Eureka (534 Charles St E) | 32, 27, 15 fl | U/C

[ac3r]

I can't tell if this is worse than the last dozen designs or just not as bad. They got rid of the weird box feature on the top 6 floors and the balconies are less randomized which is an "improvement", but it still looks like a prison.

For comparison here is the design they had back in January 2022: https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...4#pid98934
Here is the second (?) design where it started to get a bit wacky looking: https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...#pid105886
Here is what they were going to do roughly 1 year ago where it got even stranger: https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...#pid112877

None of them are any good, but I think they could have salvaged it if at least by the second design they made the tower skinnier with a squareish footprint, rather than a huge rectangular footprint. The facade could have been modified to be a little nicer, but still retaining the mixture of designs because that can work quite well, differentiating different sections of the building. Architects are NOT cheap (even SRM) so I don't know why they don't just pay to get a nice design from the start instead of having them redo it over and over again over the span of many years.

[KingandWeber]

I can't tell if this is worse than the last dozen designs or just not as bad. They got rid of the weird box feature on the top 6 floors and the balconies are less randomized which is an "improvement", but it still looks like a prison.

For comparison here is the design they had back in January 2022: https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...4#pid98934
Here is the second (?) design where it started to get a bit wacky looking: https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...#pid105886
Here is what they were going to do roughly 1 year ago where it got even stranger: https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...#pid112877

None of them are any good, but I think they could have salvaged it if at least by the second design they made the tower skinnier with a squareish footprint, rather than a huge rectangular footprint. The facade could have been modified to be a little nicer, but still retaining the mixture of designs because that can work quite well, differentiating different sections of the building. Architects are NOT cheap (even SRM) so I don't know why they don't just pay to get a nice design from the start instead of having them redo it over and over again over the span of many years.

Lol thanks for laying that sequence out! It's honestly like they asked AI to make it more grey and stranger each time. What a mess.

[ac3r]

Like the haircut meme goes, "just fuck my shit up bro".

[mastermind]

There's been concrete and rebar going in this hole for the last few days, I expect we'll probably see a tower crane soon.

[KevinL]

Crane uprights went up this week, and it looks like the boom might go on today.

[Rainrider22]

It's fully up now..

[CP42]

They’ve got a big illuminated Vive sign on the crane. Looks like VanMar may have started a trend with the Station Park Tower 3 crane.

[Square]

Starting on the 2nd above ground floor. Also the concrete pumper is installed. Guessing this building will not be precast.

[Square]

They’ve got a big illuminated Vive sign on the crane. Looks like VanMar may have started a trend with the Station Park Tower 3 crane.

I lke that they have not removed the holiday lights on the crane on the downtown Drewlo site.

[tomh009]

Starting on the 2nd above ground floor.  Also the concrete pumper is installed.  Guessing this building will not be precast.

It's also possible to do precast only on the floors above the podium. The podium layout is usually more variable and less well suited to precast.

[ZEBuilder]

Starting on the 2nd above ground floor.  Also the concrete pumper is installed.  Guessing this building will not be precast.

It's also possible to do precast only on the floors above the podium. The podium layout is usually more variable and less well suited to precast.

It certainly seems that might be what Vive is planning since the permits for balance of construction are split between podium and tower floors, I have no idea why, however 900 King only had one permit but had a cast in place podium with a precast tower, so it casts doubt on that.

The other thing that makes me question if they're going to do precast is the concrete contractor. They're one of the larger forming companies in the GTA and they fly through buildings. They've done the entire McMaster residence building including underground in under a year. I certainly question if they'd bid on something small like just the podium/underground but with the lack of condo starts its certainly possible.

[westwardloo]

It's also possible to do precast only on the floors above the podium. The podium layout is usually more variable and less well suited to precast.

It certainly seems that might be what Vive is planning since the permits for balance of construction are split between podium and tower floors, I have no idea why, however 900 King only had one permit but had a cast in place podium with a precast tower, so it casts doubt on that.

The other thing that makes me question if they're going to do precast is the concrete contractor. They're one of the larger forming companies in the GTA and they fly through buildings. They've done the entire McMaster residence building including underground in under a year. I certainly question if they'd bid on something small like just the podium/underground but with the lack of condo starts its certainly possible.

They are probably doing poured concrete flooring with precast concrete panels for the exterior walls.  Based off the render there is almost zero chance this building is not precast.  I will note that there is nothing wrong with precast, when done right the building can look really good. However almost every precast building in our region looks like it was designed by a blind monkey.

[ZEBuilder]

It certainly seems that might be what Vive is planning since the permits for balance of construction are split between podium and tower floors, I have no idea why, however 900 King only had one permit but had a cast in place podium with a precast tower, so it casts doubt on that.

The other thing that makes me question if they're going to do precast is the concrete contractor. They're one of the larger forming companies in the GTA and they fly through buildings. They've done the entire McMaster residence building including underground in under a year. I certainly question if they'd bid on something small like just the podium/underground but with the lack of condo starts its certainly possible.

They are probably doing poured concrete flooring with precast concrete panels for the exterior walls.  Based off the render there is almost zero chance this building is not precast.  I will note that there is nothing wrong with precast, when done right the building can look really good. However almost every precast building in our region looks like it was designed by a blind monkey.

What Tom was getting at is complete structural precast not architectural. Obviously you can have precast exterior panels (Duke Tower) but you never see situations where you mix cast in place floors with structural precast walls. You will however see precast floors with cast in place walls more often. If you have cast in place floors you lose much of the benefit of precast so it's not an optimal situation, the switch to complete structural is certainly possible after the podium but you're not going to mix precast and cast in place on the same floor as there's little benefit.

What casts doubt on precast at least at this point is Reimar being involved. While it's true that it's more annoying to build podiums out of precast it's not impossible and does happen with regularity, for example Circa 1877, 25 Sportsworld Crossing, and SYLK (this had underground precast as well).

Seeing that Vive did SYLK entirely with precast but this is already above ground without precast it casts more doubt that it will be precast.

[Rainrider22]

I see a lot of forms on site now. And why rent a concrete pumper just to pour floors. Would that be still economically feasible ?

[ZEBuilder]

I see a lot of forms on site now.  And why rent a concrete pumper just to pour floors. Would that be still economically feasible ?

The simplest answer is yes, it's extremely likely that it is feasible, there's a couple of odd cases where it wouldn't be but with how contracts work it's extremely unlikely that it isn't feasible. When Reimar would've first seen the tender they would've sat down and done their own estimates to figure out how much concrete they'd need, how much it'll cost to install it, how much rebar, how much overhead, equipment costs, etc. These costs will all be included in whatever bid they gave to Jackman so regardless of the type of contract (fixed, per unit, T&M) the cost of a pump would be in all likelihood be factored in to it if Reimar was going to use one. If Reimar is using a pump but they didn't consider that in their bid they may run into problems depending on the contract but in all likelihood they considered it when they bid.