What's happened in Waterloo is just crazy. When I started school in 2012 there was a single new high-rise student rental (in the centre of the first picture), and the vast majority of students still lived with a bunch of people in a detached house, or a duplex/triplex. Over 4 years, King Street went from this:
To this:
Before:
After:
Obviously adding density is the only way to accommodate the massive growth in students. Still, some of my fondest memories are from the summer semesters when all the co-op students were in classes, had a massive intramural softball league, and would have backyard keggers every week. My most recent intern who's finishing up at Laurier basically said they can't even find places near campus to host them anymore. Would be a weird university experience to me to spend 4 years in a high-rise shoebox.