Hamilton The Design District 41 | ?m | 31s | Emblem Developments | Arcadis

Chronamut said:
Honestly everyone always talks about making everything more toronto - but if you look at the core, it's not the skyscrapers you're marveling at at ground level - it's all the retained heritage facades that make it - otherwise its just a sea of glass and boxes. They have a good mix of both. Always feels very "new york".

Hamilton has lots of heritage facades but they tend to be on a smaller scale than torontos were.
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I also like to think Hamilton will be closer to a Pittsburgh, Halifax or Seattle over Toronto. Hamilton doesn't need to be Toronto. I love Toronto, but Hamiltons got its own thing that's great. I really loved my visit to Halifax, and the people we met loved living there and many had lived in Toronto or Hamilton actually.
 
Chronamut said:
Honestly everyone always talks about making everything more toronto - but if you look at the core, it's not the skyscrapers you're marveling at at ground level - it's all the retained heritage facades that make it - otherwise its just a sea of glass and boxes. They have a good mix of both. Always feels very "new york".

Hamilton has lots of heritage facades but they tend to be on a smaller scale than torontos were.
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Realizing this is the wrong thread, I'll finish up with this...

Agreed that it is the heritage, old-timey feel that really gives Toronto's streets their magic. I am moreso impressed on the planning side that they are very conservative with preservation and don't seem to buckle all too often. Many big moves come to mind, like the narrow save of old City Hall. I know you and I both lament our corresponding loss there. Condos on top or not, truthfully, this block could be restored as-is and I'd be satisfied. I think we can agree that brick facades are beautiful, and glass towers on top would be better than glass from the ground to the rooftops, as it is on the TO waterfront... especially with how Hamilton condos tend to turn out.

It's hard not to bring Toronto up in the conversation of heritage preservation because they are the only city that seems to even do it with any intention. To be fair, it can be a sort of NIMBYism, and with the way the city is growing the degree of preservation is getting absurd- streetscapes like Adelaide kinda suck (imo). But, I do try to highlight it as what is possible- we should not settle for letting the blocks adjacent to the Gore to collapse for a shitty condo, and Toronto is the precedent for that course of action. It's really an opportunity for us to do it better, too, but not if we won't have any heritage structures to retain. In the context of this project, we should be glad the church is being left alone- I imagine there were considerations at some point about whether that parcel could be gobbled up.

I also hate to say it, but Hamilton's 'ambition' has backfired more often than Toronto's conservatism has historically. One would think we would have come around to this at some point, but Danko's recent comments towards Matlow show it must be something in our water. It would take guts from council, but it is possible to take the good and leave the bad of Toronto, and add in some extra good rather than try to rewrite the book. Sadly In our case, council prefers silence and apathy...
 
Chris R. said:
I also like to think Hamilton will be closer to a Pittsburgh, Halifax or Seattle over Toronto. Hamilton doesn't need to be Toronto. I love Toronto, but Hamiltons got its own thing that's great. I really loved my visit to Halifax, and the people we met loved living there and many had lived in Toronto or Hamilton actually.
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Yeah I went to halifax a few years ago too and liked it - but we'll never be halifax - that innocent sorta sleepy maritime town is unique to the east part of canada, where everything feels a bit more innocent and small town - hamilton is more of a buffalo or detroit in its grit, and we should be proud of that grit.

Hamiltonians HATE being compared to toronto - I think its because once upon a time we were 2 cities of equal standing and toronto took off and hamilton.. didn't. So we have a bit of an inferiority complex where toronto is like the brother who is a lawyer but we are the law school student that dropped out and is doing less than impressive jobs on the side.

Also if anyone should be referenced for building preservation it should probably be places like montreal lol - when you think of montreal and quebec you think OLD architecture.

But yes I do lament the loss of our old city hall, but I also understand the costs of trying to maintain the old buildings - and I totally agree - heritage facade on the bottom, glass on top - I have no issue with glass towers - we can't all build Piggott or sun life buildings out of stone or composite concrete whatever, as it costs a fortune, and there is only so much diversity you can give a tower- but i AM against glass podiums because I feel they look AWFUL - and designing a beautiful 3-6 story podium that looks beautiful is a very feasible thing to do with stone and brick.

It was actually the duke of england on his way to visiting toronto back in the day when they were lamenting what to do with the old buildings that stated just keep the facades and build on top of them.
 
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Chris R. said:
I also like to think Hamilton will be closer to a Pittsburgh, Halifax or Seattle over Toronto. Hamilton doesn't need to be Toronto. I love Toronto, but Hamiltons got its own thing that's great. I really loved my visit to Halifax, and the people we met loved living there and many had lived in Toronto or Hamilton actually.
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Portland over Seattle ;), could also see Hamilton being a Cincinnati, Austin or Minneapolis (in terms of skyline)
 
From yesterday.


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Chris R. said:
This one is going to stick out like crazy, because there's nothing else around it yet. I hope they have lights on top. You'll be able to see it from nearly every vantage point in the city. My view from Vine and Bay today where you can see the cranes sticking out:View attachment 538454
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Great pic! Really hoping for lights at the top as well, Hamilton lacks in this department
 
Undead said:
Hopefully neither in terms of politics.
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Both seem to be pretty progressive which is benefitting them in a lot of ways related to housing elasticity and improvements to the public realm. While housing and rental prices are higher than the US average, it seems below par with other similar sized cities. Anecdotally I know of a few people that lived in Seattle and really liked it, and only moved to Canada for family reasons. Good paying jobs in Seattle too.

I can't speak to Portland as much, but again, their housing policy seems far more progressive than Hamilton's, so I'm not sure what you'd want politically out of Hamilton to work on those items.

They both also seem to have a far better utilization of tax revenues than Hamilton, something that is a massive issue in the city being in huge infrastructure deficit.
 
TheHonestMaple said:
Portland and Seattle? Have you been? Rampant homelessness, drug addicts and criminals everywhere. Progressive politics is a massive failure.
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Seattle and Portland dont even make the top 50 list for most dangerous cities in the US, I don't know what kind of crime you're referring to...

www.cbsnews.com

The most dangerous cities in America, ranked

The violent crime rate in the U.S. declined 0.2 percent from 2016 to 2017, the first decline since 2014
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com
 
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