Quote:
Originally Posted by Wharn
I like the underlying concept, especially the idea of having street-level retail. I also like the nod to Progress Avenue in Scarberia, where there is another development somewhat like this one... which leads me to my reservations. Progress Avenue has a very detached and impersonal feel to it, since the residential towers are so high. I'd like to see the maximum height of your buildings around 10 or 12 stories- keep the development lower to the ground and thereby keep it on a more human scale. That would make the gardens fit in with the buildings around them. I also question the busway, since it looks like a considerable amount of demolition will have to take place in order to build it to Western Road. I don't really like the idea of having the city pay to raze housing stock in order to make a private development more attractive.
Other than that, fantastic- especially the design concept of Tower 1.
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That's interesting, I was not aware that there was a Progress Ave in Scarborough around a similar concept! In my version, this street would mostly serve as a back way around the development, and be used to access the parking to support the node. There would definately be appealing gardens, sidewalks and crosswalks, just no retail. I thought that having stores located along the main streets, and the smaller inner pedestrian walkways would be sufficient. That's interesting about the heights of the buildings. I thought that between 9-26 stories would be a good fit, with setbacks and podiums, but that's just my opinion. I would definately want at least one standout tower if I made the rest dramatically shorter.
Regarding the busway, I made a rather crude map of where I envisioned it going. Sorry I didn't explain it better, I just wanted to include some kind of rapid transit system, without worrying too much about the rest of the line.
The purple is the BRT, black dots are the stations, the red area is the development in question, and yellow are future areas for development. After western road in the east, and Oxford to the west, I'm undecided about where the line would continue, hence the dotted lines. It may not be the most direct East-West route but I originally just created it to serve the redevelopment. Nonetheless, I don't see that too many houses would be effected.