Okay, good afternoon and welcome to our virtual design review panel meeting. My name is Edward Winter. I'm a urban designer at the city of Hamilton and I coordinate the design review panel. On our agenda today, we have a development proposal at 96 Main Street East in Hamilton. Today we have with us the applicant team, city staff, members of the public, public public and media in attendance. Members of the public are welcome here to observe. Uh however, there is no commenting or questions um from the public or media during the presentation. Uh this meeting is being recorded and will be uploaded to the city of Hamilton's DRP web page. Chair of the DRP, Jennifer Mard, will be leading our discussion today. Uh, Jennifer, you may begin when you're ready. >> Thanks, Edward. Good afternoon, everyone. Edward, can you please reconfirm that the session is being recorded? >> Yes, recording is going. >> And are there any changes to the agenda today? >> No. >> Are there any declarations of interest from any of the panel members? I'll take silence as uh no declaration. Okay. Thank you. On the agenda today is the review of 96 Main Street East. The lead planner on the file is Michael Fiorino and he's available to answer any policy questions. Edward Winter, the urban designer at the city of Hamilton, will make a brief presentation. Thank you, Edward. We're ready for your five minute pres. Okay, here we go. All right. The proposed development would include the construction of a 29story multiple dwelling with 370 residential units and 309 square meters of ground flooror commercial space on Main Street East. The proposal would include one level of underground parking and two levels of above grade parking uh provided in the podium for a total of 121 parking spaces. On the overhead map here you see Main Street West proceeding diagonally from left to right and the blue rectangle with the yellow star is the subject lens. Uh we also have Katherine Street on the east side and Bowen Street on the west side. Okay, here we have some site photos. Um, the properties in the center and you notice the tall building on the side and this is Bowen Street in the foreground here. All right. Uh now we're looking south uh down Catherine Street and again the the subject property uh is the lower currently the commercial complex on the right and we have a an existing tall building on the left and in the right distance you can see some newer construction that's going up that is on James Street uh James Street Okay, turning around again. We're now looking west uh back up Main Street. So, the subject property would be on the left. And you can see varying stages of the downtown in in our image here um with the newer construction on on the left. Okay. And we've moved around again. We're now looking north uh along Catherine Street and uh the subject site would be on the left just behind this stone building. Now this stone building is not part of the subject lands um but directly adjacent. All right, here we've moved across to Bowen Street. So we're looking north uh along Bowen Street. And again, the subject property is just on the other side of this stone building. Okay. And here we are looking around the corner um at at uh sort of norththeast direction uh towards Main Street across the corner of the subject site. All right. So, here's our conceptual site plan. Um again, Main Street coming along from east or west to east and Bowen Street on the west of site and Catherine on the east of the site. Catherine uh is one way north to south uh and Main Street again is one way currently um west to east. There are proposals uh to turn Main Street to two-way uh in the future. and the conceptual rendering. This is looking from the north across Main Street onto the site. Uh this proposal uh did have a formal consultation uh earlier this year. Uh at that time it was submitted for a 30story mixeduse building with a five-story podium. uh slightly more uh 393 units and 362 square ft of commercial ground floor space. At that time there was 77 parking spaces including seven barrierfree and 197 long-term bicycle parking. Um that time there was two levels of underground and three uh on the podium. staff provided comments at that time and raised concerns with the proposal specifically identified with regards to the height and shadow impacts um to 50 Main Street East. So for uh discussion today we have four um topics and they are how well does the building base or podium work to support the pedestrian realm along and establish a street wall on Main Street? Second, how well does the proposed design mitigate the shadow and wind impacts at street level and at the common shared amenity terrace? Third, how does the landscaping plan work to support an active streetscape on the three different sides, that being Main Street East, Katherine Street South, and Bowen Street, and noting the different different characteristics of each street. And lastly, how the how does how is the design implementing sensitivity towards the heritage building directly south of the subject site? And um is the narrow gap between the buildings uh effective uh in this regard? All right. So that brings the staff presentation to an end and I'll pass it back to you Jennifer. >> Thanks Edward. We're now ready for the consultant to provide additional information. Please keep your presentation to 10 minutes. >> Okay. Good afternoon everyone again. Uh let me just grab make sure my screen works here. Out of the way. Okay. Just want to confirm quickly everyone can hear me. Everyone can see my screen. >> Yes, it's good. >> Awesome. Thank you everyone. Okay. Uh good afternoon. My name is Ryan Ferrari. I am a senior planner with Agent Clark and Associates. I'm the agent on this file. Uh we're going to be presenting to you uh 96 Main Street, Art Design. Um I will start the presentation with a little bit of context for the subject site. Um and then after u my portion's concluded, I'll ask John from Chamberlain to um uh go ahead and introduce the design of the building. So, I'll start with a little bit of site context. Ed gave us a little bit of that previously. We are downtown Hamilton. Um, we've just outlined the site here with the proposed LRT