Future Calgary Downtown

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

I'm wrong... they are approved but not listed as under construction yet... soon I believe though.

Another picture:

I guess they are finally relocating the olympic ski jumps. Hopefully it is a lot less windy downtown. hehe

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Kobatuzzied

I guess they are finally relocating the olympic ski jumps. Hopefully it is a lot less windy downtown. hehe

I actually think they are pretty neat looking. It is a cool idea to make the towers look like the silhouette of the Rockies.

[CaptainCrunch]

Put a couple of guard rails on those buildings and an artificial snow maker, and those buildings would pay for themselves in a year.

Daaaaaammmmmmnnn

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

I actually think they are pretty neat looking. It is a cool idea to make the towers look like the silhouette of the Rockies.

That was exactly it; the are supposed to emulate the silhouette of the Rockies.

While they definitely aren't original (too cliche, not enough time spent on the master design of the project), they aren't terrible either. To me, the two buildings don't have much of an identity, but I'm just nit-picking.

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Muta

That was exactly it; the are supposed to emulate the silhouette of the Rockies.

While they definitely aren't original (too cliche, not enough time spent on the master design of the project), they aren't terrible either. To me, the two buildings don't have much of an identity, but I'm just nit-picking.

It is a nice change from most of he buildings downtown that are just steel, concrete, and glass rectangles.

[FlamesAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

It is a nice change from most of he buildings downtown that are just steel, concrete, and glass rectangles.

Agreed. Too bad they had to demolish Penny Lane to get them there though..

[Winsor_Pilates]

The city picture seems to lack condos to me. There will be tons of condos popping up in there too.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

It is a nice change from most of he buildings downtown that are just steel, concrete, and glass rectangles.

Believe me, I agree with this. The material palette for the building is a great choice; just not the color palette, depth of materials used, or certain elements of the design scheme. Everything else looks good.

Any development at this point is awesome for the city in terms of growth. Me, personally, I've never understood the feeling of letting nostalgia get in the way of change. While Penny Lane was nice, downtown is evolving; and who's the say the new property won't be as nice, if not more? There's enough history downtown that I don't think destroying Penny Lane for development will be that big of a deal. the only way a city moves forward is by letting go of the past - the same works for urban growth.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

The city picture seems to lack condos to me. There will be tons of condos popping up in there too.

Not really, the images you are looking at is of the business core...most of the condos are in the Beltline to the south (and the eau claire ones arent tall enough to make that much of an impact).

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

It is a nice change from most of he buildings downtown that are just steel, concrete, and glass rectangles.

How exactly is it a change? It pretty much fits right into the bland architecture of Calgary's current downtown skyline and doesnt do anything new. It's very a cookie-cutter cookie building in terms of architecture (especially when you consider its a $1 Billion dollar project...which is comparable to the Bow, a design of much higher quality).

Considering the character it replaced in the Penny Lane Mall, this is a horribl underwhelming project IMO.

[Resolute 14]

Dallas is the Toronto of the West?

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Not really, the images you are looking at is of the business core...most of the condos are in the Beltline to the south (and the eau claire ones arent tall enough to make that much of an impact).

Good point, however I think there will be some pretty large ones to come. I know a lot of companies from out here in Van (including mine) are starting to build a lot in Calgary. We have a pretty large project coming up near eu claire starting in Sept/Oct which I believe will be 5 towers and quite large.

[Burninator]

I am not sold on the penny lane towers. While they are a vast improvement on the first renditions I saw (good lord those were bad) they still lack any punch. I am in the same boat as Muta, they are not great, they are not terrible, they are in the middle of ground. I'll be interested to see how they mesh with the rest of the skyline.

[RW99]

I work with a lot of people from outside Canada and they don't like how Calgary looks. A concrete jungle and the cookie cutter housing developements with the same colours seem to be their bigger complaints

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by The President

No,Calgary is the Hogtown of the West
Calgary is aslo the Dallas of Western Canada, with the Oil economy and
the modernity.

I think you mean the Houston of the West.

[psicodude]

Originally Posted by RW99

I work with a lot of people from outside Canada and they don't like how Calgary looks. A concrete jungle and the cookie cutter housing developements with the same colours seem to be their bigger complaints

True, but are you going to be the developer that takes the multi-million dollar risk to be "unique"? Unfortunately, cookie cutter sells.

I am just happy to see something other than a 50 story glass and steel box.

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Not really, the images you are looking at is of the business core...most of the condos are in the Beltline to the south (and the eau claire ones arent tall enough to make that much of an impact).

Those projects in the beltline will keep is from lagging too far behind. There should be far more residential demand to drive out tons of these projects, Calgary is still growing up that way.

There is also a large initative by the city to reconstruct a square with Kensington to the South, 10th st and 14 st as the East and West and the street adjacent to the park to the North. Largely high density residential 4 to 7 stories high.