Waterloo 20 University Avenue East | 80.7m | 25s | Prica | PGDS

[Paclo]

20 University Avenue East: a proposed 25-storey mixed-use residential & commercial building designed by PG Design Studio for Prica Global Enterprise on the northwest corner of University Avenue East and Regina Street North in Waterloo's University District.

Renderings from the submission package:

 

[ash_iwn95]

This can be marked in construction. I saw cranes being built on site yesterday

 

[AntonioDavid1]

Projects under way would have been nice if it were 10 more stories 35 stories.

 

[ZEBuilder]

Projects under way would have been nice if it were 10 more stories 35 stories.

What Waterloo needs is less Prica buildings (unless they up the architecture).

Also good luck getting anything of height approved in Waterloo, there's a reason most of the tall proposals are in Kitchener.

 

[ash_iwn95]

What Waterloo needs is less Prica buildings (unless they up the architecture).

Also good luck getting anything of height approved in Waterloo, there's a reason most of the tall proposals are in Kitchener.

I dont think it's a bad thing that new proposals arent highrise. If they expand the northdale neighbourhood master plan and get midrises built end to end over large blocks we can still achieve density

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

Is there a reason why that offensive proposed parking lot can't be placed underground like with normal residential towers?

 

[ZEBuilder]

Is there a reason why that offensive proposed parking lot can't be placed underground like with normal residential towers?

In most of KW parking podiums are normal, much of this had to do with the historical lack of zoning regulation around it (this has changed in Kitchener to some degree with Growing Together priority street regulations).

Secondly, lots of local developers don't want to pay the added cost of underground parking and with limited regulations as I alluded to there is nothing stopping them from building parking podiums.

Now this site in particular has some really high ground water conditions, to the point that they need dewatering if they went even a single floor below ground. Hence they didn't put underground in (again cheap local developers).

KWs groundwater table is also incredibly inconsistent. there's some locations where its almost at the ground surface, then in other locations its meters below ground and you'll likely never hit water. I've been on sites that are next to each other where the soil conditions were completely different and same with the water table (thanks to glacial till).

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

^The water table things are understandable. But what irks me here is that they restrict height in the Waterloo part of KW, but allow for big ugly arsed above ground parking lots. One has to ask then what is it are they trying to preserve here? Especially when the latter is much more overbearing than the former, IMO.

 

[ZEBuilder]

^The water table things are understandable. But what irks me here is that they restrict height in the Waterloo part of KW, but allow for big ugly arsed above ground parking lots. One has to ask then what is it are they trying to preserve here? Especially when the latter is much more overbearing than the former, IMO.

It does depend on the location of Waterloo. In and around Uptown you're in the Laurel Creek floodplain and because of that under ground parking and ground floor uses are severely restricted which is why some of the projects in Uptown (Erb and Regina projects just as some examples) have giant parking podiums.

Elsewhere in Waterloo there's not really any reason other than developers being cheap, like this one you could go underground they just didn't.

As for Waterloo it's just Waterloo, they're trying to be a small town with the population of a city. They're just extremely NIMBY and its reflected in the urban design you see, anything of height is an OLT battle waiting to happen because the city just hates it, so then you get giant slabs instead of point towers. There is no logic behind much of it other than Waterloo being NIMBY. They did update the zoning along some LRT stations but only increased height to about 30 floors (I can't remember exactly but it isn’t much higher than existing).

Kitchener is obviously very different when it comes to zoning thanks to Growing Together and some members of council who are generally more progressive when it comes to zoning and built form.

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

...a large arsed above ground parking garage doesn't feel small town to me. But I suspect I am preaching to the choir at this point. >.<

 

[IrishCanadian98]

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