What do you think of this project?

  • Total voters
    101
Well @Jack Harris there is the 6-storey apartment project on the west side of 108th street and just north of the Parks site that will start soon and of course Phase II of the Parks project that will likely begin when the current building begins to lease up and now that the Warehouse District Park is actually beginning work. The property on the East side at the North end of the block is also for sale so something might get green-lighted there. Back on the West side of 108th and just north of 102nd Avenue, Norquest is planning a major new building that is supposed to be ready for occupancy by 2030 which, if that holds true, will have to begin the final design process soon.
 
Poor quality screenshot of a video my friend posted who lives at the Hendrix. Cool to see how massive the parks feels from this angle.

18497EE0-46E4-467C-AD93-A3C05F51D78D.png
 
I think the past relatively low height of our downtown buildings was taken by some who didn't know better (mostly people who didn't live here) as some sort of economic statement, when in fact it was a constraint imposed on us.
 
Did the airport overlay have that much of an impact on commercial high rise development? I say this as, 25 years ago, I don't think there were even ten, 40 storey residential towers in all of Canada and only a small fraction of all the 30 storey towers completed today. Height records for residential have been broken over and over all over the nation since the turn of the century. It's impact on skylines is that they aren't held up as economic prowess anymore but, as diminishing home ownership affordability,
 
In this part of Downtown, the airport overlay restricted height. You can see this in the WSP and surrounding buildings. It is only being changed now, like the proposed height change in CMU going to Council August 19, and in projects like this (DC2).

Height is usually a factor of overall market demand and construction costs. Someone else can maybe comment on this.
 
I don't understand all the details and this is all history now anyways, but in some areas the height was more restricted than others. So I believe in this area it was no where near 40 stories, I think the limit was actually under 15.

I also believe the Stantec and JW buildings are above the previous restriction for that area, which was around mid 30 stories. So Edmonton couldn't really have much over 40 for decades whereas other cities could.
 
maestro said:
Did the airport overlay have that much of an impact on commercial high rise development? I say this as, 25 years ago, I don't think there were even ten, 40 storey residential towers in all of Canada and only a small fraction of all the 30 storey towers completed today. Height records for residential have been broken over and over all over the nation since the turn of the century. It's impact on skylines is that they aren't held up as economic prowess anymore but, as diminishing home ownership affordability,
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Your comments sound so revisionist to me. This building on 106 street is the absolute maximum height allowed under the restrictions of the old overlay. In fact the elevator does not go to the top floor otherwise it would have violated those restrictions. Notice also the low ceiling of the ground floor where normally an office would have vaulted ceilings. There other examples of the height restrictions in that area dictating unusual building design.
IMG_0464.png
 
BrettB said:
These three shots show me the long-lasting the effect of the municipal airport overlay in restricting building height. Slowly, that effect is disappearing.
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Honestly, even if it was artificially imposed I don't mind the uniform height of the buildings in Government Centre. Kinda gives me a Washington DC vibe.
 
Just as an FYI, one of the runways for the municipal airport almost lined up perfectly with 109 Street, which is why historically 109 is where the buildings where the shortest and then they taper up from there east and west. This was regulated by NavCan.
 
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