brightlightsbigcity

Entièrement d'accord que ce serait un building flagship pour le cv mais d'après moi CF privilégie l'option de bâtir 2 tours plutôt qu'une pour les raisons suivantes: -construire en hauteur coûte cher, bâtir 2 x 30 étages est peut être plus abordable qu'une tour de 60 étages pour la même densité -flexibilité: disons que tu signes un anchor tenant qui prend 15 étages et tu commences la construction de la tour 1 et le marché tourne, la tour 2 peut être remise à plus tard

"il se propose d'ailleurs d'assister au prochain match des Étoiles, à Cincinnati, en juillet." - en quoi est-ce de la représentation? Si c'est son projet de croissance personnelle d'assister à du baseball dans ses temps libres, et bien qu'il y aille, mais ce serait scandaleux de faire passer son vol, son hotel, sa town car et son souper chez Nobu sur le compte de dépense de la ville.

En attendant il se paie de beaux voyages aux frais des contribuables le maire Coderre

I can't believe that this mess is the highest and best use for that property. That piece of land has everything! Views, walking distance to every amenity, easy access by car to Westmount, downtown and major highways, next door to the metro and hospital, etc. etc. Why not allow a derogation and build a narrow 25-35 story residential building with corner units, full-floor units, duplexes, penthouses etc. aimed squarely at Westmount empty nesters who want to downsize to a 2-bedroom, 1,700 sq. ft. apartment with large living room dining and kitchen. There is certainly a market for that seeing how the Redfern building sold well and it's a blah project with a bad architect. Someone recently paid $4.9M for a fully renovated penthouse at 1 Wood and it doesn't even face the mountain! From the 20th floor up you'd have unobstructed 360 degree views of the mountain, Oratoire, downtown, river and the west. Add a porte cochere, driveway, swimming pool and doorman and you would have buyers lining up to pay $900k-$2.5M for a piece of that.

That's what I think, but it's not immediately clear from Les Affaires which says something like "le montant que Sixty investira est inconnu" which could lead someone to believe that they are partners, although I wouldn't read too much into it.

I'd be ready to bet that Sixty's involvement is limited to the fact that they'll be managing the hotel, so the fact that they're involved isn't necessarily a testament to the viability of the project. En d'autres mots je ne serais pas surpris que PZ réussisse encore à faire échouer un projet sur ce terrain, ils ont déjà fait des choses pas mal curieuses par le passé.

Love the enthusiasm surrounding a baseball stadium but let's just be real - it won't happen in the next 25 years and if it did, it wouldn't be there. Why can't the existing tower be torn down exactly? It would be a challenge to configure the tower into a hotel given the hexagonal shape of the building which lends itself more to open concept office space, not to mention the fact that demand for such a large property in that part of town is not a bet anyone sane would be willing to take. As for office space, that would represent a lot of square footage coming online in the area at the same time and could take years to fill.

What an idiot!!!!! Does he really believe someone building résidences étudiantes will spend big bucks to make it look period appropriate and nice? Of course not! Luxury is the only way to go if you want to preserve the "patrimoine bati".

I'm no specialist but I would think it's much faster to ship your container of Chinese goods for demo purposes from Shanghai/Shenzhen/Hong Kong by boat to Long Beach/Los Angeles and then by truck to Las Vegas than it is to ship to the East Coast.

It's not about what you or I like. I hate Las Vegas. Not "attrayant" at all. Just like Dubai. Awful cities. But it's by far THE best place to hold trade shows, conventions, showrooms in NA. You have access to the ports on the West Coast, flights are plentiful, you have like 150,000 hotel rooms from $19 to $19,000 a night, restaurants, shows, nightclubs, golf, I can go on and on. For every person that wants to visit Montreal, 100 more want to go to Vegas. That's just the way it is.

Look, we're not talking about PhD's who want to attend a convention in a city with european flair, we're talking about Larry who owns a pool supplies store in Canton MA who wants to buy cheap Chinese wares. 10/10 he will prefer to expense a 2-day buying trip in LV vs. Longueil. You have to go where your clients want to go, not where you want to be. Case in point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Market_Center_Las_Vegas Do we have anything even remotely similar in Quebec?

I'm very, very skeptical about this project. Not that it's not good news, but, if they're trying to attract a clientele from all over Canada and the East Coast, it would make much more sense to build in... Las Vegas. It's cheaper to fly from BOS/JFK/LGA/EWR to LAS than it is to fly to Montreal (especially BOS-YUL where our friends at AC have a monopoly). It's cheaper to take a cab from LAS than YUL-Laval. You have endless amenities, entertainment and lodging options in LV; Laval, not so much. And the "1,000 Chinese businessmen" would be pleased to know that state income tax in NV is nonexistent and houses in LV metro are dirt cheap. I hope they like snow. I'm trying to wrap my head around why they would choose Montreal over Las Vegas. Maybe it's easier for them to secure visas here than EB-5's down south, that's the only explanation I see.

