wow. the acceptance of 'crap architecture' seems to be the most Edmonton thing you can do. Truly unbelievable. And quite sad.
constance_chlore
Active Member
Can you articulate what exactly is 'crap' about it? Because it sounds like the worst thing anyone can come up with is 'it looks like a communist housing block.' Which, like, tons of people still live in those and lots of them like it a lot!
Agard
New Member
Tons of people can live in ugly buildings!
Agard
New Member
^ and to clarify: I don't think this is nearly as ugly as soviet Brezhnevkas, but it's a pretty meh design
_urbanite
Senior Member
I've actually been inside some true commie blocks (Romania), and honestly, they're actually fairly well built with good floorplans. Many have been well maintained and have been extensively renovated to modern standards inside and out.
constance_chlore
Active Member
Same, I've visited friends in Swiss prefab housing blocks (not communist, of course, but public/coop housing) and German plattenbauten. Those ones were super functional and lovely.
Of course some of them are worse than others, as with anything. But people love to take grim pictures of decaying concrete buildings beneath a gray sky, as if that's all they are or ever could be. When you have one that's well-maintained and has a thriving community, it can be a thing of beauty. Especially if the residents keep gardens on their balcony or if there are garden plots (or a little parklet) outside. Something about the lush vegetation + the concrete is just stunning. (I think that's part of the appeal of Habitat 67, too.)
David A
Senior Member
I do agree we built a lot of stuff here that is not great and years after our former mayor called this out, while it has improved some I feel we need still work on improving this.
However, I feel we need to focus that improvement on areas that are more central and prominent than this. Century Park is a nice TOD development overall with a variety of buildings, some nicer than others, but this works for this location.