Comments on: Plaza Architect Disregards Historic Context

By: Waterfront Watch » A Findings of Fact on the Café Building

Waterfront Watch » A Findings of Fact on the Café Building — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:18:11 +0000

[...] of the cafe building proposed at Monday evening’s workshop. It is the exact same as the one unveiled on December 17. (Just another day at Waterfront [...]

By: Waterfront Watch » Waterfront Workshop on Monday

Waterfront Watch » Waterfront Workshop on Monday — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:29:15 +0000

[...] to as the transit annex/cafe building and the transit plaza. The previous workshop introduced a modern, mimicked cafe building (I may have mentioned it previously), but the City’s recent presentation to BCDC indicates a [...]

By: Waterfront Watch » City’s Presentation to BCDC Suggests Cafe Building Redesign

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:38:50 +0000

[...] The cafe building shown in the composite above (and enlarged below) is a modern and handsome structure that would fit in well with the modern arched station building (an interpretation of a train shed), however be significantly different and unique (adding to the eclectic nature and intent of the neighborhood), and a recalling of the structures that once stood on the site (unlike the cafe building that was presented last month)… [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:24:08 +0000

I think the cafe building looks just like a shrunken version of the train station, and distracts from the station because of this. I’m all for the train station design but I would prefer to see a more traditional design for the cafe building.

Also, I don’t appreciate the design team telling us one thing and then giving us something different, as seen in the video that Jeff posted. Mr. Anderson clearly states that this building will be more traditional than the train station, but the design looks exactly like the train station. What happened?

By: Waterfront Watch » City Unveils Uninspired, Inexplicable Plaza Building Design

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:00:30 +0000

[...] — Renderings have been published. Similar posts:Café Building Highlights Conflict of Terms I should be clear. The proposed cafe [...]

By: Waterfront Watch » Café Building Highlights Conflict of Terms

Waterfront Watch » Café Building Highlights Conflict of Terms — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:33:48 +0000

[...] should be clear. The proposed cafe building isn’t ugly, or bad architecture, or anything like that. It is what it [...]

By: Jeffrey Wisniewski

Jeffrey Wisniewski — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:57:23 +0000

@Jeff Boore - The public forum resulted in a 50-50 split vote between Alternatives 1 and 4. The tiebreaker went to the design team's preference.

By: Jeff Boore

Jeff Boore — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:42:56 +0000

The generator building was torn down only a year or two ago because, despite its historic significance, it was unbearably ugly. I view the cafe building mimicking the generator building, as shown above, as similarly ugly, or even worse by the mismatch it would have to the adjacent train station. I don’t understand how the community developed an enthusiasm for the glass-and-steel train station (AKA Plan 1) over the more traditional brick structure presented as Plan 4, but that’s the way it went in a public forum last summer. Now that that is established as the train station plan, not all that different from Safeway Station, in my view, but the community has spoken, I don’t see how we can reasonably object to the design of the much smaller cafe being of matching style. In my view, we should have voted for Plan 4, but now we’re stuck with this.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 04:36:10 +0000

While not an overly bad design, it does not seem to be that good either.

Residents were told that the design of the cafe was independent of the train station, and now it looks just like it? In some ways, this building is more important than the station, so this is very disappointing. This design does not at all mix with the more traditional buildings around it.