line. Uh, the two nearest stops will be the future Mary Street and James Street stops uh which will both be walking distance to the site. Uh in addition, I think it's also worth pointing out Hamilton GO station uh the community train station to uh using the Lakes Shore West Line is located within walking distance of the site as well. Um I'll skip this slide. I just uh just zooming into the site a little bit more. Uh corner of the main main Captain Street. Um this is an old uh burial of what's around the subject site. and I'll provide a little bit more context um a little further below. Uh really quickly, as I've mentioned, uh the subject site is on the right here. It's a currently a commercial plaza um that it is tenanted. Uh you'll note, uh Ed alluded to this. Main Street runs uh west. It's a one-way street with four lanes currently. Um and then the other picture is just showing the other side of Main Street with the subject site on the left. Um there is a bus stop uh as well fronting the subject site which I think is worth pointing out. Uh this is just a shot of the Hamilton LRT line. Uh latest and greatest is will go from McMaster to Eastgate Square. Uh and just really quickly touching on uh potential Main Street two-way conversion. Uh this is not necessarily the design that's going to be implemented for the site, but I think it's important for the panel just to see um how big of a change it's going to bring to Main Street going from a four-lane road to potentially two lanes one way, one lane the other way. Um the our subject lands are just located where the HSR stop here in that blue square. Uh quickly on some planning policy. So, the site is designated downtown mixeduse. Uh, it's also designated high-rise 2, which does permit 30 stories. I just want the panel to note uh the subject lanes outlined in blue, but also the green rectangle located to the west of us, that is Princess Square. Um, there are policies in the official plan, I won't dig into them too much, that essentially say you cannot shadow onto Princess Square. and we'll have some slides later on showing uh what that looks like in context of the development. Uh another important piece in the downtown secondary plan when you're uh building a tall building is the escarment height. Uh this is just an excerpt from the official plan showing uh the viewshed. Uh our viewshed is here at 190.2 m above sea level. Um our development is right there at 190.19 meters above sea level. So, uh we are meeting the escarbon height uh for the site. Uh just quickly on zoning, the permitted height in zoning is 93 m. Uh we're proposing just slightly over at 93.8 m. So, we will need a minor variance for that for a slight increase in height. Uh just quickly going through some of the height context here. I'm not going to go through every single one, but as the panel can see, lots of 30story buildings. We're right beside Landmark Place. that's at 43 stories. Um, so it's highly urbanized uh very tall uh contexts that we're working in here. Uh we've come up with six examples of recently approved or constructed developments. I won't go through all of them here. Uh there's two important ones I think the panel should know about. Um on the third page here, so 111 Jackson Street is located kitty corner to our site. Landmark Place is just here in the background. This is an approved development. It's actually taller than the escarment at 39 and 30 stories. Hasn't been built yet, but it is approved uh to be built. Uh the other project I think worth noting um this is in the context of Princess Square is 64 Main Street, which is 18 stories and is approved. A minor variance application was approved for the site. Um and the Landmark Place is in behind that building which is yet to be built. Our building would wedge in between Landmark Place and 64 Main Street in here. Uh sort of with that context being provided, I'll pass it on to John at Chamberlain. And maybe I'll ask John quickly if he wants me to keep operating the presentation or if he wants to take over. I'm in your hands. >> We can't hear you, John. No, still nothing. How about now? >> There we go. >> Okay, there we go. Sorry about that. There was multiple options there and I had it was the last one, number four. So, okay. Thanks, Ryan. Yeah, if you don't mind uh continuing to flip through, that would be great for me. >> Um Okay, if you want to hit the next uh slide. >> Okay, so just real quickly, uh obviously Ryan hit some of the basics for the building. uh 29 stories, 370 units, uh just under 28,000 square feet or square meters. We've got about 5,000 square meters of amenity space, including our indooroutdoor terraces and balconies, uh 93 meters and 122 parking stalls. Uh if you want to go on to the next uh slide, Ryan. Okay, next slide. So, here we can see our ground floor plan. This is on the north side. We've got Main Street. Uh we've got Bowden and Katherine on the on the flanks. So we've got street tracing, retail, commercial, about 3,000 square feet which is wrapping around u Maine onto the two side streets. So the whole goal here was to kind of wrap and bring that entire pedestrian experience, you know, not only along Main Street, but also kind of wrap it around. So we got a bit more of a an active corners or active corners happening. The residential lobby is located off of Bowden. So, as you transition around um the main street and Bowden access, you kind of get into, you know, a slightly let's call it less pedestrian areas as you leave the retail space and then you go directly into the vestigual of the residential lobby. So, both of those are kind of very closely connected. Residential traffic onto Main Street is is all kind of very close to to Main Street, activating that corner and activating the space. Um, all the building services have been internalized. So, we've got an access route that kind of runs through the building both from Bowden and Katherine. You can see it there in the center. We've got our um our loading space in the middle and then access to our parking garages both up and down um kind of in that U-shape uh on on both the east and the west side of the plan. Um the centralized access kind of allows us to bring everything inside