The Shift | 113.08m | 38s | Edgar | MCM Partnership

[northlands]

Considering this is a website called 'Skyrise Edmonton', it may be understandable why folks are disappointed about another stick six vs a highrise like originally proposed.

That said, I agree it's a tad early to judge design and personally I'll take this project every day of the week to fill up those lots. I'm fully onboard with the plan to just get reasonably decent looking multi-fam built around Odaymin Park, because otherwise I don't think I'll ever see anything of interest built in the next few decades, as what happened the preceding decades.

 

[ChazYEG]

This reminds me of a thousand good buildings I see walking around residential Berlin or Vienna outside of their historical cores. This scale of development does not disappoint me.

Agreed 100%. I'll take another 20 of these between 108 and 105 streets, both south and north of Jasper Ave. Would do WONDERS for the feel of downtown, and make Edmonton somewhat unique as far as North American cities go, which would be neat.

 

[David A]

Agreed 100%. I'll take another 20 of these between 108 and 105 streets, both south and north of Jasper Ave. Would do WONDERS for the feel of downtown, and make Edmonton somewhat unique as far as North American cities go, which would be neat.

Yes, filling some of the remaining empty lots would help improve the feel as well as adding people. People living in buildings that are not as tall might actually become more connected to the area they live in, rather than just going from their unit to the parkade like in some high rises who often drive to retail and other things further away.

I don't know it would make us so unique, other cities have buildings this size in their downtowns, although they are often warehouse lofts or other older buildings. I also feel certain Canadian cities (two in particular) have overdone residential high rises downtown. I'm not so sure if that is always a good thing, if your view is just of another high rise across the street.

 

[ChazYEG]

I don't know it would make us so unique, other cities have buildings this size in their downtowns

Many cities do have buildings of this scale in their downtowns, but if we did get a significant amount of them, making for several contiguous complete blocks of 6-8 story buildings, say, for example, the whole area between 105 and 108 streets, from 98 to 104 Ave (roughly 20 blocks, not counting parks and public buildings), it would be fairly unique in the North American context, especially for a city of Edmonton's size.

 

[Tropical]

Agreed 100%. I'll take another 20 of these between 108 and 105 streets, both south and north of Jasper Ave. Would do WONDERS for the feel of downtown, and make Edmonton somewhat unique as far as North American cities go, which would be neat.

I'll add that central Victoria is almost solely this scale and Albertans seem obsessed with it.

 

[David A]

I don't believe it will end up being that big an area of contiguous buildings of this height, but I suppose we will see. While there are a number of lots in this area, it is also interspersed already some existing mostly taller residential and commercial buildings.

Also, I believe once some of this space is filled, the value of the remaining land will go up so some will be kept for building taller buildings. Perhaps the incentives for student and attainable housing have led to more buildings this size happening right now in the current economic environment than would otherwise be the case.

 

[constance_chlore]

This reminds me of a thousand good buildings I see walking around residential Berlin or Vienna outside of their historical cores. This scale of development does not disappoint me.

Yeah, the big central European cities are a good reference point. I'm not sure why people here put down buildings as being boxy, but Germans have never been afraid of a good, wholesome box (except I guess the Nazis?). Likewise, Mercury Block/Cobalt wouldn't look at all out of place in Berlin.

The concerns about whether we'd be getting enough bang for our buck seem fair, though.

 

[David A]

I'll add that central Victoria is almost solely this scale and Albertans seem obsessed with it.

If there were a competitive landscaping event, Victorians would win a gold medal! This can make even fairly plain buildings look much better.

Of course, the climate there makes it easier, but we could learn something from them on how to make our surroundings more attractive.

 

[Agard]

These ugly 6 storey buildings are being justified by "well Europe has some buildings like this, and people love to visit Europe", but nobody is going to Europe to visit the suburbs full of these buildings.

