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A lot of good and interesting points. A couple of things jumped out as something on which I would like to comment:
(04-21-2021, 11:32 PM)nms Wrote: Northdale was also home to housing stock that would have permitted families to live there.
This isn’t necessarily for or against what you’re saying, just a related point. Zoning for many years forbade redevelopment of the neighbourhood, long after the families had moved out and the houses renovated with extra bedrooms. Under current market conditions (specifically, being right next to a major university that has outgrown other student housing options), there is no way families are going to outbid apartment developers for the land. If zoning had allowed redevelopment, the houses would have been gradually expanded and/or replaced; instead, when the valve was opened, most of the neighbourhood was suddenly redeveloped.
Arguably this doesn’t make much difference in the long term. But I’m not even certain about that. With gradual redevelopment allowed, there would have been a lot of houses which would get additions, or be split into duplexes or triplexes, or both, and some of them would have been kept as such for longer, simply because the additional gain from full replacement with a larger apartment building wouldn’t have been as large. Think of older parts of the city like King St. in Waterloo, where if you look above and behind the commercial facades you can see traces of buildings which were originally built on a very different streetscape.
Quote:I do, however, think that the Columbia Lake Village is generally a soulless place with few opportunities for community building or for connections to the wider neighbourhood.
Very poorly designed, indeed. As an example, I used to visit friends there. Their unit was on Westmount Rd., but we accessed it by parking in a lot behind and going through their back door. The only key entry to their unit was on Westmount Rd., even though hardly anybody would come in that way; certainly, I can’t imagine they would have done so.
Also, and this isn’t really about the design of the buildings themselves, but installation of an air conditioner required permission from the commissar and the demonstration of “need”. The idea that maybe the tenants should just pay for their own electricity and that it’s none of the landlord’s business whether they use some of it for air conditioning doesn’t seem to have occurred to the geniuses running the place. NB: the units are individually metered — there are rows of electricity meters at the end of each block of houses.
04-27-2021, 01:15 PM (This post was last modified: 04-27-2021, 01:16 PM by ac3r.)
Not an update but since this is a general thread, I'm hoping I can get a little history lesson here. I'm wondering about the apartments linked below. They seem to be very old - possibly very early to mid 20th century - and they all have similar H shaped designs and signage in the stone. They're all built around the Borden and Weber intersection. Were they built with a specific purpose (i.e. for a nearby factory or something) or were they simply developed by the same developer, hence share a similar design? I've always liked the look of these as they have a very early modernist aesthetic.
(04-27-2021, 01:15 PM)ac3r Wrote: Not an update but since this is a general thread, I'm hoping I can get a little history lesson here. I'm wondering about the apartments linked below. They seem to be very old - possibly very early to mid 20th century - and they all have similar H shaped designs and signage in the stone. They're all built around the Borden and Weber intersection. Were they built with a specific purpose (i.e. for a nearby factory or something) or were they simply developed by the same developer, hence share a similar design? I've always liked the look of these as they have a very early modernist aesthetic.
Red Circle at Graffiti Market has also been rebranded as Stockyards Beverage Company.
From what I could read in the article, the plan is to renovate a portion of the Outlet mall. I suspect that the long-term hope is that the hotel business in the neighbourhood will pick up and that Drayton will be able to host shows again by the time they are finished construction. It will be a nice fit (except perhaps for the teetotal Mennonites...)
(04-27-2021, 05:54 PM)lanewayhouse Wrote: I've always wondered the same. There is one at Chapel & Merner as well.
Thanks! I didn't know about this one. It's quite far away from the rest of them which makes me wonder if they were just regular apartments that happened to share the same architect. Perhaps there are more in the city.
(04-28-2021, 02:57 AM)nms Wrote: If I had to take a stab in the dark, the buildings might be connected to Onward Manufacturing who have been around since 1906 in one form or another.
If you wanted to take a deep dive, you could see what Teraview has to say on the matter.
I'll take a look through that website over the weekend to see if I can find any information on it. Onward was one company I was thinking of as well, since they used to have that factory (part of which still remains) on the site that Lower Kitchener is going to be built.
06-10-2021, 08:21 PM (This post was last modified: 06-10-2021, 09:38 PM by ZEBuilder.)
There has been some suburban projects some minor that have been flying some what under the radar so heres some updates on them:
The Winston Park LTC addition at the corner of Blockline and Westmount is well underway they're currently working on the 4th above ground floor and HVAC work and interior framing has started but no exterior finishing has started.
The roundabout at Fischer-Hallman and Bleams is well underway with curbs in place for the slip lanes and underground utility work is mostly complete in the sections they're currently working on.