there, all of our garbage, everything kind of happening inside that space. Uh Ryan, do you want to flip to the next uh sheet? Okay, so next sheet here. Um, this is our second floor parking plan. So, we do have above grade parking, but one of the goals here was to uh minimize uh that impact onto the main street facads. So, what we've done is we've gone with obviously a higher floor for the ground floor to really kind of emphasize that uh retail and commercial space and we've introduced some mezzanine space. So again, you know, wrapping the two side streets along with Main Street, we have full glazing and activation happening along those levels. And then we've got uh our first level of above grade parking and some locker storage happening. We go to the next slide, Ryan. Okay, so next slide, we get into some units. Um so this becomes our our our full third our own full our partial third floor. Again, uh we've placed those units facing Main Street and wrapping around the corners, keeping all of the parking in behind. Go up to the next one, Ryan. Okay, so this becomes our our our residential podium level. So, here we've we've moved into a slight step from the podium, as you can see on the east and west side of the drawings along with the rear. Uh we're getting into our our let's call it typical unit mix for the next few floors before we step again into our tower. And we also have some concealed uh storage space in the center section and a bit of a transfer stair happening to kind of get us out of the way of our parking parking facing levels. Go to the next floor, Ryan. So this becomes our fifth and our sixth floor. This is kind of our our typical podium floor. Uh sorry, Ryan. One more floor up. Did it move? I'm still seeing the one below. >> Yeah, just give it a second. No problem. >> There it goes. Okay, great. So, here's our fifth and sixth uh typical floor. The transfer floor is now transferred into a scissor stair that's going to run all the way up the tower. Uh, and we still have our our kind of typical floor that we've been chasing up from uh four, five, and six. If you want to flip on to the next floor, Ryan. Okay, so this is our our seventh floor. This is where we transition into our uh our tower floor plate. You can see we've kind of split this floor into um our indoor amenity space, rooftop terraces. Um, again, this these larger terraces on the units help to kind of give us um some activation along the street edges as we continue up the building and also help us transition from the the podium now into the tower portion. Want to go on to the next one, Ryan? And here we get into our tower floor plate. Um, lots of kind of undulations, some inset balconies, some outset balconies, different things that are kind of helping us play with the facade as we move up the building. And then if you want to flip to the next slide, Ryan, quickly, this is just our our rooftop mechanical space. Okay, if you want to go on to the next slide. So this is just kind of a quick design methodology slide showing um you know some of the key components of the design. So obviously access and flow is a big piece of what's happening here. Um, we can see our our facade here with our activation points, how we're kind of looping around the site, how the vehicular traffic is happening, our access points for pedestrians. Um, if we get on to the next uh the middle section of the slide, we can see the activation spaces. So, we've got lots of activation on the ground floor with all of our retail and commercial spaces. And then from a a residential point of view, we've got our our like green roof rooftop amenity space wrapping around um uh on this section, the the northern portion of the drawing there. Um and as we start to get into talking about a little bit some of the design elements, um we're looking at some of the verticality. So, one of the challenges always when we're working on um these taller towers is, you know, trying to create interest obviously at the podium, but also some verticality that we think has has really lended itself nicely to help us, you know, divide this building up and make it look, you know, nice and tall and slender and work and and fit into a downtown context with a lot of this these building types. Do you want to flip on to the next slide, Ryan? Okay, so this is our main street facade. And so the the thinking here is the facade is broken into four parts. We've got our retail facade which is street facing you and call the all of the pedestrian interactions. We've got our second our second piece which is is the base. So this is our kind of glaze mezzanine level um and residential units. This is where we're kind of concealing the parking. We're starting to introduce some of that that uh residential play happening on the third floor. And then we get into our our third piece which is the transition. So this is the start of the residential units and the stepping of the building. And then kind of our fourth piece is is the tower portion. So what we've done is we've kind of taken the third the third piece and the fourth piece and started to blend them together. And you can see how that kind of center element is starting to to kind of merge its way into the into the base of the podium. And then on the right hand side of the facade, we're taking the darker facade kind of up, you know, kind of introducing more of a vertical play on the elevation itself. Flip to the next uh slide, Ryan. Okay, so here we're going to kind of walk through some of the materiality of the building. I mean, the the main um portions of the tower are obviously glazing and some pre-fabricated ephus panels. Uh we've got some grays and some whites. Uh we've got some aluminum frames kind of happening on the on the base um with some spandrel and glazing. And then on the the lower podium portion, we've got um you know, a pre-fabricated ETH stone to kind of emulate and work with the historic building a little bit. And then on the lower level um we've got a darker uh masonry finish. Uh again, for a little more um you know, durability and and finish and just to kind of create a nice float to the base. The base itself is canolvering a little bit um just to kind of emphasize that that