U/C 328 Regina Street North | 54 m | 18 fl

[panamaniac]

That last shot makes this one look not only unattractive, but slightly sinister. That can't have been easy for the architect to achieve......

[UrbanWaterloo]

16th Floor - July 20, 2012

[KLM]

I already feel dizzy looking at this building.

[metropolis]

At least the windows are large in comparison to many other recent student projects...

[bcwessel]

You could compose a perfectly handsome, completely successful place with buildings that look just like this, provided there was something interesting happening on the street, and the upper floors weren't intended as merely temporary storage for Waterloo's student "problem." The deficiency of this tower is not aesthetic, at least not primarily so.

When you walk around Yaletown (in Vancouver), you never even notice the buildings, because they are so successfully wrapped in the facade of traditional urbanism. And when viewed from afar, all of those podiums are monotonous (or dizzying) in nearly the exact same manner that the Waterloo Special is. And even if that weren't the case, and every student tower in Waterloo looked identical to the tower portion of the Vancouver Special, they would still create a terrible place. It would still be intentionally transient and monocultural, there would still be nothing to do there.

Our collective critique of this shit can't begin and end with "it looks bad." In fact, there's no point even commenting on the art of these buildings until the foundation of functional urbanism has been firmly established. It's like worrying about the paint job of an plane without wings.

[eizenstriet]

bcwessel:

Might this recent article by the Globe and Mail architecture critic be capturing your observation of the distinction between (a) simple aesthetic deficiency and (b) unhealthy monoculture?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/...rticle4415675/

The context of the article is different in that it is dealing with the Toronto proliferation of glass condo towers, whereas Waterloo is facing the predomination of styrofoam student warehouses. Still, the theme holds:

“Imagine being forced to listen to the same piece of music all day – a gravelly heartbreaker by Nickelback or a high-pitched ditty from the Sound of Music – and the song keeps repeating, every day, every week, one season to the next.”

She does also pick up your reference to Vancouver Yaletown.

I recall Ms. Rochon describing Waterloo in a prior article as “a city of surpassing ugliness”. That was before the real metastasis of Northdale, so she probably hasn’t changed her mind on that score. But even a whole lotta ugly can be softened by diversity.

[KLM]

Seems I opened whole new can of worms with my dizziness.

[bcwessel]

Seems I opened whole new can of worms with my dizziness.

It's actually the same old can of worms, which I suspect keeps hanging around due to its seemingly endless potential to provide fodder for hilarious zingers.

[bcwessel]

bcwessel:

Might this recent article by the Globe and Mail architecture critic be capturing your observation of the distinction between (a) simple aesthetic deficiency and (b) unhealthy monoculture?

Great article, thanks for sharing.

[UrbanWaterloo]

This building has now topped out at 18 floors. Like it or not (and I imagine many will not), this is now the tallest tower to go up in the City of Waterloo in 20 years (since Waterpark Place), and the tallest in the Region of Waterloo since the early 2000's when The Regency was constructed in Downtown Kitchener.

That said, both 144 Park & the BarrelYards should surpass this project's height in 2013. Also the latest rumour on Sage has one of the future phases being the new tallest building in the area.

18 Floors - August 15, 2012

[myfaceisonfire]

This building wouldn't be nearly as offensive without that hideous crown up top. I cannot for the life of me fathom what possessed the architect to add it. Then again, I have stopped trying to understand the rationale behind some of the design decisions made on these student warehouses.