Forest Garden | 53.95m | 16s | GMH Architects

What do you think of this project?

  • I like it a lot

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I like it

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    8
As Eddie Keen (630 CHED, for those with a distance-spanning memory) used to say "el toro pooh-pooh" in reference to mindless statements -- this applies to our friends at GMH for stating that cheap design is "good enough" for Edmonton. I think, rather, that the designs from GMH are about the best that they can do. They really should be trying to "up their game" instead of excusing poor design as an Edmonton-borne-symptom. Show us something GMH and stop excusing yourself from a class that you are having difficulty fitting into!
 
@archited I've never been impressed with GMH in any capacity, and having heard their principal speak against good urban design and how doing it on the cheap is good enough for Edmonton, well,..
Reminds me of the restaurant owners that called the guy that left a bad review of their establishments a bad Edmontonian. If anything, poor reviews enable you as a business to improve. Instead, they attacked the poor guy on social media and said that isn't how things are done in Edmonton. I like our city, but the attitudes that I see on so many fronts remind me of why we are still considered small town by many relative to even Calgary. Small steps of course.

While a tangent, I think it relates directly to developers that think they can 'fleece' Edmonton with shoddy design. Kind of like developers that say we have to revert back to stucco instead of glass builds etc to meet the new energy code guidelines.
 
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"Cheap design is good enough for Edmonton." HAHAHAHA- give me a break.
First off, where and when did GMH say this because I would really like to know.
Secondly, if they really did say this, hoooly crap. I'd think that as a developer, the last thing you would want to say is "whatever it's good enough," because then that means that you could have done better and truly given something special to the surrounding community, as opposed to just making suburban stucco density, if ya know what I mean :rolleyes: (and P.S., stucco on buildings really is one of those things that you either got to either do something interesting and innovative with, or just avoid it unless you're a 3 story office building in the industrial district, of course.)
 
This one has been off the radar for so long I forgot about it. Hearing that they aim to start demolition next week - for reals this time? Who knows.

Developer may sell the land instead of developing it. Asking about $10M, which seems a bit high. Apparently this is just a "backup plan" in case he's unable to develop.

Not sure if they got another extension to the sunset clause or what. Either way I don't know what he's doing. It's almost certain he will not pull this off, nor find a buyer for $10M.
 
Does anyone know the current status on this project? I am very opposed to it. It's hideous.. way too tall for the neighbourhood. I notice they are selling it on real estate sites already??
Is there any way to stop this from going ahead? I thought that they didn't tear down the old structure in time to be allowed to go through with it...
 
@ForestHeightsResident Welcome to the forum!

There's not a lot that can be done at this point as the zoning is already in place now for that proposal or something similar, though I think if they fail to complete demolition of the Patricia soon, it reverts to something much less dense and tall.

I'm not sure if it will go ahead in its current form or not but I definitely doubt the current owners' capacity to build this project, and the listing is basically his backup plan.

It's not a great project, but it is better than where it started and I think you can thank your community league and the Greater Hardisty Sustainability Coalition for that. If you want to be more involved in civics matters in your area, they would be good places to start as they are highly engaged and knowledgable groups.
 

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