[St. John's] The Official Project Thread

[Horsell]

It appears from the City’s Mapcenter that this block may be made up of as many as 10 separate parcels of land, one of which is a bit of open space on the corner, a couple are being used for parking and of course there is the Magic Wok and Relish.
This would be one instance where I would support the City purchasing these parcels of land, and in certain cases expropriating, so as to consolidate them into a more marketable property. They did it for the Boy Scouts building, why not here.

My tower, when I find the $75 million, would have a place for the Magic Wok and Relish and any other service/retail that would want to be on the ground floor. There would be NO 6 story parking garage before you ever see an office window, that’s for sure. That “cash in lieu” for parking spaces is a great loophole.

[ed0797]

Since the beginning of the week there's been some sort of construction (reflective vest and hard hat wearing) crews working in and around the warehouse-like building on the old Grace Hospital property. This has me thinking demolition? Did anyone hear of any planned activity in this area?

[rthomasd]

Gov't issued a tender last month for demolition of the building. Rumour has it that it was used to store low-level radioactive waste (medical) while awaiting shipment.

That whole site is supposed to be the leading contender for the new Court House complex.

[Horsell]

As much as I agree that we need a new courthouse complex I’m not convinced that it would be the best use for this property. My fear would be that any new complex would be built with lots of surface parking, thus wasting very valuable city center property that could be better served by higher density housing and/or long term care facility. I would like to see that whole stretch along LeMarchant Rd developed as nice “brownstone” town homes with higher density development behind it in a “courtyard” (NOT court “house”) setting.

[statbass]

The Telegram
Dec 5, 2014
Author: Daniel MacEachern

Happy City St. John’s hopes its survey on development density drives conversations between citizens, the city and developers.

The organization Thursday released the results of an online survey with more than 250 responses that Happy City says indicate there’s a market for denser development in the St. John’s area

“What the survey says is that people are willing to accept more density, probably, than we already have, but with conditions,” said Happy City chairman Josh Smee. “One of the things that we’re finding is that there are definitely concerned about density — people are concerned about what it’ll look like, how it’ll play out in their neighbourhood — but people do want to have access to services and amenities in their neighbourhood.”

People overwhelmingly want commercial spaces nearby, said Smee, including grocery stores and restaurants they can walk to — although just how close it is can be an issue.

....

http://www.thetelegram.com/Business/.....-go-denser/1

[LordNezazor]

I wonder how long the Condomeration Building is going to have that sheet over it...

[SignalHillHiker]

It'll be a while yet. They announced that delay this week because of high winds.

I'm curious to see how it'll look complete. Less like a big high school, I hope.

[SignalHillHiker]

There are two infill projects going well near mine. The rowhouses at the corner of Merrymeeting and Freshwater. And more at the mess of an intersection near Cookstown. They're looking good and it's great to have the area filled in even more. I hate little breaks in the streetscape.

[Arrakis]

It's probably gonna look exactly the same as it always did. But instead of teal coloured panels between windows, they will be blue like on the other parts of the building which is complete.

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

It'll be a while yet. They announced that delay this week because of high winds.

I'm curious to see how it'll look complete. Less like a big high school, I hope.

[SignalHillHiker]

Haha, I think you're correct. ;-) But I'm curious what the visual impact will be once it's all done. I imagine it's going to look quite improved. Even just replacing the clear glass could do that.

[SignalHillHiker]

Exciting news. There'll soon be more picture updates here. My camera was stolen a few weeks ago.

Anyhow, for Christmas my parents surprised me - and this is a HUGE present by our standards, we always did Christmas on the cheap. Even growing up I could only ask for three things because that's what baby Jesus got.

ANYHOW, Dad is replacing my camera. We set a limit, so I had to get it on special - but I did. It's coming in the mail and I should be out taking more pictures early in the new year.

[SignalHillHiker]

December 26

Quick mobile update.

St. John's Convention Centre expansion.

[SignalHillHiker]

• Video Link

A little shot around town this morning.