Yes which is why buying class A office space steps from the Roddick Gates @$300 a foot makes more sense IMO than leasing the same space from IA or spending $1,500 a foot overhauling RVH. Harvard/MIT have some terrible buildings, that doesn't stop them from attracting top talent. 2200 MC isn't that bad (all in all post-modernism is less offensive than brutalism as brought to you by McGill and that terrible circular building on the mountain that looks like a nuclear power plant), plus it's on MCGILL COLLEGE which is one of Montreal's "flagship" streets and tied with the university's history. If the building isn't high profile enough for McGill and they must blow $1,500 @ foot then they can have it reclad in Jerusalem limestone or Italian travertine and install all marble everything in the lobby to satisfy their delusions of grandeur, now wouldn't that be a scandal in the making?

Saw this this am, don't know if this is the right section to post in; Exclusive: Chinese millionaires appear to be deserting Quebec's immigrant investor scheme http://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1761350/exclusive-chinese-millionaires-appear-be-deserting-quebecs-immigrant

I'm not saying it's a bad project per se. I'm not saying McGill shouldn't get it for $0. And I agree that the prov. gov should support McGill financially to some extent if they have some infrastructure needs. But to say that they "need" a $1 billion, 700,000 sq. ft. monument is an exaggeration IMO. Remember as a kid when you tried to convince your parents that you "needed" something using all kinds of outlandish excuses? It seems like McGill is trying to do the same thing here. Perhaps a smaller version of the project (both in size and cost) is in order. One billion dollars is a lot of money! That's roughly $1,500 per sq. ft.! As for the offices - I am aware that they also need classrooms and laboratories, but that doesn't change the fact that they claim to need 200k sq. ft. of office space, and 2200 McGill College could certainly alleviate more than half of that need (when the 2-3 remaining tenants move out). If they truly have such a chronic space deficit, it's quite puzzling that they don't take what's already there for the taking. And it's reasonable to assume that you could probably buy 2200 MC for somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 a foot. Seems like a much more sensible option if you have an urgent "need" for space - vs. a "want" for a trophy property.

T'as tout compris. They are looking for a handout. A billion dollar handout.

What I meant is that the big donors will give regardless of where/what McGill builds, if it decides to do so. Le fait que ceux ci donnent n'est pas un gage de la qualité du projet, mais plutôt de la capacité à McGill de récolter des dons. Si McGill bâtit un pavillon de 700,000 p.c. ailleurs, l'argent des grands donateurs privés sera également au rendez-vous. Donc incrémentalement le montant de donation ne changera pas parce que McGill arrête son choix sur le projet RVH plutôt qu'un autre emplacement.

Again, I find it curious that McGill has a 700,000 sq. ft. space deficit and the ONLY way to remedy it is to refurbish RVH. For example, they state that they need approx. 200,000 sq. ft. of office space. 2200 McGill College has 80,000 sq. ft. of contiguous space available right now (since Ultramar left) and up to 127,000 sq.ft. in total when other tenants leave. The location makes perfect sense. It's a stone's throw from Roddick Gates. It's 2 blocks away from the metro and all services. It offers 100+ indoor parking spaces. If you were a McGill employee/executive/teacher, would you rather walk 2 blocks to your office or trudge up the hill in the snow and slush? If McGill actually needs 200,000 sq. ft. of offices, why don't they make a move on 2200 McGill College, like, yesterday? They could sign a lease on the contiguous spaces with a right of first refusal on the remaining space, and eventually acquire the building once they're the sole tenant. The building is 2/3 vacant, so I'm sure Industrielle Alliance would be open to all options, including an outright sale. As for the non-heritage USSR buildings, I don't think anyone will shed a tear for those.

This is irrelevant to the RVH discussion because the big donors who are in a position to donate $10M+ to McGill will sign the checks regardless of what/where McGill builds. Even if McGill decides to build say a $300M pavillon instead of RVH, you will still have a Desmarais or Bronfman pledging $50M for the naming rights. Incrementally, building a $1B RVH vs. a $300M project with the same floor space won't raise much more. M. Mme tout le monde pledging $100-$1000 won't move the needle. Unless everyone on this thread pledges $10M

I agree, but you're looking at $50-100M at most.

Where did you get that number from? And by actual, do they actually mean "if the student population doubles in the next 15 years we will need XXXXXX extra sq. ft."? I don't think it should be saved in its entirety at any cost. We are talking about ONE BILLION DOLLARS. Not $150M. Not $350M. We're in Getty Center territory here. Heck, that's what the I.M. Pei renovation of the Louvre cost (in 1989 dollars but still). Besides the Stade Olympique, the Oratoire St-Joseph, a potential baseball stadium that our dear mayor won't stop gushing about (he was chilling in Tampa this weekend btw, hopefully not on the taxpayers' dime) how many more pricy baubles can we afford? Let's be real. We are not the UAE or KSA.

