Ugly Canada 2 (Only architecture, planning and design faux pas)

[megadude]

Hmm... I'd never heard of a mini split before. Goes to show how different things are depending on where you live. When I was younger I didn't realize what the huge cylinder tanks were outside beside rural houses. I also hadn't noticed the lack of sewers on streets that use open ditch for drainage.

These are the things I only picked up after working in mortgages where I had to review appraisals. That and when I started to look for a condo and then a house. So many different ways to heat a house.

I didn't know about septics either until I started doing houses in the Kawarthas and Haliburton, which is cottage country. Then I got to see it in person when I met my current wife and we'd go up to her family cottage. Was fascinating to see the truck come, open the hatch, and suck all that out with the hose. Didn't look or smell disgusting as the pink chemical they use in there masked pretty much everything.

I also didn't know that in Britain it's popular to have laundry in the kitchen until I actually went there in 2006.

I didn't know heating oil existed until I saw the pics from a planned tear down house in Toronto. My boss explained it to me. Then two great movies made me even more aware. In The Drop, Tom Hardy uses the tank for something. I won't spoil it. And A Most Violent Year centres around Oscar Isaac's challenges in the heating oil industry. Sounds boring but what a captivating movie.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

How long ago did I post that? I meant pretty much same PRICE as my place. It’s in no other way similar lol

On the last page. It actually looks like it was never intended to be a house, maybe some kind of semi-commercial or utility building.

Originally Posted by biguc

I've seen too many too-small Home Depot windows plopped into openings, with the wall built up to fit with whatever junk is laying around the back yard.

This is relatively elegant.

It has some hobbit character, even if contrived, it has creativity which the other one lacks.

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Mini-split. They're quickly becoming the dominant form of home heating here, replacing oil furnaces and electric baseboards.

I've only seen ceiling tiles in a residence a few times, I think this is the first one here (the rest have been in this thread from elsewhere, I think lol).

Ceiling tiles were the rage only in the 60s/70s, and they deadened spaces acoustically; not a good look anymore except where dropped ceilings are necessary, especially useful in commercial applications.

Mini splits can only do one room, and are not suitable for heating large residences like central heating. They are a quick fix to augment underdesigned older heating systems. I've seen them in basements in NL as auxiliary heating, but heat pumps are routine here for heat/cooling in newer buildings.

[Loco101]

I've seen houses in Timmins with the split heaters in some rooms. I believe they are commonly called heat pumps as well right? There are some pretty small ones I've noticed. I've heard good things about them but I think that they aren't used here as primary sources for heat during extreme cold but are supplemental.

My house has only baseboard heaters and one Convectair.

[Wigs]

My cousin and his wife bought an older 2 storey (c1940 maybe) in Nova Scotia that's around 1,700 sq ft.
It was being heated with oil.

They've done a decent amount of renovations in 1 year. My cousin replaced all the old windows, new doors, put some new insulation in and now they're using split-minis with heat pumps (so they can be used as A/C and heat, unlike my folks A/C only units without heat pump).

I forget how many if it's 3 units or what they have, but he says they work great, and helluva lot less expensive and cumbersome than heating oil.

My cousin has worked in construction his whole life building houses, home renovations, so he'd know what works.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Architype

Mini splits can only do one room, and are not suitable for heating large residences like central heating. They are a quick fix to augment underdesigned older heating systems. I've seen them in basements in NL as auxiliary heating, but heat pumps are routine here for heat/cooling in newer buildings.

I think you're technically correct, but people are definitely getting by with just one.

This is my parents' place:



They have one mini-split with the unit on the living room wall (upper right). The only other room that have any heating on ever is the garage as needed. The rest of the house it does perfectly well, including the downstairs seating room and all the bedrooms on the upper left.

[MolsonExport]

Proposed build-on to the existing Dead Mall known as Westmount Shopping Centre (London).

[O-tacular]

WTF? It looks like the Borg landed on top of a mall and began harvesting it to build their new ship. I like how they're not even updating the ground floor beneath the towers. And the surface parking remains atrocious.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Proposed build-on to the existing Dead Mall known as Westmount Shopping Centre (London).