transition and that change and and and really contrast between the pedestrian realm and the building happening above. Flip on to the next slide, Ryan. Okay, so this is a corner view of Main Street and Bowden. So you can see the the cafe space or the retail commercial space. As we wrap around Bowden, we can see the entrance of the residential area. We can also see the vehicular door there entering into kind of the service and and vehicular entrance. Um, but we can start to see some of that activation happening um, you know, throughout the the lower level of the building, how that facade wraps around. So, you can envision a cafe or a restaurant or a retail space that's really kind of bringing some life down those side streets. flip on to the next slide, Ryan. So, this is a view of the the the rear side um and and side streets facades. Uh so this starts to show the the transition and relation and material um a little bit more between the historic building um the historic building itself um you know obviously in its current position and and potential future development on um on the other side of the property is going to be kind of wedged there in the middle. So, we wanted to kind of play with, you know, the colors and and blend in there a little bit. So, we're working with a facade that, you know, complements and works with with our facade, even though there's a far more, you know, uh, historic element to it with some of its openings and and interesting kind of post lentils and and things like that happening. Uh, you want to go on to the next slide, Ryan? Oh, sorry. One more. Ryan, did we lose you? >> There we go. Oh, too far. Sorry. One back. >> It wants to go. It's just taking a second. >> Okay. Okay. No problem. No problem. >> There we go. >> There we go. Okay. Great. So, this is a close-up view of the main street facade. You can see the activation happening. We can see the, you know, the levels of activation happening even above the third floor. As we get up the sixth floor and the terrace is wrapping around the building, we can see that center element coming down into the base. Really trying to play a little bit of a, you know, horizontal play to emphasize, you know, the horizontal relationship on the pedestrian scale, but then also some vertical elements within that. You know, starting to kind of push the eye up into the tower and and promote some of that slenderness that's that's happening in the tower portion. Okay, so following that we have our appendix uh the remainder of the drawings, elevations, you know, studies, all of that that stuff. But that kind of concludes the architectural portion of the presentation. Right. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. I was wondering if there was any other component of the presentation. I think uh we will want to see those sun shadow studies. Um um so if somebody could line them up and maybe one of the panelists could bring that up as a question. Um are are you finished presenting? Uh >> yes. >> Sorry. Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks very much. At this time we want to provide an opportunity for each panel member to see clarification on any points that may require further explanation. Please hold your comments. uh the proponents clients or comments uh until the end and and we'll deal with them all at once. We're going to start the questions with Olga. Thank you. Thank you for your presentations. Um uh I I was wondering if there has been any any sort of thinking about the the fact that Hamilton has such a rich industrial heritage fabric um and your selection of materials which I see as a different variations of ephus up this very tall building. if there's been any connection to looking at its the heritage context of this area and given that you're adjacent to a a important heritage little building um have you what was your rationale for material selection and the second question I have is sustainability is I haven't seen anything about any sustainability or storm water management what are what are the strategies for that you have in place for this building if you have any that you can um discuss with us. That's those two questions. These are just my two questions to answer. >> Okay. Uh >> Ryan or John, will you be Thanks. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah, we I can start with those. Um yeah, from the heritage point of view, uh that that that's a that's a tough one to chase those materials up the building. I mean, it's we've got wood and stone, um not really um you know, great materials to chase up a tall tower. Um so what we had done and maybe in this image is not showing quite as well. Um it's a bit of a field stone look on the side of the building even though that side of the building will end up uh being covered up eventually on the other side as well. Um so what we had done and and I don't know if Ryan if you can zoom in here at all but we had taken kind of a simplified pattern of that for the lower level elevation to kind of um if you can see it in the rendering there or not. Um to kind of emulate that that look a little bit to you know pay some homage to that. Um, and then also kind of, yeah, you can see it a little bit there. And then, um, as far as kind of framing it between the black frames of kind of the the fourth, fifth, and sixth floor and then the ground floor. Uh, as far as sustainability, um, you know, we will obviously go through uh all of the necessary um, civil requirements to make sure that we're meeting all of the the city's requirements. Um, as far as the panelization of the building, uh, the the Ephus panelization system is actually a wonderful system as far as creating are arguably one of the the best envelopes that you can from an architectural point of view, placing all of your insulation on the inside of the building. Um, you know, as far as materiality goes, it's probably the most sustainable. So, that's definitely one of the, you know, the strategies that we end up using. you know, additional insulation for all of our rooftops, green roofs, um, in as many areas as we can. Uh, those are kind of the primary, uh, things that we're kind of looking at. And then all of the other kind of, you know, standard