[The Familia]

Still a hot mess. That ####ing parkade, I hate it so much! I honestly believe it is the main driving force behind some of the terrible design choices. I would have loved a community rink in that spot, but if we couldn’t afford that, the extra space could have been used to fix the following:

1. Run the upper level windows from the NW corner all the way down the entire west side (Olympic Ave) and around the southwest corner above the main entrance. From what I can tell there is some mechanical stuff that is being hidden by that piece of trash white screen. Without the parkade maybe all the mechanical could be relocated allowing the window wall to be extended (move mechanical to the east side).

2. Increase the Size of the NW plaza and entrance to be more prominent. This is the main door from the Green Line, it should be a focal point. Run retail and windows along 12th Ave. I can live with a blank wall for the East facade. The south facade can be half a blank wall and maybe half windows/retail.

3. All of the moves above would eliminate a ton of the cheap aluminum screening and provide more windows, retail, and a better public realm. Right now all the screens and blank walls make for a sterile, boring, and uninviting building.

From the drawings the arena is not centred to the overall lot. Due to the parkade, everything is squished over. I don’t see why, with the elimination of the parkade, the arena couldn’t be more centred leaving more room on all 4 sides. If anything, they can push the seating bowl a bit more to the east and make that a blank wall on the outside.

There are way to many materials currently on this dogs breakfast. I actually like the west side of the arena minus the white screen. The upper level windows and the ground level retail looks good. Simple but timeless design. Everything beyond that is trash. Hoping the interior makes up for it because the BMO Centre will be the showstopper on Stampede grounds. People think Rogers Centre will age poorly. This thing will look like crap on day one if they don’t use the highest quality materials possible.

Due to the Flames stubbornness to have a parkade included into the arena design, we have lost a potential community rink and sacrificed a lot of architectural design aspects.