Quote:
Originally Posted by scryer
I am willing to bet that they will use a similar exterior for this proposal (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).
but doesn't every other city have its own individual hurdles to jump just as Winnipeg does when it comes to proposals and construction? Just food for thought..
|
My understanding of the first part of your questions is that the exterior is slated to be EIFS which looks and acts like an acrylic stucco, so you'd be right about that. Whether it's comparable to the ALT is something I don't quite know. My guess is that those are acrylic stucco panels going up, but they could be something different. From 5 or 6 floors down, depending on the finish of the stucco on the ALT, they'd look very similar, anyway.
Your second comment is very true in a lot of respects. Every jurisdiction will have its own set of engineering or regulatory hurdles that make construction difficult. For example, if you were developing something in downtown Toronto or Vancouver right now, you'd be receiving significant push-back from residents about your plans for density. They're doing the opposite that we are here and trying to scale things back because of issues with sewer & water and electricity that arise as development begins to outpace the capacity of municipal services. And since there are many opinions on what reasonable capacity is, you'll get a fight.
But there's always one thing that can make large problems disappear - lots and lots of revenue and lower than average expenses. And that's really the difference between here and there. In somewhere like Toronto, you have people wiling to pay almost $700/sq ft in a market that has lots of qualified contractors who have excelled at building highrise construction. The confluence of the two is a significant advantage. Consequently, it allows for the sorts of amenities and architectural premiums we don't get here...