high efficiency, you know, appliances and and, uh, mechanical systems. >> Okay. Thank you. >> If if if it's all right, uh, just to add on the heritage component. So, um, the building next door 33 Bowen, it used to be a a horse stable, believe it or not, that facilitated, uh, visitors to a hotel nearby. Um, so it's a one-story heritage structure. Um, it's since been designated, but um, there weren't any material connections, I'll say, specifically to the one-story heritage structure to this building. you know, to echo John's point, just trying to make sure the colors sort of transition uh into that. So, sympathetic on the ground floor um was how we chose to uh implement the design. So, hopefully that adds a little bit of clarification. Thank you. >> Thanks, Ryan. And John, um over to you, Eric. Do you have any questions? >> No questions. Thank you. Okay, Jen Sison, questions. >> Thank you all for your presentations. Um, I did want to ask, I noted the design includes vehicle access on both Bowen and Catherine Street. I think Ryan, you may have touched on this a little in your presentation about it being for uh access and vehicular flow. I was wondering what other reasons or drivers were behind that double access. Is it was it kind of an early design decision when Main Street was only going to be one way? Now that it's two ways, is that something that you would be looking at again? >> Uh Brian, I can answer that. It really comes down to a a servicing point of view. I mean, we've got to be able to get a garbage truck in there. We got to be able to empty uh overhead garbage bins. We need lots of space. Uh pretty difficult to turn around. They can't back out back onto the main streets. So, a lot of it came down to just the servicing of the building. And then also, you know, we've got uh 300 plus units. So, we're trying to make sure that, you know, at those peak times, we're able to kind of get people in and out with lots of options. >> Okay. Thank you. That's it for my questions. >> Thanks, Jen. Sharon, do you have any questions? >> Yeah, just uh one, can you just clarify the property lines on the site plan? There are a number of different um colors, red, uh purple, and blue, and I just want to clarify what the actual property line is. Sure, John. I I I can quickly do that. So, uh there is a widening on on Main Street here. So, the the purple here would be the widening proposed uh on Maine specifically. Um there staff did request widenings on Bowen Street. I think that's something we're still going to discuss with them further, but I think for the sake of reviewing this, the primary road widening would be the the main street road widening, which we're giving up for the design. >> So, sorry. And to clarify, so staff are asking for a widening on Bowen, which is from the blue to the red. >> Correct. Correct. So, both >> Sorry. Go ahead. >> Go ahead. I was just going to say the same thing is is the same for Catherine Street where I see a blue and a red as well. >> Yeah. So I believe trying to recall staff I believe there was a widening on Catherine Street but the reason why since we since we prepared this design actually I believe there's some changes that came to the official plan. Um so for the for the sake of this review uh we're considering the blue line to be um the the ultimate road winding for Katherine, the blue line on Main Street to be the ultimate road winding for Main Street and then we acknowledge staff requested road winding on Bowen Street. Um but that is still sort of in flux and will be flushed out through the site plan. Um, and just the reason why the Bowen Street widen is in question is Bone Street is actually an alleyway. Um, it is a public road for the sake of this proposal, but it was never upgraded to urban standards. Um, so it's kind of this weird orphaned alleyway, public street and kind of access back a house. So that's why I feel like that details worth clarifying uh for the panel. So sorry for the longwinded answer, but I hope that answers your question. >> Yep, it does. and it provides me with a good comment for the next round. Thank you. >> Thanks, Sharon. Uh Tyler, do you have any questions? >> Uh yeah, just one. Um thanks for the presentation. Um on the U Main Street elevation, there's a kind of large portal signifying an entrance. Um is that an entrance to retail or what? It's unclear because you've got the cafe on the corner and the renderings. I'm just curious what the large portal signifying. >> Yes, an entrance an entrance to retail. Correct. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Thanks, Tyler. Uh I I had a similar question to Tyler's that um that the entrance to retail was a lot more celebrated than the entrance to the tower on on Bowen Street. Um uh I have another question. Um if we can you go to the uh blow up of the site plan um that like the little orange inset that you've got there, but there is a sheet that shows all the setbacks. Are you referring to the tower sheet? I believe that's the one. >> I have a question on the tower and then and then further question on on Sharon's question on property lines. This one might work. Um, so this one is showing No, it's not showing the tower set back to the property line. Yeah. >> So, uh, so that that would be a dimension. >> I think it's to the right there, Ryan. I can't I can't make it out, but >> Yeah. Okay. So, you're referring to the the tower set back. It's slightly less than 12.5 meters. I think we're 12 11.6 the closest point >> on this site plan. >> But the but the balconies and the Yeah. And the balconies and the terraces are further than that. You're saying, >> Ryan, I I think the site plan is maybe the better zoom in on that. >> I can share there's a different sheet that's not on there. It's um the site plan with an orange building with all the setbacks on it. It's on A005. >> I think it's in it's in the appendex. Yeah. Page 34. >> Okay. >> Okay. You'll have to for excuse me while I ripple through this. There were a couple of red lines on that on that uh the one we were previously looking at that I was wondering what those red lines were too. But uh uh let's focus on one question at a time. >> All right, just bear with me. Like right