Edmonton Construction 9 (2008-08)

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by Jasper and one o nin

move the decimal over three places...
I could pay off my gas card, get my back waxed, buy some good cognac, buy lot of bad vodka..

error

my Ti-81 was too busy playing the snake program i made.

[Coldrsx]

^^ my question is whether ETS should be asked to go out that far unless 100% paid for by developers.

Would be interesting to see how the city might change its ways if ETS served only areas within the mature overlay plus major attractions/centers of employment.

[Shodan]

Awwwww.........

Edmonton's Bright Nights cancelled

Last Updated: 14th October 2009, 5:25pm

Edmonton Sun

The Chamber of Commerce is bringing an end to its popular Bright Nights winter festival blaming rising operating costs and aging displays as factors.

The festival has drawn nearly two million visitors and collected nearly a quarter of a million kilograms of food and more than $200,000 for the Edmonton Food Bank since its inception in 1998.

But many of the 900 lighting displays are falling apart and would cost nearly $1 million to refurbish. This would add to the cost of running the 45-day event, which approaches another $1 million, said chamber president Martin Salloum.

“I feel personally quite badly to see this end,” Salloum said. “But we would end up in the red if we continued to put on the event, and there would be no money for our charities.”

Salloum said the chamber is exploring other options with other organizations – including the food bank – to possibly put on other festivals or events.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/2009/10/14/11403536.html

[Shodan]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

^haha...

LOOK OUT, IT IS COMING, THE ELLERSLIE BUSINESS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS!!!






from avison young

Eventual LRT access? That bottom rendering looks like ringworm or something...


pharmacymix.com

[Daveography]

Heh, I found something interesting laying around on my hard drive - an early sketch proposal for Stationlands:





I don't even remember where I got these from...I think I scanned them from an old newspaper article or something. File dates are from Nov. 2002 but that might not be 100% accurate. Thought everyone here might enjoy them, though.

[Coldrsx]

hahaha yup... i have those as well... awesome hey

[Keats82]

^

So...

That building has all sorts of interesting architectual details that stand out and make it unique - not neccessarily the most up to date or outstanding features, but, unique.

Head off to Calgary, and you'll see a liberalism in architectual details and "extras" that you don't in Edmonton.

Is this a pure cost thing? Because I'd love to see a building like that in Edmonton, just to break the basic "inverted flat rectangle with minimal flourishes" design standard that so many of our office buildings seem to have. In my current frame of thought, even the new Epcor tower falls a good percentage into this category.

So is it cost? The design council? What exactly is stopping us from pushing these sort of creative designs forwards?

(note: not poo pooing edmonton - im a cheerleader of E-town! just seeing this and then what stationlands became public with, it leaves me scratching my head.)

[240glt]

I'm much happier with the current reincarnation, thanks.

[Keats82]

^ But my point is that this building has more architectual detailing and such that makes it stand out more. Yes its fugly, but it's not a big box.

[Spring2008]

^I totally agree about the plain boxes here, even Epcor reminds me of commerce place, decent but nothing really special. The only tower with architectural merit here I believe is manulife place.

Though I do think the previous stationlands proposal is just way too damn tacky.

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by 240glt

I'm much happier with the current reincarnation, thanks.

Originally Posted by Keats82

^ But my point is that this building has more architectual detailing and such that makes it stand out more. Yes its fugly, but it's not a big box.

Originally Posted by Spring2008

^I totally agree about the plain boxes here, even Epcor reminds me of commerce place, decent but nothing really special. The only tower with architectural merit here I believe is manulife place.

Though I do think the previous stationlands proposal is just way too damn tacky.

thank you 240glt - we're also much happier with the "current reincarnation". what's been resurrected and talked about in this discussion was never an actual design, not even when it was done. it was a purely conceptual and preliminary massing model done as part of our "pre-purchase due diligence" in acquiring the site.

[noodlenoodle]

I noticed a lot of towers in Vancouver seem to have some sort of "jaunty hat". About a third of them seemed to not have aged well and now looked a little dated, even as the rest of the tower maintained relevant.

Perhaps we need a middle ground? I can't comment on Calgary as I'm not tremendously familiar (I avoid the city like the plague), but I'd sooner unadorned than Carmen Miranda.

[rk2000]

Having spent some time in that part of the town, the part that puzzled me is that ETS could get a better ridership by funnelling the traffic from Summerside and Ellerslie to Heritage, especially with the LRT going there.
They could even improve their presence further if they have their bus run through Parson Rd through SEC and then into Heritage. But for some reason they are stuck with the concept of funnelling their traffic through 91 street to Lakewood which is a lousy stop over and is pretty much a longer distance for many parts of Summerside and Ellerslie.

The only other puzzling item for me is that how the heck did NAIT ever decide to put a campus all the way down there. Seems like the oddest place to have a campus, in one corner of the city.

Originally Posted by CanadianCentaur

The Ellerslie/Summerside area doesn't even really have late service for the most part - no surprise here. The only ETS buses which come by there are the minibuses (Routes 78 & 79). I know - my sister just moved into the Summerside area, and while I respect her choice, there are times when I wish she'd had moved to the other side of Gateway. At least I'm glad she didn't move to Cameron Heights - there isn't any ETS service there!

