02-18-2025, 09:38 AM
(02-18-2025, 09:16 AM)westwardloo Wrote: Besides the zoning mess that has been brought up. I actually like the proposed building, other then how bulky it looks, but I think I have to give up hope on the region getting slender towers. The material choice appears to be somewhat thought out, with brick for the podium and not my favorite but "classic" white and black for the tower. It's nice to see Vive proposing something that is not Precast concrete finally, looks like they are going with metal panelling. The podium while not great, but is fairly well designed with residentials units facing king st, so we won't have 4 floors of a precast parking garage wall. They even included commercial space, which I think is great to see and wish it was included in more projects.
Saying all this, it will probably be rejected by the city go to tribunal and we will end up with a taller precast building delayed by 2 years.
The reason you like it so much is this isn't actually a project by Vive, Vive's go to architect is Reindeer and Associates who tend to produce the same garbage. This is ABA who while they aren't going to win many awards, they tend to make some decent looking buildings (Charlie West, Civic 66).
The lack of parking facing King isn't enforced in the current bylaw however if Growing Together is approved before this, Growing Togethers priority street rules come into affect, King is one of the Priority Streets but I don't recall off the top of my head if this particular section is but I believe it is, regardless Priority Streets force developers to have active uses on the frontage, something like 20% maximum of a buildings frontage can be parking podium but there's other more niche restrictions to the whole Priority Streets rules.