Industry News
From Projects to Products | Local to Global
Technology is changing faster than … well, technology. We try and keep up and we will try and help you do the same. The articles and links below are stories about local development projects and stories of products that help the industry.
Categories below: Local News | Technology
Coopertown neighbourhood gets the go-ahead
This Architecture Firm Is Turning VR Into The Next Great Productivity Tool
Virtual reality is steadily spilling over into the design industry and is already changing how we create.
The technology’s potential (and its limitations) for designers is what spurred the architecture firm NBBJ to collaborate with the startup Visual Vocal. Together, the two companies are building a virtual reality platform for architects, designed to make it easier to collaborate and make decisions about projects.
In the architectural realm, one of the biggest challenges is getting feedback from clients and integrating that into a workable design. Take a project at the scale of Samsung’s new Silicon Valley campus, which NBBJ designed. It involved dozens of people, all with varying fluency in architecture. Just getting everyone in a meeting to discuss one of likely hundreds of design decisions is time consuming and difficult. Plus, using visual devices like renderings, floor plans, and models isn’t always an effective way to convey spaces.
Enter virtual reality, a technology that offers people the experience of being in a 3-D environment. See full story.
Technology
This Architecture Firm Is Turning VR Into The Next Great Productivity Tool
Virtual reality is steadily spilling over into the design industry and is already changing how we create.
The technology’s potential (and its limitations) for designers is what spurred the architecture firm NBBJ to collaborate with the startup Visual Vocal. Together, the two companies are building a virtual reality platform for architects, designed to make it easier to collaborate and make decisions about projects.
In the architectural realm, one of the biggest challenges is getting feedback from clients and integrating that into a workable design. Take a project at the scale of Samsung’s new Silicon Valley campus, which NBBJ designed. It involved dozens of people, all with varying fluency in architecture. Just getting everyone in a meeting to discuss one of likely hundreds of design decisions is time consuming and difficult. Plus, using visual devices like renderings, floor plans, and models isn’t always an effective way to convey spaces.
Enter virtual reality, a technology that offers people the experience of being in a 3-D environment. See full story.
Local News
Coopertown neighbourhood plan approval
Rosewood Park School might look like it’s in the middle of nowhere, but the area around it is about to change.
On Monday night, city council approved the neighbourhood plan for Coopertown, the area surrounding the school.
Developers can now move on to the next stage of planning for this northwest corner of the city.
“Detailed planning will probably finish this year. We’ll start servicing next year, so what that would mean is we’d start moving dirt and putting roads and pipes in underground, and we would see the first housing occupied in 2019,” Jason Carlston, Dream Development’s vice president, said.
When the area is complete, developers hope 2,000 acres will be home to 36,000 people, which is a population roughly the same size as Moose Jaw.
Development is expected to take 25 to 40 years and will include six unique neighbourhoods with extra wide bike lanes, edible landscapes and urban villages.
At council, there were questions over whether the city should be growing out instead of focusing on its infill targets and preventing urban sprawl.
“There are lots of moving parts to development, and we do have infill development happening,” Mayor Michael Fougere said.
“I think over a period of time, if we continue to not be [at our infill target] or close to it, then we’ll have another conversation,” he said.
The current Mosaic stadium site will be developed into 700 units soon, and other development companies have also applied to build downtown, Fougere said.
Market vision for Regina’s Weston Bakery Building
Standing in the shell of the former Weston Bakery Building, Andrew Rathwell sees the potential to develop a food hub for the Warehouse District.
On a rainy May day, the building is drafty and echoes with construction work, but its vast space and openness lend itself to Rathwell’s vision for a collaborative environment where food vendors can not only sell their wares side-by-side but also share production, storage and distribution space.
The Local & Fresh owner’s idea meshes with that of All-Rite Group of Companies, which purchased the brick building on Hamilton Street and 8th Avenue last year.
“We envision it being a very busy, people-oriented hub,” said Reid Pedersen, vice-president of property management and development with All-Rite.
Originally destined for residences, the plans for the space shifted with Regina’s real estate reality. The dream now is for an open-plan market with a “very diverse cross-section of offerings,” said Pedersen: Vendors, office space and potentially some condominiums.
Constructed in 1929, the three-storey building with a red tile roof is considered historically significant by the City of Regina, because of its association with local architecture firm Van Egmond and Storey and Montreal architect Sydney Comber.