there. >> There you go. >> This is the site plan. It's not dimension. Okay, here we go. >> It's not that one though. >> Here we go. >> If you zoom way in there. Yeah. And I think you mentioned it was was it less than 12.5 for the tower separation to the property line. Right from the furthest protrudence of the tower >> to the property line. That's assuming you've got a heritage building to the south that nobody would build on top of. Is is this your assumption? >> And that you would >> Yeah. So that's relying on on them not building a tower on, you know, if if there's a facade treatment or something to retain the heritage elements and a tower that goes up, you're restricting their development potential. That's just uh is that I'll put this into a question. Yeah, I I think I think if we were so the thinking behind Jennifer, maybe if I can clarify, was if we we could we can't develop the site as a whole. We don't own the property, but if we were to take this whole thing with the designated heritage property in the middle and we created an imaginary 25 meter setback, there would be some room for a tower on the development next door. >> I guess you could look at it as, >> you know, restricting their development rights, but We're trying to show that we're keeping that spirit of that 25 meter set back essentially. That was the attempt there. And that heritage since we've actually designed this very recently like a couple months ago, it's actually been designated under for the heritage act. So that building is not get demolished. >> Hope that clarifies. >> And I Yes, it does. Thank you. Um Um So I'll I'll save my comments for later. Um, >> and sorry, do you want me to answer on the entrance on the entrance side >> the the hierarchy of the two? >> Why don't why don't we save that? >> Okay, go ahead. Yes. Yeah. >> No, I was just I was just going to say typically we we will we'll we'll celebrate the the public entrance a little bit more. that's the one that's being used more frequently. So you don't have people heading into a a lobby getting it confused with um you know a commercial space. >> Um did you if we could sorry to delay can you go back to a ground floor plan that shows the entrance to the tower off of Bowen Street. We were wondering if that front the whole ground floor >> Yeah. Did you consider flipping it so that the entrance to the tower would be off of Catherine instead of Bowen? Because Bowen is a is a little alleyway currently and and a lot less of a civic street. >> I I I think from a residential point of view, I mean, based on the the number of other residential projects that we work on, we typically try to put it on the on the quieter street. That's the feedback. >> The quieter one. Okay. >> Yes. Okay, that's fine. Uh, at this point, uh, we'll now close the Q&A session and, uh, based on the information presented, each panel will have a chance to ask, uh, to provide their feedback and recommendations. We will start with Olga. >> Sorry, Jen, before we move forward, we didn't ask about the shadow study on the uh, square. >> Oh, right. >> Thank you, Sharon. >> Ask about that. That would be great. >> Yeah. >> Sure. Ryan, do you want to run through that one? Flip through that. >> It's in the appendix. >> Okay. Uh actually, John, I'm happy to quickly run through this. >> Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah, of course. >> So, this is just one excerpt. The shadow stud on March 21st. So, Princess Square is an important piece uh for the uh in the official plan. uh you can't cast any net new shadow on Princess Square. So the way we ran the shadow study is we have our proposed building and the shadows in in blue. Um next door 64 main uh is approved. It's an 18story building. There is some shadow onto Princess Square. Um and in terms of our building, our shadow is within the adjacent building shadow. Um so we are not casting any net new shadow on a princess square that already has been approved. Um not shown in the shadow study just really quickly uh J the Jackson Street project I mentioned previously being at 39 story is also shadows of corner princess square. Um, this is the shadow study at 9:00 a.m. and then at 10:00 a.m. There are more shadow slides if if the panel wishes to look at them together, but we just selected a few just to note even by 10 a.m. like our shadow is is gone. So, >> and the 9:00 a.m. one is the worst of >> of all in different times of the year even too. >> Yep. >> Yep. Yeah. This is on March 21st and I believe Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Okay. Um Yeah. Yeah. And the shadow moves away >> the rest of the day. So that was the thinking that we thought that was important to note. >> Yep. Thank you very much. Okay. Over to comments. Um uh Olga. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you for the clarifications and the presentations. Uh my one my two comments are now that this is a designated heritage building adjacent to the property when I look at the elevations I find that your development is really pinching it's its frontage and um given that you've got three levels of podium there's I would think there's an opportunity for you to be able to pull back and look at that building in the composition of your of your lower levels. of this of this building or pulling it back to give it a bit more respect and breathing room. And the second thing is um I do appreciate the articulation of the facades and the different colors and it's been rendered with richness which I do appreciate. Uh, I do wonder if the durability at the base of the building could be explored a bit more with some real materials that could have a a stronger impact to the fabric um of of Hamilton that is a bit more in keeping with with that language. Uh, I do appreciate again the ephus, but um maybe there's an opportunity there to make something really quite quite rich as well at the grade level. Thank you. >> Thanks, Hula. Eric, your comments. >> Thank you, uh, Ryan, Jonathan, and Claudia. Appreciate the opportunity to comment. Uh, uh, most of my stuff is pretty light. Uh, generally, I'm fine with the design. Appreciate the variation in the facade and the design that comes with that. Uh, my comments are