 

[Garceyues]

These ugly 6 storey buildings are being justified by "well Europe has some buildings like this, and people love to visit Europe", but nobody is going to Europe to visit the suburbs full of these

I would argue that Europe has way more diffuse and relatively uniform density. It’s not like people aren’t walking by dense buildings in any part of most European cities. Part of the problem IMO is that even in our urban core which has not subject to the same sort of zoning that residential neighbourhoods have historically been, we still struggle to build true density in one of our few areas in the city where density is full embraced. Yes, there has been some transit oriented developed and an easing of zoning with infills which has helped, but frankly the comparisons to Europe are lost on me. European cities have density throughout; 6 story buildings in a North American downtown are a different matter.

If we struggle to get anything more than 6 story (often wood frame) buildings going in our core, that’s a big problem. Of course, 6 story buildings and high rises are not mutually exclusive, but Calgary as a downtown has way more momentum than ours between new builds ranging from 6 stories to 30+, a host of office conversions, and even some non-market new affordable housing through AHC. In my humble opinion, that provides a range of solid options across building types and price points. Some more large building in our DT would help to proportionally drive more foot in the downtown area which is desperately needed.

 

[constance_chlore]

These ugly 6 storey buildings are being justified by "well Europe has some buildings like this, and people love to visit Europe", but nobody is going to Europe to visit the suburbs full of these buildings.

Well no, let's be clear:

• People almost never go anywhere to see the regular residential architecture where most people live. They go for the history, culture, and events. Certain kinds of housing policy can promote those things while others hinder them.
• Again, this building doesn't exist yet and it could turn out much worse than what we see. However, if it turns out like the renders, it's easy enough to imagine it fitting into the 'nice' parts of many of these cities, not the forgotten suburbs.
• To be clear, that's not true of the Westrich projects around here, most of look like very distinctly North American five-over-ones. This isn't inherently good or bad, but the Westrich projects remind me more of what you'd see e.g. in suburbs or college towns than nice, desirable city centers. I find the weird patches of various materials to really detract from the urban feeling a lot.
• This is not to deny that improvements could be made to this project—Juliet balconies seem like a no-brainer. And the choice of cladding material (which we can't really tell from the renders) might be make-or-break.

 

[David A]

I agree we can debate the design quality of some of these buildings, there is room for improvement and they may turn out better or worse than proposed.

As for Europe, people don't go to Paris to see random nice apartment buildings, they go to see things like the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, or to see Buckingham Palace in London.

However, lets not forget putting 6 or 7 storey buildings on long empty lots, or lots with much smaller buildings, is increasing density meaningfully and it is not like there are no other lots remaining downtown to build taller buildings in the future when the economic environment and market is ready again for that.

 

[inclusion]

Would be nice to see some differentiation at podium level or even the first two floors to be brick instead of taking the white colour all the way down. In an ideal world, we get that AI creation from last page but I would take a half way change.

 

[Yeggy]

I agree we can debate the design quality of some of these buildings, there is room for improvement and they may turn out better or worse than proposed.

As for Europe, people don't go to Paris to see random nice apartment buildings, they go to see things like the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, or to see Buckingham Palace in London.

However, lets not forget putting 6 or 7 storey buildings on long empty lots, or lots with much smaller buildings, is increasing density meaningfully and it is not like there are no other lots remaining downtown to build taller buildings in the future when the economic environment and market is ready again for that.

As someone who is going to Paris in a month for the second time, I assure you I have no want to go see the any of the things you listed. Its a very superficial list of things to do in Paris.

Most people go for the shopping , food and culture. Many of the things you listed are a one and done.

 

[TAS]

As someone who is going to Paris in a month for the second time, I assure you I have no want to go see the any of the things you listed. Its a very superficial list of things to do in Paris.

Most people go for the shopping , food and culture. Many of the things you listed are a one and done.

I think a lot of it is also the street life, vibrancy, walkability, culture, architecture overall - and of course the endless cafes and bakeries.