1571 replies to this topic

[Jackerbie]

Whoops. Sorry. I got confused. All of these new buildings look the same to me.

 

To be fair, Escher orange and Yello yellow are very close to each other on the colour wheel

[G-Man]

Victorian, I too appreciate the businesses in HGV (except for Cobb's which is the definition of corporate crap) but to say that the Atrium is a monstrosity is shocking. It literally meets your criteria of local businesses and a high-quality cladding. It is not clear what you are expecting. Please provide some examples of buildings you like.

[aastra]

Escher Orange was my favourite freezie flavour when I was a kid.

 

For the record, I think it was the cheapness of the materials that fooled me and not the colours.

[aastra]

People can like what they like and dislike what they dislike. I'm just saying the architectural variety in Harris Green today is off the charts compared to even just a few years ago. It's actually becoming a visually interesting neighbourhood. Legato, Mondrian, 800 Yates, Jukebox, Yello on Yates, the 834, Escher, the Wave, Black and White, etc. are all very different buildings. To lump them together and dismiss them in the same breath simply because they were all built after 2000 (or whenever) is silly.

[G-Man]

Plus 1488 Cook and the soon to be completed Wade building too

[jonny]

C'mon man. I'm clearly passionate about my neighbourhood. Passionate enough to join this forum to learn about and discuss a major development that will impact my family. I live here and spend all my time here, and I told you what I think based on my experience and knowledge of the area. You don't have to agree. But do everyone a solid and bring the level of discourse up a few notches.

 

I'm allowed to laugh. 

 

Why did you not answer my questions?

[aastra]

Plus 1030 Yates and 932 Johnson.

[Nparker]

And if the "slanty shanty" across from 989 Johson gets approved (mostly) as proposed, Harris Green will be even more architecturally diverse.

[aastra]

860 View.

[jonny]

True. New developments were needed. But why couldn't they have been nicer looking? Fortunately, it doesn't matter too much. But the HGV is much higher stakes for how the neighbourhood works.

 

What would be nicer looking? Please provide an example. 

Edited by jonny, 31 May 2019 - 12:25 PM.

[aastra]

 

Harris Green will be even more architecturally diverse.

 

Is that a euphemism for "full of luxury condos for rich people who won't even bother to live in them"?

[Nparker]

And no one can accuse the Yates on Yates as looking anything like Yello.

[aastra]

Except for the cheap yellow cladding all over it from top to bottom? Or am I thinking of a different building?

[jonny]

Whoops. Sorry. I got confused. All of these new buildings look the same to me.

 

It's hard to tell with all of these lifeless, generic, concrete and glass monstrosities that all look the same and are absolutely devoid of life. 

[aastra]

 

Or am I thinking of a different building?

 

Hang on. I think I might be thinking of a different city. In a different country.

[jonny]

Obviously people have different architectural tastes, but please come with valid points that we can discuss. To call the Atrium or Juliet generic or devoid of life is demonstrably ridiculous. There are literally no other buildings in Victoria that look like these buildings - at all. 

 

What do you mean by generic? What do you mean by lively?

 

What buildings in Victoria look like generic Legato? What's generic about it? The height? The SFR? The proportions? The cladding?

 

[victorian]

But you're defending the strip mall. That would be the opposite of the opposite.

 

Nope

[aastra]

So you're not defending the strip mall? No problem with toasting it then?

 

Speaking of 1030 Yates, I wouldn't mind seeing a few more smaller buildings along those same general lines here or there (generic = good if the buildings are short). The corner beside Legato seems like a good spot.

Edited by aastra, 31 May 2019 - 01:22 PM.

[victorian]

And user 'Victorian'... dude, your aesthetic opinions seem woefully under-informed. If you want to be taken seriously with architectural critiques, give us some justification beyond "it's ugly and generic." That might fly at the HG community association meetings, but this forum is filled with people who are up to date on current global architecture trends and history. The bar for architectural critiques is high; the bar for discourse is admitted low. Idiot! (jk)

 

I'm definitely not an architect, and I'll never meet the bar that professionals can for architecture discussions. I'm just a guy who lives in the neighbourhood we're discussing. Please bear with me.

 

I'm not really interested in discussing aesthetics, as I completely expect people on VV to have opposite views. The development crowd will always have different priorities than residents do - living in a place requires different things than profiting from a place. For me, this isn't a matter of architectural renderings or price per square foot, it's about where I live. While VV users post pics of aerial photos of buildings (the way no human would ever view them), and renderings (which never include context), I go to HGV and see people on street furniture, eating in front of the market, chatting with friends in the parking lot, lining up for Bin 4 after 9pm, etc.

 

I've traveled around the world and have seen many great cities, towns and villages in places with high quality of life. What I know is that best places I've been in the world are not comprised of buildings that look like what Victoria's developers are pushing here, despite being urban, dense, and lively (that's not to say other cities don't have them at all). In fact, our own Old Town is one of those amazing places. I don't know if I have the right terminology or knowledge to express this any better, but that's what I got.

 

Perhaps an example would help. There seem to be a lot of fans of the Atrium on this forum, but when I compare the empty closed off space in that building with the parking lot in front of LD, I'd pick the parking lot surrounded by flowers, trees, homes, and other small businesses and full of people. Sure, the Atrium has luxury restaurants and high-end retailers, but HGV has businesses I need daily. This isn't a highly informed architectural critique - it's just my experience every day in this neighbourhood. If the Atrium is a celebrated, award-winning building with cutting edge design, that benefits the architects, not me.

 

That being said, HGV is certainly not attractive and needs redevelopment. It needs height. It needs less parking. It needs a lot of things. My only point in this entire discussion is that redeveloping this particular plot has very high stakes for people who actually live here. It's not an empty parking lot or derelict building. It's a well-used multi-use neighbourhood hub, and any new development should be sensitive to that. Is that too much to ask?

Edited by victorian, 31 May 2019 - 01:37 PM.

[victorian]

So you're not defending the strip mall? No problem with toasting it then?

 

Nope