probably more based in in planning world. Um, pleased to see the vehicular entrances coming not on Main Street. So, that's positive. Uh, protects the pedestrian environment. Um, I'd ask, you know, and this is more of a planning question, so we don't have to get into here, but given the proximity to the LRT, why so much parking? Um, and that might just come down to zoning and minor variance needs or otherwise, but um, given where this is, I think you could probably get more built form or more housing. So even in that case, consideration could be given to a long-term transition of some of that uh parking to residential use. So if you designed design that parking garage space to allow for future transition, again, this is all predicated if this was a rental building versus condominium or otherwise, but flagging that as an opportunity. I think you you got such a great location that I feel you're not necessarily taking advantage of everything there and then taking on all the additional costs that come with parking. So again, more planning than than design. Um I would ask uh um and maybe this is just timing, but I noticed a lot of the site plan work didn't really flag that the Main Street 2-way uh conversion and maybe that's just a matter of timing. And I did wonder how people would get to to the residential if you're coming west on Maine with uh Bowen not being a full moves interchange or intersection and how flows might might be happening because I believe Catherine is a one-way street. So that's kind of just something I think uh have a look at that and just the best way to to fit it. That was really all I had to have. Thank you. Thanks, Eric. Over to you, Jen. >> Thank you. So, wanted to say thank you for your presentations. Really appreciate uh seeing a good development like this coming forward. Uh there are a couple things that I thought you did really well. I wanted to say I was really happy to see that you've included a large number of long-term bike parking at grade. Uh, I think you had 259 bike parking spaces. Um, and some sheltered short-term biking as well. So, I was happy to see that. Uh, as well as your use of soil cells to support tree plantings in the city right away. I was really pleased to see that. But I would have liked to see maybe some more trees overall, particularly on some of the flanking streetscapes. I think they would benefit a lot from additional vegetation more than just the um, movable planters that I'm seeing in the landscape design. Um, I was also very appreciative of the retail that you've put on Main Street at grade and that you've tried to wrap that around the sides of the building. Uh, I'd love to see more active uses if you could find a way to make that feasible along Bowen and Catherine Street just to activate those flankages as well. Uh, in terms of the building, I would be echoing Eric on that parking reduction. I would I would support that as well and considering an ability for having a future transition of that above grade parking into residential use would be uh something to help in future proofing the building. And I do have a concern with the floor plate exceeding the recommended 750 m square that's in the tall building design guidelines that this building would fall under. It's exceeding it by over 100 meters square. I think you're sitting at 850 or roundabouts there. uh for a building of this size, I would have also expected a higher percentage of three bed units. I think you're at 3%. But I do appreciate that you've given a high percentage of two beds at almost or over a third of the building is two bed units. So, thank you for that. Um, for the wind study, I think adding windscreens uh per their recommendation, particularly for the amenity space that was showing uncomfortable conditions at both the northwest and southeast corners is going to be important to making that comfortable year round. But also some consideration or more consideration or design changes that will help to mitigate more of the wind impacts that this building will be creating, not just in the amenity space, but around the building. and uh around in the neighboring sites as well. Um and overall I think I'd recommend looking at a reduction to the 700 or reducing down to that 750 m square floor plate to be within the tall buildings design guidelines and also that might help you address some of those um wind concerns. I don't have as much of a concern with the sun shadow as you've illustrated. it doesn't look like there is any additional negative impacts happening on the park. So, thank you for providing that. Uh, and overall really happy to see new development coming forward. So, thank you. And that is all of my comments. >> Thanks, Jen. Sharon, >> great. Thank you. Um, so overall, I think the density is great. No issues with the height um of the building. Um, where my concern is is more in the detail of the base of the building and particularly you putting a lobby in the lane way. I know you like to do it on the quieter street and I agree with putting on a choir street, but when you're calling it a laneway or a service lane way, I don't think it's appropriate to put a uh building entrance along that. So, I would suggest you actually flip the building to the other side. particularly if Katherine is going to be a two-way street, it will probably slow down in traffic and become more of a pedestrian-oriented street. Um, you showed a really good example, too, of a heritage building in Hamilton, um, with a building above it. And in that image, you noted that there's a bit of a setback to a structure when you have a designated heritage building. and I don't see that in this particular example that you've provided. Um it isn't really a celebration of a the designated building. So I'm just wondering if you can maybe explore at least on the Bowen side um if you are planning on leaving the residential entrance there uh maybe a bigger celebration to the heritage building because you're making it a much more elevated street in that case. Um, I always like to see eyes on the street when you do an entrance way. And um, a laneway is never really an eyes on the on the street um, area, particularly um, in a downtown area. So, um, yeah, other