Post-apocalypticalism for a dead mall. Intriguing.

[MolsonExport]

I think it is supposed to be a Qbert Museum, or homage to Laval's Flag (wait, am I insulting Quebec again? my bad!!)

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Proposed build-on to the existing Dead Mall known as Westmount Shopping Centre (London).

[Hawrylyshyn]

London = Ontario equivalent of Quebec

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Proposed build-on to the existing Dead Mall known as Westmount Shopping Centre (London).

But why?

Why not just bulldoze the mall and make something better?

[O-tacular]

This beast belongs here:

Originally Posted by JHikka

1786 & 1790 Liverpool Road (Pickering) | 156.75m | 49s | Chestnut Hill | Kirkor Architects





https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...hitects.34437/

This render includes this proposal and the Vupoint towers.

Where are the windows? Are they not even bothering with essentials anymore with these projects they pitch to foreign investors since they won't actually occupy the units anyways? Now it's just a shell of a building acting as a piggy bank for laundered money?

[MolsonExport]

Look at the bright side. Clockzilla would no longer be the sole contender for ugliest building in Canada. Could he be vanquished by the Westmounster?

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by thewave46

But why?

Why not just bulldoze the mall and make something better?

Way too obvious. They could at least start to fill in some underutilized parking lot and get some interaction with the street without affecting the mall much anyway.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Way too obvious. They could at least start to fill in some underutilized parking lot and get some interaction with the street without affecting the mall much anyway.

That's what Chinook Centre in Calgary is looking at doing. They also expanded onto surface parking and replaced it with underground parking. I guess that's just sacrilege to the property managers in London.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by megadude

I should point out, especially since I mentioned my interest in windows, that the front of this house has doors in place of windows. Here it is blown up:

Hah, I didn't recognize it till you posted this one, but I've already made fun of this house in a group chat! (My brother has been looking at Simcoe houses)

Best zinger: "It looks like someone got told "You make a better door than a window", and they took that personally"

Actually a buddy of mine lives around the corner, and i used to walk through that neighbourhood all the time in high school, and I had no idea that "street" was there. It's pretty obviously an alley-turned-into-a-street, didn't know there were any of those in Norfolk.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

This beast belongs here:



Where are the windows? Are they not even bothering with essentials anymore with these projects they pitch to foreign investors since they won't actually occupy the units anyways? Now it's just a shell of a building acting as a piggy bank for laundered money?

49 storeys for...Pickering
O-tac, windows cost money

one of the worst renderings I've seen of late. And that's including that St. Catharines 18 storey with clock at top with the misspelling, and the owner can't decide whether it's called Carlisle Square or Suites.

[Wigs]

Even Welland has a better plan to add housing to the (c. 1976) Seaway Mall. To be continued depending on how ugly the renderings are

The old Target (ex Walmart/ex Woolco) was demolished (middle) to make way for 1,300 units of housing in a mix of condos, townhouses, semis/triplexes up to 3 bedrooms. The left and right sides were hundreds of parking spaces. Shopping malls were built to accommodate parking for the busiest day of the year, usually Christmas time. Now most malls don't need all of the excess parking.






3 High rises up to 16 storeys (probably 8-16 storeys) in orange, medium density=light orange, lower density=yellow
Plan to add 1,000 trees, a new bus hub for the newly formed Niagara Transit, other amenities.

Of the 1,300 units, about 700 will be in the highrise buildings, which will not exceed 16 storeys, said Toth in an interview before guests started to arrive.

Prices will range between $300,000 and $1 million per unit.

Because it is a “unique, specific development,” the residential hub will “have a good amount of demand,” said Toth.

“There’s a wide variety of prices, which we feel will get more people and we will be able to fill that demand,” he added.

https://www.wellandtribune.ca/busine...away-mall.html

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Look at the bright side. Clockzilla would no longer be the sole contender for ugliest building in Canada. Could he be vanquished by the Westmounster?

"Doc, my wart has grown something on top... tell me straight, does it look malignant?"

May as well plop a replica of the London courthouse on it as well, give it some more oomph.