Fischer-Hallman and Westmount where the CIBC is they have fenced off most of the grass in the lot and have started excavation for a new strip mall, I know the original plan was to have a Mr Mikes Steakhouse there but it appears based upon the signs that those plans got scrapped and a strip mall is now planned for the location unless both are happening.
At Strasburg and Blockline the lot that was a hole in the ground has activity again as they've been digging around fairly recently and have multiple machines on site. Next door to it on Strasburg the apartment building has lots of work occuring, the entire parking lot has been ripped up and there's now a large hole and a crane on site but I can't seem to find anything on what is occuring there.
(06-10-2021, 08:21 PM)ZEBuilder Wrote: There has been some suburban projects some minor that have been flying some what under the radar so heres some updates on them:
The Winston Park LTC addition at the corner of Blockline and Westmount is well underway they're currently working on the 4th above ground floor and HVAC work and interior framing has started but no exterior finishing has started.
The roundabout at Fischerhallman and Bleams is well underway with curbs in place for the slip lanes and underground utility work is mostly complete in the sections they're currently working on.
Fischerhallman and Westmount where the CIBC is they have fenced off most of the grass in the lot and have started excavation for a new strip mall, I know the original plan was to have a Mr Mikes Steakhouse there but it appears based upon the signs that those plans got scrapped and a strip mall is now planned for the location unless both are happening.
At Strasburg and Blockline the lot that was a hole in the ground has activity again as they've been digging around fairly recently and have multiple machines on site. Next door to it on Strasburg the apartment building has lots of work occuring, the entire parking lot has been ripped up and there's now a large hole and a crane on site but I can't seem to find anything on what is occuring there.
"Fischer-Hallman", BTW. Two hyphenated words, not one. :-)
Thanks for the updates. I am wondering about the project at Bleams and Fischer-Hallman, as well as the Strasburg Project(s). Looks like the one on Bleams is going to be pretty large if the apartment/condos get built.
(06-10-2021, 09:12 PM)jeffster Wrote: Thanks for the updates. I am wondering about the project at Bleams and Fischer-Hallman, as well as the Strasburg Project(s). Looks like the one on Bleams is going to be pretty large if the apartment/condos get built.
The apartments are definitely gonna be a few years away but it's definitely a location which would do pretty good and wouldn't necessarily require you to own a car since you have the 12 and 33 right outside and you don't have to travel extremely far to get basic goods since there's going to be a food basics, dollarama and other things literally steps from your door. The one Strasburg site which is the empty lot has a building permit from 2016 for a apartment if I can remember correctly so it might finally be progress on it. But the other one in the parking lot of the current apartment building is confusing since there's no permits in the system and they have what looked like dewatering pumps so it's a interesting thing to keep a eye on.
(06-10-2021, 08:21 PM)ZEBuilder Wrote: There has been some suburban projects some minor that have been flying some what under the radar so heres some updates on them:
The Winston Park LTC addition at the corner of Blockline and Westmount is well underway they're currently working on the 4th above ground floor and HVAC work and interior framing has started but no exterior finishing has started.
The roundabout at Fischerhallman and Bleams is well underway with curbs in place for the slip lanes and underground utility work is mostly complete in the sections they're currently working on.
Fischerhallman and Westmount where the CIBC is they have fenced off most of the grass in the lot and have started excavation for a new strip mall, I know the original plan was to have a Mr Mikes Steakhouse there but it appears based upon the signs that those plans got scrapped and a strip mall is now planned for the location unless both are happening.
At Strasburg and Blockline the lot that was a hole in the ground has activity again as they've been digging around fairly recently and have multiple machines on site. Next door to it on Strasburg the apartment building has lots of work occuring, the entire parking lot has been ripped up and there's now a large hole and a crane on site but I can't seem to find anything on what is occuring there.
"Fischer-Hallman", BTW. Two hyphenated words, not one. :-)
(06-10-2021, 09:12 PM)jeffster Wrote: Thanks for the updates. I am wondering about the project at Bleams and Fischer-Hallman, as well as the Strasburg Project(s). Looks like the one on Bleams is going to be pretty large if the apartment/condos get built.
The apartments are definitely gonna be a few years away but it's definitely a location which would do pretty good and wouldn't necessarily require you to own a car since you have the 12 and 33 right outside and you don't have to travel extremely far to get basic goods since there's going to be a food basics, dollarama and other things literally steps from your door.
Bleams and Fischer-Hallman? My spouse used to work... umm.. one 2km block away, near Bleams and Strasburg. You could survive without a car, but the situation is pretty grim with respect to restaurants and other markers of culture within walking distance; your selection is at best limited.
