Mississauga Widesuites Condominiums | ?m | 35s | Conservatory Group | Richmond Architects

I almost threw up when I saw the photos. Very cheaply done.

Now lets see what the lights look like and how they light up the area at night.
 
July 31
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That retail has been there about 2 weeks now and its taken a lone time to lease any of these units.

A coffee store would work with the commercial building next to it as well this building. It would be nice if that area was wider to have a patio area.

Retail in this area has struggle from day one with a high turnover to been removed by the building owners.

The biggest flaw here like most of Hurontario, the building is set to far back from the street edge and lost from view of traffic, let alone those few walkers.
 
Who expects retail to thrive set so far behind a lawn? Right up to the sidewalk is the only way it will work. All the experts in the world and they can't figure out something simple like this?
 
The setback wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't facing a highway. Hurontario (or Burnhamthorpe, or any other Mississauga arterial) is simply not human-scaled. Human-scaled retail in a non-human-scaled street tends to be ignored by passing cars. There is a reason why strip malls and big-box retail have huge obnoxious luminous signs visible from hundreds of metres away.

Mississauga continues to build good things (universities, transit, condos) on horrible streets and grid-systems. Even if all of Mississauga's downtown was taken by high-rise buildings the way these interact with these highways would still not be conducive to pedestrian activity.

It's specially frustrating because the 60s buildings in Mississauga's Port Credit actually show a degree of scale awareness that is lacking in all these new developments. It's almost as if city planners are going out of their way to not acknowledge something that has worked before in their own city.
 
The setback wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't facing a highway. Hurontario (or Burnhamthorpe, or any other Mississauga arterial) is simply not human-scaled. Human-scaled retail in a non-human-scaled street tends to be ignored by passing cars. There is a reason why strip malls and big-box retail have huge obnoxious luminous signs visible from hundreds of metres away.

Mississauga continues to build good things (universities, transit, condos) on horrible streets and grid-systems. Even if all of Mississauga's downtown was taken by high-rise buildings the way these interact with these highways would still not be conducive to pedestrian activity.

Turning Hurontario into a grand boulevard might do the trick. Despite Mississauga's urbanity problems, it's got some good potential.
 
If this is the way Mississauga is designing their downtown retail, in new condos, they still haven't figured out how to build a real downtown. I see little hope if this continues.
 
Turning Hurontario into a grand boulevard might do the trick. Despite Mississauga's urbanity problems, it's got some good potential.

So you turn Hurontario into a grand boulevard. You would need to add viable retail on both sides. Even then, what do you do with Burnhamthorpe, Kariya, Central Parkway, City Centre Drive, Robert Speck Parkway, and all the other highways criss-crossing Mississauga's 'downtown'? Turn them all into boulevards?

It's like they are set on building a wealthy modern equivalent of this:

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What has happened around Square One so far can only be described as a massive failure except for Celebration Square and the area directly west of it.

I'll be very surprised if the retail under this building ever comes close to its potential.
 
You reduce Hurontario to 6 lanes, with transit using 2 of those lanes, as well having bike lanes. There are ""NO"" turning lanes 100%.

You then shift Hurontario so a new row of mid-rise buildings that are continuous for each each block in front of the existing building as mix development can be built with wider sidewalks on both side of the street.

Transit has to be beef up and run 7/24/365.

Same for ""ALL"" of the major roads in the city.

Get rid of on street parking and surface parking and put them underground as well reduce the city by-law for them.

I prefer to see transit on one side of the street as LRT, but would accept it in the curb lane that will be use for transit only.
 
The first new Widesuites retail is a hair salon. I would like to see a coffee shop go in here...
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Is that section of Hurontario getting LRT?

If so, then the sidewalk will likely be relocated to the inside of the line of trees (closer to the stores) and the current sidewalk space will be replaced with a lane of traffic so the LRT tracks can be built in the middle of the roadway.
 

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