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Edmonton Future Skylines

Revised to add Edmonton Motors proposal

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It's just so amazing how fast Edmonton has changed and progress even since 2010!:)

I think as soon as 2020 hits, I'm gonna take some photos of the city at the exact same angles as some photos taken in 2010 just to measure the changed that has happened in just one decade.
 
Today, the demand for core housing is slightly ahead of the suburbs for the first time ever. As downtown becomes more interesting and imminently livable, the demand will keep rising. I expect that all of these proposed buildings will get built within the next five years (mostly) to ten years. And that is not the end of the road. More proposals and better architecture are coming -- the bar will continue to rise. It is up to Edmontonians to call out poor design. The Bonnie Doon concept is one of the best that I have ever seen from a planning perspective -- hitting all the right notes in exactly the right measure -- hopefully, the architecture will keep pace with the planning. I would like to see something novel and creative happen in the Northlands/Alberta Avenue area -- not the pap that City planners are driving. Old Strathcona is filling out nicely thanks in large part to Beljan's efforts and noted sensibilities. I would like to see 124th street congeal into a dominant, pedestrian-oriented street and I would like to see the river valley activated to an extent much larger than woodland jogging/biking trails -- I am thinking river conveyances (year-round) and elevated "sky-tram". I would like to see the ERRS extend service north and south -- north to GMU and east and west along 105th avenue ('twould animate the entire area north of downtown, certainly to 107th avenue) and then curl south at the east end into both the "arts" district and into the Quarters. Single-mindedness vis-a-vis LRT as the ONLY alternative form of alternative transit IMO is wrong-headed. LRT is fine, but other forms are necessary to add this near-undefinable term -- CHARACTER -- to the City-scape. I would like to see West Rossdale built out as a world-class Indigenous Peoples Experience with other amenities such as vertical plant farms and an Arctic-themed aquarium. There are several building projects that I am REALLY looking forward to -- Winspear Centre completion project, Encore Condo, 101-102 Mixed Use Tower, Mackenzie Mixed Use Tower, JW Marriott and Legends Tower, The View Condo, the Brighton Block, the Shift Condo, the Wedge, West Block, Dominion Hotel upgrade, 9955 Jasper Avenue Condo, Milner Library, Symphony Condo, GMU SAMU, EPL Capilano, Clifton Place, The Quarters Hotel and Residences, CNIB tower, Roxy Theatre, the Ledge, Strathearn Heights redevelopment, and the Bonnie Doon redevelopment. That's 23 projects in total that will help steer Edmonton to a better place (some multi-faceted). The rest are "meh" or worse.
 
@archited could not agree more with your statement. I love projects like the River Valley Sea Wall, the river valley Gondola, and the proposed dam out by Genesee. These really secure our river valley for many years to come as a place for activity, celebration, and a little bit of development, of course!;)

By the way, where did you hear about the demand change? I would really like to know.
 
@Platinum107 I don't recall where I read the shift in demand data. There are two population study/monitoring reports though that are worth reading (even considering that they are dated by two years -- growth in Edmonton is very fast and reports lose relevance just as quickly). They are: 1. 5.0 City of Edmonton Growth Study (city of edmonton growth statistics) and 2. Annual Growth Monitoring Report 2017 (https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/documents/PDF/GrowthMonitoringReport2017.pdf). You will see in reading these reports that Edmonton expects to have (on the conservative side) an additional 150,000 new housing units by 2040, some 21 years distant. Now if only half of those are comprised of non-single family housing units (detached, semi-detached and row housing all qualify as single-family) and the data trends suggest that at least 60% will be apartment and condominium housing units, then we are looking at a minimum of 75,000 densified units or 3,750 units per year. If half of those are core area high-rise, then an average of 1,875 units will be required every year. For graphic purposes the 43-storey Encore building now under construction will have 180 units; in order to just meet average demand, Edmonton would have to see 11 of that size building erected every year for the next twenty years -- or 220 high rise residential buildings over that time frame. Also Edmonton is lagging dramatically in hotel rooms (hence the emphasis on mixed use units in that genre and that is why we are seeing hotel components in downtown residential buildings -- J.W. Marriott, Alt-plus, and proposals for the Quarters Residences and Hotel (Alldritt Land Corp.), and 101-102 (the new BoM site -- hey that's a better name than 101-102 -- they could advertise that this new development is the BoM!).
I have two high-rise projects myself in the planning stages for downtown Edmonton, so I have a specific need to stay tuned to these stats. One is an hotel and the other is a specific form of residence -- both have nothing to do with current demand trends; both are 33-storeys. I also have projects in the greater Edmonton metropolitan area with another hotel (of the boutique variety) and specialized housing, specialized retail, and specialized hospitality. Details on these projects will be divulged when I open my Edmonton office next spring. The point here is that I have specific knowledge regarding Edmonton's planned growth.
 
@archited Amazing! I am very excited to hear/see what you have in store, Ted!

Edit: By my calculations, both of your towers will be about the same height as the Pearl, or around that height:)
 
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Also, on a kind-of unrelated topic, I just wanted to quickly mention how thankful I am that everybody on this forum is so welcoming and supporting of each others ideas.

Along with this forum, I also follow connect2Edmonton, and there you will have pages upon PAGES of people arguing about how their opinion is right and calling each other senseless names. I mean, I was just viewing the Emerald Tower thread and no joke there is 3 pages worth of people arguing about how the think Regency sucks or doesn't and how the Pearl is bad/tasteless or isn't, and this is just one example of this happening.

In the end, I just wanna say thank you to all of you for staying on topic and truly making a place where people can say their piece on how much they like a development or how they think it could be changed for the better (with a little bit of sarcasm and humour for good measure, of course ;)).

To many more Opportunities and Proposals, Ladies and Gentlemen!:D
 
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