Manchester Square | ?m | 2s | 76 Group Co | Gardner Architecture

What do you think of this project?

  • Total voters
    51
It seems to have been a very thoughtful approach, which perhaps you are more likely to get with local people leading the the development.

It is also nice how it seems to have an interesting variety of unique and local retail and not so much the usual chains.
 
David A said:
On a list of crappy things, there are probably many more here that should be mocked before this.
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On the list of crappy car-centric developments, Manchester Square doesn't even make the list. We have dozens of power centers and warehouse box retail environments that are leagues worse. Every Costco is an abomination, let's go after those.
 
Yeah. It’s mostly the faux try hard that attracts the criticism. No one mocks a strip mall for being a crappy strip mall.

But create a movie set with a name that literally doesn’t even match the fake architecture you try to represent, mixed with a massive parking lot that can only be described as ironic contrasted with the design inspo. It’s just a bad look overall.
 
But to give credit where it is due, at least the parking lot space gets activated for different events - markets and most recently Oilers watch parties where hundreds of people were at the last game. It's become a valuable community hub in some ways.
Can't say that about many strip malls.

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thommyjo said:
This got roasted once again in not just bikes’ latest video.

Glad Edmonton has created another reason for our city to be mocked globally for our crappy urbanism 🙃
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Saw the video. It was a lazy drive-by, and I'd like to think that a regular poster here would have sufficient context to recognize that.
 
Whattagame said:
Saw the video. It was a lazy drive-by, and I'd like to think that a regular poster here would have sufficient context to recognize that.
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Im not fully agreeing with NJBs, he’s pretty condescending towards all things Edmonton. But it just sucks to get a shoutout on such a well known channel in a mocking way. I get the context and that it’s an improvement. It truly is. It’s also still fake copycat architecture that gets mocked when others do it too (see all the silly Chinese cities…)

This development is certainly good art. Gets people talking haha. Add it to our Edmonton list of talus domes and bibliotanks for polarizing structures.
 
_urbanite said:
We'd all be better off by not giving a crap about what YouTubers or influencers think about our city and it's buildings
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Why is that? Shouldn’t we be open to feedback, learning from others’ perspectives, and desiring to make a good impression on visitors?

This mindset doesn’t lead to building a great city.
 
Edmonton's had a lot of good national and international promotion from these youtube urbanists and I welcome them here.

Explore Edmonton is responsible in part for helping to brand and promote our city and even make promo videos - they are good but don't have nearly the number of views that channels such as Shifter, Oh the Urbanity, RMTransit and CityNerd have. Edmonton has been shown to be a leader in some regards (zoning) and that's good.

Some beautiful footage of the city is often captured, too. Sure there will be some negative comments here and there, we have our issues as we know, but Edmonton benefits from these videos.
 
There are replicas from elsewhere transplanted throughout the world, such as a lot of the classical architecture in places like New York, London or Washington.

And don't get me started on all the California style buildings in many other places including here. Yes, this stands out more, but someone made an effort to make something different and interesting in our city.

I don't feel newer cities like ours need to limit themselves to a limited number of modern styles, but can embrace a whole range of things. It actually seems to be quite successful and liked by many here as unique and different, although of course I realize there are critics too.
 
I just don't get the hate for this. An existing (and very ugly/ utilitarian) warehouse structure has been significantly redone. Quality materials are used, a lot of thought went in to the project. Sure, we can lament the name. And while the look may be a replica, I would rather have this compared to generic strip mall beige stucco and faux stone.

The urban elite attitude in this city is mind-boggling. The same people who throw shade on this seem to think the DT library facade is excellent and defend that (only because a progressive-leaning council was behind it).
 
Don't rightly know of anyone who loves the bibliotank. At best, most people seem to tolerate it. And last I checked, my like or dislike of a piece of architecture is usually based on esthetics or functionality, not the political leanings of the council behind it 🙄
 
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