Oxford Tower

[O-tacular]

The more I look at it this reminds me of a modern version of one of the never-built tallests from the 80's. In one respect that's lame, in another it's kind of fitting and doesn't bother me too much.

Height and quality of materials will be the biggest factors in determining if this is a win or a fail.

[Halofire]

Question is... who are they marketing this at? Which company is looking for office space on this scale? ... and with oil prices fumbling is there a chance that this doesn't get built this cycle, and they go back to the drawing board?

[The Fisher Account]

CTRL+ALT+DLT get to work! LOL

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by Halofire

Question is... who are they marketing this at? Which company is looking for office space on this scale? ... and with oil prices fumbling is there a chance that this doesn't get built this cycle, and they go back to the drawing board?

I'm sure they have an anchor tenant lined up, especially with all the towers under construction right now.

[artvandelay]

Given what they've proposed in Toronto with Oxford Place, I can't look at this as anything other than a letdown.

The most prominent site in downtown Calgary deserves better. I'm hoping for a redesign along the lines of what we saw with Brookfield Place.

[red-paladin]

O.o

[Jimby]

I haven't seen any other media or anything on Twitter about this tower. Nothing on Oxford's website either.

[Calgarian]

Typically a tower like this will be kept pretty hush hush until some big press release, so I'm fairly skeptical that this is the final design.

[Spring2008]

Originally Posted by tomthumb2

What makes anyone think they'll improve on this design? Is it not final?

I believe this has to go through city council and I've also heard there will be talks with the developer.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by artvandelay

Given what they've proposed in Toronto with Oxford Place, I can't look at this as anything other than a letdown.

The most prominent site in downtown Calgary deserves better. I'm hoping for a redesign along the lines of what we saw with Brookfield Place.

Oxford Place was a marketing piece to get casinos allowed. No one knows what their long term goals are for their Front Street West portfolio.

[Spring2008]

Originally Posted by WaitWhat?

Yeah it really doesn't seem right. Centennial Place East in the background has 40 floors.

Idk how this would be a new tallest at 55-56 storeys unless the floor to ceiling clearance is unusually high. Then again, we don't even know if this is the final proposal.

[RyLucky]

Originally Posted by bt04ku

Quite the let down. Not an awful design, or even a bad one really, but not a good one and definitely not what the site deserved.

Exactly. Architecturally, this is pretty basic. The problem is mainly how high my hopes were. For some reason I had hoped for Calgary's answer to the Chrysler Building, Trans America Pyramid, or the John Hancock Centre. The City Centre comparisons are dead on. That said, I like City Centre, and this is even better.

A hotel or public element would have taken this to another level. As is, it's just your basic office tower, but a bit taller and a bit higher standard.

[Spring2008]

I think this building as is, is pretty much an alright AA class building, but not a trophy building, which everyone is understandably expecting for this site.

[RyLucky]

It's both sides of the alley, no?

[Jimby]

Originally Posted by RyLucky

It's both sides of the alley, no?

I believe they bought their portion of the alley from the City so it will span the block at the 4th street end.

[O-tacular]

You'd think there would be a little more competitiveness between the developers wanting to go bigger and better than each other. I still think they'll make it taller.

[O-tacular]

One question: why did they buy the properties next door if their plan is to only build beside them? I have a sinking feeling we'll be hearing about a smaller twin should their leasing go according to plan rather than a bump in height.

[RyLucky]

The lukewarm acceptance of this Oxford tower brings a question to mind:

Given that the main criticisms of the tower are that it is generic, devoid of distinguishing features, and conservative, how much should (or can) a project strive to suit a particular location?

The Bow reflects several elements of local geography, but in my opinion is fairly insensitive to its immediate surroundings. Brookfield Place somewhat responds to its surroundings, but would not be out of place in Houston, Toronto, or Sydney. Telus Sky seems to fit its environment well, but will forever be compared to Beach and Howe. In a globalized world, are urban environments becoming more and more the same? Should walking down the street in Calgary feel like walking down the street in Toronto?

Is it possible to get an iconic 1-of-a-kind tower in 2014? Starchitects tend to protect a brand, and shareholders expect a functional, conservative investment. Obviously, these rules are different in Asia and the Middle East, where labour is dirt cheap and companies may be controlled to single families..

I'm not sure what exactly I would have liked to go in the place of Oxford's tower. Other than vague comparative adjectives like "taller", "more beautiful", "better", I don't know what to say. By no means do I think curvier is better, though I think most SSPers would prefer curves. After all, curves are easier to design and build than in the past, and therefore might be indicative of our era of architecture.

What do you guys think?

[Chinook Arch]

I like it. It's not great, but overall not a bad looking tower imo.

[Design-mind]

I am going with list it! It doesn't look bad, but it looks very similar to City Centre, and I would like to see some other shape and a taller structure 270M +.