Station Park | 18, 28, 36, 40, 50 fl | U/C

[SF22]

Also these renders really show you how ugly the streetscape is here. It's just sidewalks, train tracks, a road, a bridge and a bunch of poles and wires. Now I guess a giant blank white podium. Would be cool if we could get some nice public art pieces installed under the bridge. Or heck just let people paint graffiti. Place some planters and a couple trash cans there. A water fountain and a couple benches for people using the trail. It needs some colour, life and objects to make it feel like a place a human being should be occupying rather than a transitory non-place.

I think we need more of this scattered throughout the city in general. Things that make people want to stop and linger for a moment instead of just getting through as fast as possible.

(I really would love more fountains. If the little fountain at Charles/Gaukel ends up getting scrapped, I vote we replace it with a big round fountain like the Bethesda in Central Park somewhere along the Gaukel Block)

[tomh009]

I think we need more of this scattered throughout the city in general. Things that make people want to stop and linger for a moment instead of just getting through as fast as possible.

The small park at King/Francis. City Hall courtyard. Gaukel St. Speakers' Corner at King/Benton. The artwork at the corner of Queen/Weber.

More would be welcome but it's not as if there aren't any such small spots.

[Rainrider22]

Great analogy !!!   thanks for your perspective.

That's a good analogy indeed.

For me, it's just the genericism of it. I mean in the context of Waterloo Region it's unique because no building like that exists here. But there are tons of these sort of buildings across the GTA. It becomes particularly noticeable when there are just a handful of large architecture firms that get awarded the contracts to build these. A Kirkor building looks like a Kirkor building the same way we know when SRM was responsible for something. Makes it all kind of same-y.

Not sure if you can view all of these because this site is paywalled though you should be able to at least browse these, just no the catalogue. Here are a couple random of examples I pulled up that I think show what a unique tower can look like.

https://divisare.com/projects/445264-ser...ate-courts - Simple in form, but with unique facade and material elements.
https://divisare.com/projects/399892-lbr...re-reforma - This is amazing...definitely wouldn't work here though haha.
https://divisare.com/projects/387096-b72...orma-itaim - This is where they copied the Charlie West podium from...except they did it correctly so you can actually see it.
https://divisare.com/projects/370665-stu...aqua-tower - The famous Aqua Tower. Since balconies wrapped around the building are currently in (especially in Ontario lately) you may as well use the opportunity to create a unique visual feature with it.
https://divisare.com/projects/73207-herz...t-new-york - Herzog de Meuron going super sci-fi with this one in NYC.

The original proposal for this Station Park skyscraper had unique design elements with the sewed footprint, the randomly staggered balconies, the colours of some aspects of the facade and more. It could have used a bit more tuning I think...if I was the designer, I would have modified the parallelogram footprint of the main tower so that every 10-12 floors they would have a slightly different orientation. It would have stood out a lot more and made you look up. This new proposal you could plop down on any block in downtown or midtown Toronto and not be able to tell it apart from the hundreds of other skyscrapers. We'll forget it's there pretty fast.

Thanks ac3r for providing these examples.  They are all unique and cool in different ways.   And you are right, these buildings in bigger metro areas would be lost in the forest of high-rises.  I work in Mississauga and can advise that the buildings going up in and around SQ1 definitely have more flair and pizzazz.  I think for around here, a tall building is still some what of a novelty for us, so anything bigger and different seems good.

[westwardloo]

That's a good analogy indeed.

For me, it's just the genericism of it. I mean in the context of Waterloo Region it's unique because no building like that exists here. But there are tons of these sort of buildings across the GTA. It becomes particularly noticeable when there are just a handful of large architecture firms that get awarded the contracts to build these. A Kirkor building looks like a Kirkor building the same way we know when SRM was responsible for something. Makes it all kind of same-y.

Not sure if you can view all of these because this site is paywalled though you should be able to at least browse these, just no the catalogue. Here are a couple random of examples I pulled up that I think show what a unique tower can look like.

https://divisare.com/projects/445264-ser...ate-courts - Simple in form, but with unique facade and material elements.
https://divisare.com/projects/399892-lbr...re-reforma - This is amazing...definitely wouldn't work here though haha.
https://divisare.com/projects/387096-b72...orma-itaim - This is where they copied the Charlie West podium from...except they did it correctly so you can actually see it.
https://divisare.com/projects/370665-stu...aqua-tower - The famous Aqua Tower. Since balconies wrapped around the building are currently in (especially in Ontario lately) you may as well use the opportunity to create a unique visual feature with it.
https://divisare.com/projects/73207-herz...t-new-york - Herzog de Meuron going super sci-fi with this one in NYC.

