50-52 Weber St W & 107 Young St | 6 fl | Proposed

[panamaniac]

I see in the Record that the proposal includes two floors of seniors co-housing, which is interesting. I think that might be a first for K-W?

[tomh009]

Ah, my mistake there. I read 'two apartments' following mention of the gothic cottage in the development paragraph and feared the worst automatically. The second render facing north up Weber also only shows one wing of that building, but I can see now in the first image looking south that both bays are still preserved.

Sorry if my use of cardinal directions is even more confusing, lol

Yes, "north" along Weber St "West".  It is Kitchener after all ! 

If you stand on Weber St in DTK, facing toward Waterloo, I believe you are facing approximated WNW (not quite west, but definitely not north). If someone has a handy way to check actual compass directions I'd like to know!

[panamaniac]

Yes, "north" along Weber St "West".  It is Kitchener after all ! 

If you stand on Weber St in DTK, facing toward Waterloo, I believe you are facing approximated WNW (not quite west, but definitely not north). If someone has a handy way to check actual compass directions I'd like to know!

Funny you say that, I wondered about it yesterday and, in my head, you'd be facing NNW.  But since it's Kitchener, I really don't know!

[tomh009]

If you stand on Weber St in DTK, facing toward Waterloo, I believe you are facing approximated WNW (not quite west, but definitely not north). If someone has a handy way to check actual compass directions I'd like to know!

Funny you say that, I wondered about it yesterday and, in my head, you'd be facing NNW.  But since it's Kitchener, I really don't know!

This is Google Maps, which shows north at the top.

   

[panamaniac]

So WNW, becoming NNW only after Victoria.

[tomh009]

So WNW, becoming NNW only after Victoria.

Yes. Most of the streets in Kitchener and Waterloo (can't speak for the three cities in Cambridge) run neither north-south or east-west. As such, I prefer to use the Kitchener designations, which are on average just as right (and on average just as wrong) as using north/south on, say, King St or Weber St. At least that way I'm consistent with the street naming.

[kwcc]

Hamfisiting together unrelated architectural elements does not a good design make

Quite insightful. Maybe you can explain how doors, windows, balconies and roof are "unrelated architectural elements". Every building I've seen has at least one of each - except for balconies but I guess it's nice for people to have a place to sit outside. 

Is there a building in KW that you do like?

[kwcc]

Wow, what a mess. Looks like a first year student intern did this.

An architect, wow!

Let's see some of your work. It would be great for everyone to see what a pro can do.

[panamaniac]

Anything happening with this one?

[tomh009]

Hamfisting together unrelated architectural elements does not a good design make

Quite insightful. Maybe you can explain how doors, windows, balconies and roof are "unrelated architectural elements". Every building I've seen has at least one of each - except for balconies but I guess it's nice for people to have a place to sit outside. 

I think the issue is they pulled in a dozen or more elements from different buildings of different styles. The original buildings may have coherent design, but this concept does not, because the elements don't really work together, and there is no consistency to the balconies or windows.

Just my opinion. And I don't know whether this is what actually gets built, either, so the entire discussion may be moot.

[panamaniac]

Not sure why, but it looks to me like something you’d see in Austria or The Netherlands or something. The weirdness kind of appeals to me.

[jamincan]

I find the justification for the design elements more offensive than the building itself.

[ac3r]

Wow, what a mess. Looks like a first year student intern did this.

An architect, wow!

Let's see some of your work. It would be great for everyone to see what a pro can do.

What's with the passive aggressive, condescending attitude you've got? If you're actually curious, when I worked at Teeple Architects, I had a daily role in helping with the Stephen Hawking Centre at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, one of the only major projects I've had a role in here in Waterloo Region as I normally do not live here. Now I've been at KPMB for a while, so feel free to look at some of the recent work that has been done. Since you're not a client of mine, you don't need to see my personal portfolio.

[tomh009]

Now I've been at KPMB for a while, so feel free to look at some of the recent work that has been done. Since you're not a client of mine, you don't need to see my personal portfolio.

I quite like how the Canary Block Condos manages to make a mid-rise condo building interesting yet not an overly busy design. Are the balcony railings actually 3D or is it just the use of colour to provide that effect? Looking at the top floor, it looks like they are actually three-dimensional ...

[ac3r]

Now I've been at KPMB for a while, so feel free to look at some of the recent work that has been done. Since you're not a client of mine, you don't need to see my personal portfolio.

I quite like how the Canary Block Condos manages to make a mid-rise condo building interesting yet not an overly busy design. Are the balcony railings actually 3D or is it just the use of colour to provide that effect? Looking at the top floor, it looks like they are actually three-dimensional ...

Yeah, they are. It's a one trick architectural designers can use to make an otherwise modest building look more visually interesting. Pioneers like Alvaro Siza and Zaha Hadid really popularized playing with geometry like this. It's a good example of phenomenological architecture, which emphasizes the subjective experience of architecture for each individual, playing on things like geometry, lighting, shape, sound and space. Unlike the more prestigious buildings they do, condos tend to lack budgets to go extremely elaborate, so one way you can make an otherwise fairly simple structure and make it interesting is to simply play with the facade. In this case you can use the balconies. A similar example in Toronto are the really tall Harbour Front Condos. The Pier 27 Tower is another unique one, because it actually results in more balcony space for condo owners which you can see here. Simple, but effective. 345 King Street in Kitchener offers a bit of a modest example of this locally.

Attached is a photo of Canary Block, where you can see the effect of the 3D. You can see it's a result of the balconies being angled horizontally, while being straight vertically. The use of 2 different colours of metal makes the straight vertical part look like it's sticking in and out in addition to the zig zag of the horizontal sections.