than that, I mean, uh, good thing you're putting density in the downtown. It needs more pedestrians, so that's a great thing. And I just want to see a little bit more, um, emphasis put around the pedestrian realm, around the building. That's comments for me. >> Thanks, Sharon. >> Your comments. >> I guess um yeah, thank you again for your presentation. Uh my comments echo a lot of uh my panelists. Um and maybe just to tie them together a little bit. Um Eric's comments on the kind of the location of the site and the proximity to downtown and all of the kind of transit. Um completely agree. And is there a negotiation to have with the city about parking reduction? Maybe like I enjoy the idea of it being able to be future proof to convert to residential, but the the the weak spot in the current design is the relationship to the historic building. So, if you could achieve a parking reduction and pull that podium back from the historic building, um that would be uh a much greater celebration of it in my opinion and would give the historic building like an opportunity uh for future development uh that would, you know, help out your neighbor. Um my other comment is tied to uh the celebration of the kind of the retail entrance off of Maine. It kind of has the feeling of a grand mall entrance, which I don't think is the kind of texture and scale of retail that you're looking for. Um, it doesn't doesn't suit a kind of pedestrian walking environment in my opinion. Um, and I think it could be toned down uh and simplified um and would be more successful. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Tyler. Uh, in summary, I I I will echo many of the things said and I agree with my fellow panelists, but could you flip to a series of renderings that show the whole building and and we can maybe walk around? >> Sure. >> Just summarize some of the comments. >> I think we start right uh let's start here. >> Yeah, that's great. So I I agree with comments that have already been said about a successful uh uh treatment of massing and texture. Um I I I like the play of the color and and the um variation of the of the mullions in treatment going up the building and and the separation of the the base and the the the podium, two pieces. and then stretching up to the tower. I think it's really well done. There's a nice subtle play there that uh breaks down the mass. Um I think that's really well done. Um one concern there on the side elevation, if you flip to that one that's next to the heritage building >> and and uh to echo Tyler's points, um yeah, we can see it here. Um uh so but there's a 2 foot n gap there and I guess that's you know as much as you need maybe for shoring. Um uh I don't know how you're even going to get there in there and finish the building the outside of your building. Uh so it I mean that's means the methods up to you but um I think the the treatment of the podium there with and I recognize those are spandreal uh panels in the in the openings in the beige ephus. Um so it's it meets the the uh exposure to the property line regulations but but that pattern is sort of just truncated at that roof line. And I wonder if there's a different way. It maybe it need just needs some study on how to how to recognize that building um just in treatment. I echo Olga's concerns about the ethos and I um I I I don't mind it on on floors above the beige beige colored podium. Um but I think that that beige band is so celebrated and it's really really well done. Um, uh, even some some pre-cast or or fabricated stone, something that just elevates the level of quality would be really nice there. Um, talking about the property lines, it it appears that the terraces that are in Catherine Street go out over top of the rightway. So, I guess that's going to have to be sorted out with the city when you get to to a building permit stage. Um, I echo uh Jen's comments on the the unit mix. Um, really nice to see uh your dedication to a higher number of two-bedroom units. I I think that's a really good move. And I also echo Jen's comments about the um the unsafe wind condition on the terrace on that lower corner. Uh there is a recommendation in the wind study for for a a protected wind panel. That terrace is so important because these are urban dwellers and this is a very urban site built you know lot line to lot line. So that terrace is their outdoor space. So um quality landscape design is going to be really important I think. But otherwise, a very successful uh uh submission. I I congratulate you on a job well done. Uh we went a bit over time just because there was that tech pause in the middle, but um we can go a bit over time more if you have any comments on what you've heard. >> Ryan, did you want to add anything? No, I think maybe um maybe the just one quick comment on me on on Bowen like I guess I wouldn't It's funny it it it is a street for all intents and purposes. It is not an alleyway. I think so I just didn't want I hope I didn't confuse anyone with the characterization of that. It it's a street. It's got ashvall. It doesn't have curbs and it was an alleyway with services in it, but it's bigger than your typical alleyway. So, it's kind of in between. So, I don't know if that changes any comments with respect to the case of the of the residential entrance, but I I just wanted to highlight that it's not your sort of if we're familiar with Hamilton, the alleyways we see behind houses. It's more of a urban wider street alleyway for lack of a better term. So, that's the only thing I just really wanted to clarify. >> No, I think from the architectural end, I've taken lots of notes and appreciate the comments and and we'll certainly take them to heart as we move along. Okay. >> Yeah. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your uh participation today and your comments. These were really great. I've done a few of these and we always walk away circle back with the team and uh take these comments wholeheartedly and ultimately lead to a better development. So, thank you very much. >> Okay. Thank you for a great submission. Thank you for everyone in attendance and we'll now adjourn the meeting. >> Okay. Thank you everyone. Take care. Take care. Bye.