The original proposal for this Station Park skyscraper had unique design elements with the sewed footprint, the randomly staggered balconies, the colours of some aspects of the facade and more. It could have used a bit more tuning I think...if I was the designer, I would have modified the parallelogram footprint of the main tower so that every 10-12 floors they would have a slightly different orientation. It would have stood out a lot more and made you look up. This new proposal you could plop down on any block in downtown or midtown Toronto and not be able to tell it apart from the hundreds of other skyscrapers. We'll forget it's there pretty fast.

So you provided examples from Singapore, San Paulo, New York, Mexico City and Chicago.... Come on! I get that it is black and white, but this building would look good in any of those cities, would it be the nicest in those cities, no but this is a well designed building with some unique characteristics. Also that chicago example is a boring building with a bunch of bird shitting ledges, looks like a poorer designed One York Street. KW is not a global city! should we demand more from developers and architects here, absolutely, but they finally provide with a decent proposal and 50% of the people here complain.

[Lebronj23]

The more I look at it the more I like it. The sheer height and skinny floor plate will make this stand out, there’s nothing in Kitchener that comes close. This looks better than 417 king in my opinion. I probably couldn’t tell this was a Kirkor building if I didn’t know. Also has a flat iron style look when coming up king from that angle, with potentially curved glass I see?

[Spokes]

While there are definitely some parts of it that are generic as others have stated, as a whole I like it. Still room to be better though.

My fear is always that the reality ends up being worse than the render

[panamaniac]

I think we need more of this scattered throughout the city in general. Things that make people want to stop and linger for a moment instead of just getting through as fast as possible.

The small park at King/Francis. City Hall courtyard. Gaukel St. Speakers' Corner at King/Benton. The artwork at the corner of Queen/Weber.

More would be welcome but it's not as if there aren't any such small spots.

There used to be a thread about such spots in DTK.   Lots of interesting nooks and crannies, not all well used.

[Momo26]

@Ac3r

The streetscape is so bad you're calling for even garbage cans on the sidewalk to jazz it up LOL

I agree...I was one of the few that actually liked the original Station Park proposal! It was scrapped pretty quick for a tamed approached ...

[CP42]

Crane #2?

Yes, this would be Crane number 2.  Going to guess this will be the main crane for the building?

Crane #2 is up 

[ac3r]

So you provided examples from Singapore, San Paulo, New York, Mexico City and Chicago.... Come on! I get that it is black and white, but this building would look good in any of those cities, would it be the nicest in those cities, no but this is a well designed building with some unique characteristics. Also that chicago example is a boring building with a bunch of bird shitting ledges, looks like a poorer designed One York Street. KW is not a global city! should we demand more from developers and architects here, absolutely, but they finally provide with a decent proposal and 50% of the people here complain.

Good architecture exists in small cities as well. It has nothing to do with the status of the city.

[westwardloo]

So you provided examples from Singapore, San Paulo, New York, Mexico City and Chicago.... Come on! I get that it is black and white, but this building would look good in any of those cities, would it be the nicest in those cities, no but this is a well designed building with some unique characteristics. Also that chicago example is a boring building with a bunch of bird shitting ledges, looks like a poorer designed One York Street. KW is not a global city! should we demand more from developers and architects here, absolutely, but they finally provide with a decent proposal and 50% of the people here complain.

Good architecture exists in small cities as well. It has nothing to do with the status of the city.

Then provide examples from small cities! This is good architecture. Is it great no, but it is perfectly acceptable and would look good in any city. Was I expected more from this entire development yes. But I have acceptable the fact that station park isn't anything ground breaking.

[bravado]

I think "ground breaking" architecture is exactly the wrong kind heh... give me normal, common designs that fit the history and nature of the place they are in any day!

[ac3r]

Heh, I guess I just have a different view of architecture that gets lost on this forum. This is "good architecture" the way mass produced wall art sold at Home Sense is "good art". It's terrible, but in a way that only those of us who have a deeper understanding of the theories of architecture, art, design, philosophy and so on understand. It's simulacrum, nothing more.

[jordan2423]

you all should start a design committee where the region can have minimum standards for designs of buildings. If not you guys who will start it then who?

[ac3r]

The problem is finding the correct people for it who would be willing to volunteer their time to start and operate a design committee. Architects/landscape architects, artists, designers/industrial designers, theorists, planners etc. There aren't exactly many of us out there in Waterloo Region. Plus then you'd have to get the cities and region to be willing to listen and...they barely listen to anyone about anything. And then you have to deal with midwits in the general public who have no idea what they're talking about.