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581 Parliament St.

A nice midrise building with ground floor retail would definitely be appropriate and a big improvement over the Esso station. 7 storeys feels about right.
 
A nice midrise building with ground floor retail would definitely be appropriate and a big improvement over the Esso station. 7 storeys feels about right.
It would still be the tallest building in CT by far, with the Winchester Hotel at 4 stories being the tallest currently. But I've read that fees and costs make it difficult to make money on anything under 10 stories, so perhaps we should count ourselves lucky. I would prefer four stories.

But I agree, regardless of the height it will be a big improvement over the gas station, especially with ground level retail. I just hope the underground parking entrance is off Amelia rather than cutting across the sidewalk on Parliament.
 
Seven storeys is far from being a midrise
Far? There‘s only three to choose from, hghrise, midrise and lowrise. Surely 7 stories is in the middle category?

 
Far? There‘s only three to choose from, hghrise, midrise and lowrise. Surely 7 stories is in the middle category?

IIRC, in planning school, our working definition of lowrise was 1-5 storeys, midrise was 5-11, and highrise was 12+. These definitions are arbitrary, relative, and will probably change with time.

That said, I do think that traditional urban blocks in large European/Latin American cities are a very distinct typology that is definitively midrise, and are about 5-10 storeys. If a building is so short that it doesn't need an elevator, it is lowrise. If it is so tall that most units are completely removed (psychologically) from being part of the streetscape, then it is highrise. Anything in between is midrise. Just my two cents.
 
I believe planning characterizes midrise as a 1 to 1 ratio between the building and right of way... not sure if I'm exactly accurate on that, just drawing from memory. In this case that seems about the limit for midrise as the right of way is approx 21 meters here.
 

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