Isabella Residences | 11 fl | Proposed

[Lens]

Who's the architect?

[ac3r]

Who's the architect?

Edge Architects. They've done some great buildings in the city. The website shows the old proposal, though.

[panamaniac]

Who's the architect?

I am reminded of an old joke involving Helen Keller and Bozo the Clown, but I'll restrain myself!  LOL

[GtwoK]

The houses on the site have been demolished as of yesterday

[urbd]

I still can't believe how people are actually getting excited about this fake nostalgia architecture. I guess that speaks to how conservative this city really is.

[panamaniac]

I still can't believe how people are actually getting excited about this fake nostalgia architecture. I guess that speaks to how conservative this city really is.

I don't know if I'd describe it as "conservative" as much as mind numbingly conventional.  With the (new) money to afford to do it in "posh" fashion.

[Lens]

In a place that doesn't have that many "cookie cutter glass towers" I'd prefer one here (our the original, much better design) to this. The materials MATTER so much and if they actually used stone or brick this could maybe be acceptable. EIFS is not suitable for a majority % of cladding on a mid or highrise.

[jamincan]

I'm boggled by people's reactions. The original proposal was, to me, conventional, inoffensive and boring. I wouldn't complain about it, because it's a solid design, but I'd have forgotten about it immediately. The new one isn't breaking new grounds in architecture and might therefore offend more snobbish tastes, but it looks nice and is hardly conventional in the context of Waterloo Region, or even Southern Ontario.

I will grant that it's a design that would look terrible if executed poorly, but I think that's true of more conventional designs as well.

[Momo26]

They should totally spend the few extra bucks and import the stone from Europe ! Penny rich pound poor man.

[rangersfan]

I like both proposals,  the orginal I like more because I think it is more realistic to pull off and make look fantastic.  The newer one looks great, and if the materials used in 1890 were still all that was in use today, I think it would look fantastic.

[tomh009]

It has nothing to do with how "conservative" the city is (it isn't). It's just something unique, as opposed to yet another cookie-cutter glass condo with a cafe on the first floor. Nobody notices half of the shiny new glass condo towers in Toronto because they have no architectural uniqueness. Grey fake-brick panels, blue glass...yawn. We've been building that stuff since the 1970s. Diversity is good, even if that means paying homage to an older period of time. Architecture offers us a tool to explore that - it need not simply be preserving heritage buildings through bureaucracy and money. You can also pay homage to an older period of architecture by building something new in the style of something old. 

Well ... I would argue that a modern design does not need to be a cookie-cutter one. If Edge is that good, I would expect them to be able to come up with some creative designs. And if they really wanted to avoid modern design, I would have personally even gone to an art deco style building first.

Oh, well. At least it keeps Waterloo looking different from DTK.

[jwilliamson]

   

[Momo26]

Bump bump - what's the scene on this one? Which renderings are they going with again?

[urbd]

Bump bump - what's the scene on this one? Which renderings are they going with again?

I'm pretty sure the neo-victorian, disneyworld-worthy faux architecture.

This was just put up:

   

[KevinL]

'The Isabella Residences' - looks like we finally have a thread title.