[niccanning]

The Convention Centre looks better IRL than the render, which is nice to see!

[SignalHillHiker]

Snow.

Pretty, though.

• Video Link

[delesseps]

There will be a public meeting on January 8 to discuss an application to build single detached houses between Southside Road and Pitts Memorial Drive. Southside Road has a history of landslides, with recent flooding near Symes Bridge Road, so I wouldn't want to live in one.

[Horsell]

Happy New Year fellow posters.

It’s a quiet time of year for most of the construction industry however it is a good time to get some solid planning done for when the construction season picks up in the Spring. Let’s hope that someone, somewhere is doing some serious planning.

There are quite a few projects that have either been approved in principle or are working their way through the system however there doesn’t appear to be much activity, at least not on some of the larger projects.

The Hilton on New Gower has been quiet since the last public meeting, the Marriott extension hasn’t gone anywhere and things have been pretty quiet with the Lighthouse project. As for the long proposed hotel for the corner of Water and Prescott, that must be dead by now, it has been a few years since we have heard anything on that.

It was nice to see a little bit of excavation for the Star of the Sea condos but I suspect that is about all we will see now until the Spring. And don’t get me started on the Mix and Marconi, too sad.

There appears to be a fair number of small scale retail and office construction on the go but I’m sure we all want something more substantial than that.

In terms of employment in the construction industry, hopefully we aren’t looking at a prolonged period where there is a downturn in different aspects from architecture and design to skill trades. It seems like a few years ago there was a big demand for architects and engineering technologists but lately the demand seems to have dried up. I’ve heard that CNA graduates are not finding placements. Hopefully they won’t have to move away like so many others.

Let’s hope that we will see some exciting projects started in 2015.

[rthomasd]

Any bets that the new MUN Science building gets started in the spring as scheduled? $300 M or so may be hard to come by this year.

[Gravelley]

Originally Posted by Horsell

Happy New Year fellow posters.

It’s a quiet time of year for most of the construction industry however it is a good time to get some solid planning done for when the construction season picks up in the Spring. Let’s hope that someone, somewhere is doing some serious planning.

There are quite a few projects that have either been approved in principle or are working their way through the system however there doesn’t appear to be much activity, at least not on some of the larger projects.

The Hilton on New Gower has been quiet since the last public meeting, the Marriott extension hasn’t gone anywhere and things have been pretty quiet with the Lighthouse project. As for the long proposed hotel for the corner of Water and Prescott, that must be dead by now, it has been a few years since we have heard anything on that.

It was nice to see a little bit of excavation for the Star of the Sea condos but I suspect that is about all we will see now until the Spring. And don’t get me started on the Mix and Marconi, too sad.

There appears to be a fair number of small scale retail and office construction on the go but I’m sure we all want something more substantial than that.

In terms of employment in the construction industry, hopefully we aren’t looking at a prolonged period where there is a downturn in different aspects from architecture and design to skill trades. It seems like a few years ago there was a big demand for architects and engineering technologists but lately the demand seems to have dried up. I’ve heard that CNA graduates are not finding placements. Hopefully they won’t have to move away like so many others.

Let’s hope that we will see some exciting projects started in 2015.

I know for a fact the Star of the Sea will be not going much further ahead then what is being done now. As for your comment on the jobs, there are lots of jobs still out there in construction just not in the design side. Design process in NL is still far behind the rest of Canada especially when it comes to BIM (Building Information Management). Once NL starts to adapt this more you will see smaller teams of designers due to its not needed. I see more students coming out of CNA going into Management and field work then design mainly because of the pay difference. Plus on the design side due to NL being behind alot of bigger corporate companies are taking over these design jobs due to be able to do everything in house ie like Stantec.Then there is the aspect of Design Build which is becoming alot more popular, yes they still need designers just not as involved as before in compared to a design bid build.

[SignalHillHiker]

Is Star of the Sea still going to happen ever, do you think/know?