Hamilton The Design District 41 | ?m | 31s | Emblem Developments | Arcadis

TheHonestMaple said:
Unfortunately not, I was paying pretty close attention to it with my drone. They never went further than what can be seen in this shot.

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How are they doing Ph 1 to the north (where the newest crane is)? It doesn't look like there are any piles there.
 
They're covered in soil. It looked like they were going to do the piles for the rest of P3, but then they randomly stopped. Maybe it was because the temperatures started to drop around then? No idea, but they never finished installing them.
 
TheHonestMaple said:
That's awesome! Hamilton really does feel like it's booming these days..
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Hamilton feels like its holding its breath for the next 10-15 years while all these things get built, the core gets repaired and then the city decides WHAT it wants that area to become and how it wants to be restructured - for now its just.. inject more people in, and we'll see how things change.

I am curious to see if amenities pop up close to these new developments to take advantage of the foot traffic.
 
Chronamut said:
Hamilton feels like its holding its breath for the next 10-15 years while all these things get built, the core gets repaired and then the city decides WHAT it wants that area to become and how it wants to be restructured - for now its just.. inject more people in, and we'll see how things change.

I am curious to see if amenities pop up close to these new developments to take advantage of the foot traffic.
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I think they must. Many already are- even Barton is filling in, as I’ve said before. And there’s very few units going in around there yet; must be people just moving into the neighbourhood. Downtown especially is seeing this- retail is spurting up on streets meeting James now, and King West is already more lively. A lot of new developments are bringing retail space too. Feels like there’s demand.

I don’t like the “see what happens” mentality because without changes to the built environment, it’s not going to be as desirable as it might be. The changes you’d make after the fact will thus be smaller in scope because you didn’t put a lot of work into accommodating what’s come. With that said, it’s a good exercise of caution- anything drastic at this stage probably won’t be helpful anyway. It’s also probably unclear where to focus improvements to the pedestrian realm, for instance.
 
Sunnyside said:
I think they must. Many already are- even Barton is filling in, as I’ve said before. And there’s very few units going in around there yet; must be people just moving into the neighbourhood. Downtown especially is seeing this- retail is spurting up on streets meeting James now, and King West is already more lively. A lot of new developments are bringing retail space too. Feels like there’s demand.

I don’t like the “see what happens” mentality because without changes to the built environment, it’s not going to be as desirable as it might be. The changes you’d make after the fact will thus be smaller in scope because you didn’t put a lot of work into accommodating what’s come. With that said, it’s a good exercise of caution- anything drastic at this stage probably won’t be helpful anyway. It’s also probably unclear where to focus improvements to the pedestrian realm, for instance.
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What I feel too is the whole planet seems to be adjusting to what we offer people in terms of shops etc with everything now done either from home or online - I currently feel gore park area is still suffering with so many places not filled up, but I also feel the city doesn't quite know what to do with this area that used to basically be like an outdoor mall with all the dept stores and specialty stores that used to be there. Once I see the gore area really get rebuilt and things go in there that really focus people back into that heart area I think I will feel better - right now there is a lot of rot vs redevelopment clash feeling going on, and I am anxious to see how that materializes..

and good god would someone please do something with the southwest side of gore park - I honestly just feel like they're waiting for it all to collapse since they can't demolish it due to heritage "well you won't let us knock it down? Alright we'll just neglect it until it collapses on its own.."
 
Chronamut said:
What I feel too is the whole planet seems to be adjusting to what we offer people in terms of shops etc with everything now done either from home or online - I currently feel gore park area is still suffering with so many places not filled up, but I also feel the city doesn't quite know what to do with this area that used to basically be like an outdoor mall with all the dept stores and specialty stores that used to be there. Once I see the gore area really get rebuilt and things go in there that really focus people back into that heart area I think I will feel better - right now there is a lot of rot vs redevelopment clash feeling going on, and I am anxious to see how that materializes..

and good god would someone please do something with the southwest side of gore park - I honestly just feel like they're waiting for it all to collapse since they can't demolish it due to heritage "well you won't let us knock it down? Alright we'll just neglect it until it collapses on its own.."
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I think that’s exactly what they’re waiting for, which is scary. I’ve heard the exact sentiment from a lot of people on the inside, which is not reassuring at all. The Gore feels like the place where the heritage should be a selling point- it’s not a random Victorian house in the podium of a tower, it’s an historic lowrise that occupies the whole lot.

Agreed that the retail mix will have to emerge slowly. I think already there are good signs however- downtown Kitchener lacks any good grocery offerings, even on the small-scale. But Hamilton has two proposed (at Augusta and near the Mac building, I think?) plus Nations. Screams functional over aesthetics for me.
 
Sunnyside said:
I think that’s exactly what they’re waiting for, which is scary. I’ve heard the exact sentiment from a lot of people on the inside, which is not reassuring at all. The Gore feels like the place where the heritage should be a selling point- it’s not a random Victorian house in the podium of a tower, it’s an historic lowrise that occupies the whole lot.

Agreed that the retail mix will have to emerge slowly. I think already there are good signs however- downtown Kitchener lacks any good grocery offerings, even on the small-scale. But Hamilton has two proposed (at Augusta and near the Mac building, I think?) plus Nations. Screams functional over aesthetics for me.
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Yeah.. I honestly think the city should step in in this case - those are pre-confederation buildings - this shouldn't be allowed - if you're gonna sit on the plot have the city re-appropriate it and sell it off to someone who will actually do something with it.. I mean how many YEARS has this been boarded up now? It's an eyesore! We can't even use like 1/4 of that side of gore park, its ridiculous.

This was from 2015: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hami...neglect-gore-buildings-rotting-away-1.3028584

and I know there has been that recent proposal last year and it went to review in september, but does anyone have any updates on it..? All I can find is this:

www.thespec.com

Longtime Gore Park development now envisions 32-storey tower above heritage facades

New pitch for mixed-use King Street East comes after years of anticipation
www.thespec.com www.thespec.com

Found this too: https://acontario.ca/show_intervention.php?id=59

And this: https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=285694
 
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Chronamut said:
Yeah.. I honestly think the city should step in in this case - those are pre-confederation buildings - this shouldn't be allowed - if you're gonna sit on the plot have the city re-appropriate it and sell it off to someone who will actually do something with it.. I mean how many YEARS has this been boarded up now? It's an eyesore! We can't even use like 1/4 of that side of gore park, its ridiculous.

This was from 2015: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hami...neglect-gore-buildings-rotting-away-1.3028584

and I know there has been that recent proposal last year and it went to review in september, but does anyone have any updates on it..? All I can find is this:

www.thespec.com

Longtime Gore Park development now envisions 32-storey tower above heritage facades

New pitch for mixed-use King Street East comes after years of anticipation
www.thespec.com www.thespec.com

Found this too: https://acontario.ca/show_intervention.php?id=59

And this: https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=285694
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I can’t really tell at this point if the city has the means to do anything, or even cares enough to move resources to do it. In any case, it would be the right thing to do, but I’d wish we had the same leverage to demand heritage retention like Toronto does.
 
Honestly everyone always talks about making everything more toronto - but if you look at the core, it's not the skyscrapers you're marveling at at ground level - it's all the retained heritage facades that make it - otherwise its just a sea of glass and boxes. They have a good mix of both. Always feels very "new york".

Hamilton has lots of heritage facades but they tend to be on a smaller scale than torontos were.
 
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