I wonder what kind of a population threshold a new subdivision must have before its improved bus service? I know Edmonton has some newer suburban areas where residents there have had to wait years to get anything apart from peak hour ETS service. Sure, Ellerslie/Summerside will probably never get LRT service in my lifetime, but I'd like to at least see a similar degree of late night service to what you get in Millwoods and McEwan/Rutherford (on the other side of Gateway).

I've been noticing a lot of construction in the west side of Ellerslie while visiting my sister and her fiance there, and part of that might be part of the business campus.

BTW, Serenity's kind of meh IMO - the podium leaves a lot to be desired.

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by Keats82

^

So...

That building has all sorts of interesting architectual details that stand out and make it unique - not neccessarily the most up to date or outstanding features, but, unique.

The Venetian 'has all sorts of interesting architectural details that STAND OUT'.....

keep that in mind kid

[s211]

Originally Posted by noodlenoodle

I noticed a lot of towers in Vancouver seem to have some sort of "jaunty hat". About a third of them seemed to not have aged well and now looked a little dated, even as the rest of the tower maintained relevant.

You can thank the City bureaucrats for those dunce caps.

[Wrecker]

Originally Posted by Keats82

Two points that precisely illustrate Edmontons' need to stop projects like these from happening, imo. Yes, they bring buisness and value, but a good portion of the profit is probably absorbed due to city service costs, etc.

I'm no city expert, but there must be another location in the city that is suitable for this, just take "ellerslie" out of the title and rename it.

The Henday is worrying me - I'd really like to see sprawl maintained, and it seems to be allowing just the opposite.

It isn't the Henday that is the problem, its the fact that there are such piss-poor roads into downtown nobody (not enough) wants to live or work there. A city of 1 million people needs a modern efficient roadway network....thats reality! Yes, a great LRT is also needed, but to ignore the roadway network is nuts, and is the TRUE cause of our sprawl.

[240glt]

^ I'm sorry but that doesn't make any sense.

As for living downtown, right now it takes about 30-40 minutes to get from DT, to, say 170 st or Ellerslie during peak rush hr, and thousands of people do this. How will making it easier for people to drive downtown, make them want to live downtown ? If anything, better roads into DT will increase sprawl, not decrease it.

As for businesses, the roads don't make a lick of difference as to which companies operate out of the downtown. The businesses that are there, need to be there for various reasons. The companies that are not in the core are there because it's in their companies' best interests to be located where, for instance, they can have a shop & a yard attached to their office, or need warehouse space, etc. We're an industry town. It's simply not feasible for most companies to be DT. The roads have nothing to do with it.

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by Wrecker

It isn't the Henday that is the problem, its the fact that there are such piss-poor roads into downtown nobody (not enough) wants to live or work there. A city of 1 million people needs a modern efficient roadway network....thats reality! Yes, a great LRT is also needed, but to ignore the roadway network is nuts, and is the TRUE cause of our sprawl.

true

for Vancouver has a complex network of freeways and few bottlenecks into downtown which created a dense, vibrant downtown by way of fluid movement for those who live in burnaby or poco to pop in and out of the core.

[Rogie]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

true

for Vancouver has a complex network of freeways and few bottlenecks into downtown which created a dense, vibrant downtown by way of fluid movement for those who live in burnaby or poco to pop in and out of the core.

Well said.

The more I live in Vancouver, the more I realize freeways are not the way to go (although at times I do wish there were ONE quick way to get east-west in the city). Urbanism in Toronto was born around opposition to a freeway (what later became the Allen Expressway which stops dead at Eglinton); unfortunately, research shows (at least the research I read from Edmonton Transit), ring roads push development out, so we can all expect to see more of these awful business campus-type developments along the Henday, particularly where it meets with the QE2. Great development area, from a highway access point of view.

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by newfangled

A question for Ken though:

has the % of spandrel vs glazing been increased?

In that new rendering the 5 storey box to the back (south) looks like it has the same curtain wall as was shown in the original renderings.

The rest of the building looks different though - less transparent and more like Bell/CWB/ING?

sorry for the time lag but to answer your question the percentage of spandrel vs glazing has been pretty constant at almost 53%... from slab to slab that represents 760mm of spandrel, 2140mm (7') of glazing and 1150 mm of spandrel in the typical 4150 mm (13' - 7.5") floor to floor. there was some consideration to making the bottom spandrel a glazed section but the potential of raised floors and other technical and operational issues took precedent (energy consumption was not a major one given the efficiency of the triple glazing and the building's mechanical systems - it won't even need perimeter radiation to stay comfortable).

the colour is difficult to describe and difficult to render as well with sky reflection being the most difficult component as you know. you can render the glass/spandrel colours or the sky but not both with any real degree of accuracy (even when completed it's easy to fool the eye with manulife's green glazing being the most obvious local example).

it is however quite transparent and quite different from the examples you noted. if you are familiar with the shangi-la's glazing and spandrel colours in vancouver you'll find it quite close although the epcor tower's articulation and much more prominent use of mullions will provide a much more detailed and interesting "look" from the exterior. in making the final selection we looked as much at the quality of light being transmitted to the interior as we did the exterior appearance. once it's completed you'll like it even if you'll hate rendering it. in some respects the "fly-by" was/is a bit more accurate for colour than the still renderings, probably because you can show movement.

there are some "glitches" in the rendition of the crown that need to be tidied up but they aren't major. as for the comment on the building being "on a rise" it is in fact quite a bit higher than 101 street in the centre of the site. as with the crown, there were some changes to the south podium that still have some "glitches" in being accurately portrayed.