Waterloo Region Connected

Updated: Vive Development and Cusimano Architect/Studio 185 are proposing a new project, a pair of towers at 17 and 27 floors proposed for 815 - 825 Weber Street East and 1770 King Street East. A total of 503 residential units are proposed. 291 parking space provided primarily underground as well as 409 parking spaces. No commercial space is proposed.

With all these buildings proposed for this stretch of Weber & King between Ottawa and the highway, we're going to be need some MUCH better bike infrastructure in that area (basically the entirety of the Eastwood neighbourhood), especially to connect into downtown and through Rockway to meet up with the Eckert St path to get under the highway.

Interesting. 

Gonna be a tight fit between the Red Monster and the corner strip mall.

(03-29-2023, 07:02 PM)Archetype Wrote: [ -> ]Interesting. 

Gonna be a tight fit between the Red Monster and the corner strip mall.

It looks like it would be tight -- but at the same time, I was surprised when Charlie went up at that gas station. I didn't see it fitting but it did.

It is good to see that area grow though. Hopefully the "Neighbourhood of Shadow Committee" doesn't come to complain about this building ruining shadows at Rockway.

If you think fitting Charlie West on that location was a challenge you need to visit Manhattan haha. Something like the Steinway Tower is a mere 18 meters wide yet 84 floors tall. By comparison, the plot of Charlie West is somewhere around 45 meters wide.

The city posted the documents for this one, turns out the developer is Vive yet again, they seemingly have a million projects in the pipeline. The project actually comprises of 1770 King St E as well as 815 and 825 Weber St E. The entire tower fronts onto Weber St with the 27 floor portion at the corner of Weber and Montgomery, parking access is off of both King and Weber. The development will have 503 rental units, and 291 parking spaces (includes visitor parking) as well as 406 bicycle parking spaces. Within the Urban Design Brief they mention providing subsidized transit passes as well as car share within the building.

Another spandrel and concrete clunker

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(04-01-2023, 10:39 AM)Lebronj23 Wrote: [ -> ]Another spandrel and concrete clunker

If that was all concrete and no spandrel. This would be an awesome building!

I figured it was going to be a Vive Project as they love the east end of downtown and beyond. I just hope they can get these built fast. They've got like...8+ projects marked "coming soon". I don't want them to turn out like Drewlo where they take a decade to finish 2 projects.

Hiring a broader range of architects would be nice as well... While we've obviously only really seen sketches and stuff, a lot of their work looks very same-y. I think this is their second time hiring Cusimano Architect and, well, their profile does not provide much confidence. It's extremely generic stuff, with a large focus on lowrise suburban retail buildings, some midrise residential and a lot of bad conceptual work on towers.

(03-27-2023, 05:41 PM)ac3r Wrote: [ -> ] No commercial space is proposed.

Odd given that the current usage is entirely commercial. A good number of offices and shops will need to find new space.

(04-01-2023, 02:04 PM)KevinL Wrote: [ -> ]

(03-27-2023, 05:41 PM)ac3r Wrote: [ -> ] No commercial space is proposed.

Odd given that the current usage is entirely commercial. A good number of offices and shops will need to find new space.

When reading the documents it says "Ground floor building height of 4.5 metres to accommodate additional non-residential uses in the future." So it seems as if they're at least considering retail or offices.

(04-01-2023, 12:38 PM)ac3r Wrote: [ -> ]I figured it was going to be a Vive Project as they love the east end of downtown and beyond. I just hope they can get these built fast. They've got like...8+ projects marked "coming soon". I don't want them to turn out like Drewlo where they take a decade to finish 2 projects.

They are just about done at Ophelia, and the Borden St project might wrap up this year, too. Woodside Terraces, maybe next year. So, they should have some bandwidth for new projects even as is, and they certainly appear to be growing.

(04-01-2023, 12:38 PM)ac3r Wrote: [ -> ]I figured it was going to be a Vive Project as they love the east end of downtown and beyond. I just hope they can get these built fast. They've got like...8+ projects marked "coming soon". I don't want them to turn out like Drewlo where they take a decade to finish 2 projects.

Right now Vive is doing 169 Borden, 64 Margaret, Woodside phase 2. They just finished Ophelia, Lancaster/Bridge building 1 and Market Flats. All 3 of those projects they have going right now should be finished relatively soon. There's nothing that Vive's done so far that suggests they will take 2 decades to finish a project like you're suggesting, in 5 years they've done 6 projects. So we should see other projects start up soon, for example another project by Vive (926 King St E) has a permit application.

Good on them for being so ambitious.

Meeting tonight if anyone wants to listen in