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So just was thinking about this. When this building gets built, would it be good to keep the road between the Norquest buildings open or would it be better to close the road for that one Block?
There is a plan to make the two northernmost blocks of Capital Boulevard a kind of "festival street" whereby it would be closed for particular events. I suspect that that might lead to an effort to make it more of pedestrian street.
 
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So just was thinking about this. When this building gets built, would it be good to keep the road between the Norquest buildings open or would it be better to close the road for that one Block?
Good question Paul, I totally "get" what you're asking - legitimate question and would make sense if they did!
 
Reading through the recent post activity on this thread makes me want to encourage all posters to manage their expectations about this project.

The investment you've seen from the gov is a $4M planning grant to define the building. NorQuest College has two RFPs on the market right now related to this project. One is for a Prime Consultant. The other is for Project Management services. That ought to let you know where the project is concerning the design. If anyone other than the firm that prepped the conceptual renderings gets the gig, you can be certain that the design will change. In my 30+ career in this industry, I've yet to see a firm take over from another and say, "Yep - we're going to continue with that exact design! " -- Every firm will want to make this building their design, as they should.
 
Reading through the recent post activity on this thread makes me want to encourage all posters to manage their expectations about this project.

The investment you've seen from the gov is a $4M planning grant to define the building. NorQuest College has two RFPs on the market right now related to this project. One is for a Prime Consultant. The other is for Project Management services. That ought to let you know where the project is concerning the design. If anyone other than the firm that prepped the conceptual renderings gets the gig, you can be certain that the design will change. In my 30+ career in this industry, I've yet to see a firm take over from another and say, "Yep - we're going to continue with that exact design! " -- Every firm will want to make this building their design, as they should.

Agreed 100%. Truer words haven't been spoken.

I will say though, there are some exceptions in special cases. P3's, for example - usually the bridging architect will design the building or infrastructure (usually before the P3 is released through a separate contract); and then the architect that is part of the P3 consortium will carry the design anywhere between 80-100% of the original bridging concept. But you're right - extremely rarely will that ever be 100%; there's usually minor tinkering at a base minimum. At a maximum there could be noticeable changes to the concept - but not a complete re-do.
 
If anyone other than the firm that prepped the conceptual renderings gets the gig,
Except in this case, GEC did far more than prep the conceptual renderings didn't they. Going from past experience, the Provincial government is obligated to throw open the bidding process by law, but the likelihood of another consultant "winning" the contract other than GEC is, I suspect, very small.
 
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What could have been...

View attachment 663456

This is an early "artist's concept" for a project that NorQuest pursued for many years and ultimately (and obviously) did not proceed and is irrelevant to this thread (that was a completely different project). The Career Skills Centre is going to be a project that will appropriately fit the City's vision for Capital Blvd. It's important to NorQuest to add value to the west part of the downtown core area and be a catalyst for downtown revitalization efforts.
 
Interesting. I thought they were just going to throw down some grass, add a bench or two and call it a day. I"m curious to see how this turns out and who/how it's used (by) when it's done. Not exactly an ideal location for a park when you have to cross a street, parking lot, and alley to access it from Norquest, but it is so much better than just more parking.
 

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