Count me in as someone who was really looking forward to this announcement but came away unimpressed. Trying not to be overly negative at this point but that is a terribly uninspired design. I know, I know, this isn't the final design but I honestly think they could have put together better drawings (they certainly had the time) as often with drawings there are fewer limitations in the conceptual stage. My fear is that KK and the owners already think that this is pretty transformational and all it needs are some final touches. Generally, I'm a pretty optimistic person so I will put these thoughts aside for now and hope that we will be blown away when the final design comes out. I've been pretty happy with the way architecture is advancing in Calgary (for eg. new Public Library and NMC) and am hoping that this new facility will follow along; especially for such a prominent site.
I was disappointed that there is no re-alignment of westbound Bow Trail. It will take a lot of imagination in the design to prevent that stretch North of the facility from becoming a barren wasteland. Would have liked that the facility open up to the river to encourage more activity there.
I also don't like how the facility creates a large barrier between the new live/work area and the rest of downtown. As an earlier poster said, commercial (office) development brings more to the city's coffers than residential but I doubt rents will be that high for an area so far out of the core. As well, there is still a lot of developable land in the core and the beltline that developers would likely choose for the projects than for something relatively far away from the core.
On the residential side, I sure wouldn't mind living near the facility but I would think twice about living next to it. A large, concrete facility like this with limited interaction with the street isn't as attractive for a neighbour as some might like to think.
Left out of the presentation is whether the $250M for the CRL included upgrades to the surrounding infrastructure (roads, utilities) to accommodate the future commercial and residential development. This is where the $'s went for the development of the East Village - I'm assuming this would also be the case in the West Village. How much more money is required?
When it comes to the stadium/fieldhouse, I'm okay with enclosed roof, especially if it is translucent. A retractable roof would be ideal but I think we have to realize that a new open air football/soccer stadium isn't economically feasible with the limited number of events that would be held there. Haven't seen it mentioned in this thread yet but with the E-W alignment of the stadium, a translucent roof is going to cause some difficulty with the Sun - hope the architects are thinking about that one.
Finally, during KK's presentation, I couldn't help from thinking that I would have preferred Treliving giving this presentation instead; so much more thoughtful and polished in his delivery than King. It wasn't the only thing I didn't like about his presentation style but I, too, wasn't impressed with his response to Francis' question.
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