This is insane! McGill is always complaining that they have to make budget cuts because they have no more money and now they want to build a $1B trophy property on the hill? How much space do they need exactly? You could buy the entirety of PVM for $1B! Tackling the mess that is RVH is insanity. It would be like trying to keep a Ford Model T on the road when you could just lease a Taurus instead. The Ilot Voyageur "gouffre" is nothing compared to this. And $8M for a étude de faisabilité?? WOW

Could Royal Vic cure McGill space woes? By Doug Sweet It is an iconic site. It sits right in McGill’s backyard. In about a year or so, it will stand empty, awaiting its next vocation. Could it be the cure for the University’s chronic space deficit? The possibilities are interesting. The Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH or the Vic) has stood for more than 120 years on the slope of Mount Royal. The original structures are an architectural echo of the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, Scotland. The RVH has been the scene of many medical firsts for Canada, and to this day it offers a wide range of specialized medicine and innovative care that belies its ancient façade. The Vic is one of Quebec’s major centres for organ transplants. In fact, Canada’s first kidney transplant was performed there in 1958. It is also the site of Canada’s first palliative care unit. Next year, the Vic, along with the Montreal Children’s Hospital and other medical institutions, will move to the MUHC’s new Glen Yards site in N.D.G. “It’s an important piece of real estate, given its location,” Vice-Principal (Administration and Finance) Michael Di Grappa said in an interview. “McGill is landlocked on all sides and there is this magnificent site that is becoming available to the north, which seems to be a natural extension of our campus.” In fact, with the Montreal Neurological Institute to the east, residence buildings curling around it to the north and the Allan Memorial Institute and Ludmer buildings to the west, the Vic is literally surrounded by McGill. The site is obviously attractive to a university that is bursting at its seams, said Provost Anthony C. Masi, noting that the Quebec government agrees that McGill is under-spaced. “A project to annex the Vic could be really important to McGill’s future,” he said. “We obviously need space, even the Ministry (of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology) admits that. Further, the RVH is contiguous to our downtown campus, it is iconic-looking space, and it has a long history with the University. “When we started our strategic planning exercise over five years ago, looking at the strengths and aspirations of the University, one of the first things we did was look at space requirements over time,” Masi said. “What struck us is that every faculty is under-spaced and, as a consequence, we thought that, over the next 10 years, even if the number of students at the University remained constant, the requirements of additional space for projects, laboratories and the modern way of thinking about learning spaces would require upwards of half a million to a million more square feet. “So academic needs of McGill were really pressing in terms of space, whether that’s modern teaching spaces or up to date laboratories or spaces for projects. And when we do renovations, we have no swing (temporary relocation) space.” “Our physical space does have an impact on our academic performance and I think we need to be aware of how we can fix that, and that means being able to expand,” Masi said. Knowing this, and knowing the hospital would become vacant with the construction of the new MUHC facility in the Glen Yards, McGill’s senior administration has been exploring a number of options with various levels of government about what could be done with the site. Preliminary suggestions are focused around developing an urban project that would benefit both Montreal and McGill by • preserving heritage buildings • reducing paved areas by up to 50 per cent • nearly doubling green space • using University Street as a better public pathway to Mount Royal • returning the over-all site to something more closely resembling its original look and feel. Some buildings on the site, with little or no heritage value, would be demolished and, without adding to the footprint on Mount Royal, be replaced by modern, less intrusive structures. This could also provide McGill with an opportunity to build the large, modern auditorium, suitable for such events as Convocation, that it has sought for years. The University needs to know whether it will get the necessary support from government sooner rather than later, Masi said, because McGill needs to choose from among a number of plans in place to deal with the enormous requirements it has for additional space. “The Go/No-go decision probably requires at least 12 months of detailed feasibility studies,” he said. At the moment, it is too early to get very specific about how long it would take or what it would cost. And a project as vast as this won’t be accomplished overnight, but will be a multi-year undertaking, completed in phases. Without hesitation, both Di Grappa and Masi noted that McGill could easily occupy close to two-thirds of the available 1.2 million square feet of space in the short and medium term. And they both noted that to do so could cost, by very rough estimates, somewhere in the vicinity of $750 million. But they both noted that McGill will not handcuff itself financially and, because of the Vic project, be unable to deal with other issues on the rest of the downtown campus and at the Macdonald campus. “We cannot do this alone,” Di Grappa said. “This is a project that is not just a McGill project. This is a project that will have to involve the City of Montreal, the Government of Quebec and the Government of Canada. It is more than a McGill project; it is an urban project. It is in part about giving the Mountain back to the citizens of Montreal. It is about simplifying access and making access to the Mountain easier. And to really enhance the attractiveness of the Mountain for Montrealers.” “Our proposal for the Vic has clear Go/No-go gateways – like a flow chart in a computer program,” Masi said. “If we get to a gate and it says, ‘No,’ then it’s No, and we’re out. But even if it says ‘Yes,’ there will be many other gateways to pass with additional conditions, before we could sign on the dotted line.” More details will emerge as McGill gets an indication that the project is feasible and supported by government, Masi said. The over-all goal remains the same: a win-win project that benefits both the University and the community. “It’s useless to put a lot of emphasis and effort into ‘this faculty or that faculty will go there now,’ Masi said. “The planning and the presentation to the community will include some ideas, but they have to be flexible. “It’s appropriate for Canada: instead of being carved in stone, the plan is etched in ice.” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

"As for Fischer, he’s just surprised that anyone can recognize one of his buildings on sight." LMAO http://nypost.com/2011/11/06/nys-most-loathed-architect/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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