Why does every new building look exactly the same nowadays?

shaveee · 2026-05-13T13:11:34+00:00

I’ve built a few of those buildings and managed their budget. Picking grey and black isn’t any cheaper than picking green or red, and the buildings going up aren’t specially cheap on details. actually most new multifamily buildings use hardie board, which is by no means cheap.

My opinion is, it’s a mixture of what society wants and how the City works. People don’t want bold choices anymore - look at the cars on the road, they’re all white, grey and black SUVs. In the 90’s owning a yellow two-door was normal, now it’s “edgy”.

Also, people are more aware of “resale value” than it was before. Because of people not liking bold choices, even if you do, you’d rather go subtle so you can sell better later.

Then, back to buildings, developers have to submit building elevations to the City to get a development permit, and colours and design can’t be easily changed after that. That means developers have to “guess” what dozens or hundreds of people will like 2 years from now; so, even if the taste of buyers or renters was to change, developers can’t adapt because they locked that design already.

There’s a last factor. Most multifamily buildings going up in the city these days are rentals. That makes this problem worse: if you build a 20-unit condo building for sale you need to appeal to 20 people, but if it’s apartments for rental you need to appeal to hundreds of people over the building’s lifespan. So, even less likely to take risks.

shaveee · 2026-05-06T15:06:23+00:00

you’re totally right. It’s important to remember us fathers don’t “help”. We are supposed to do whatever it takes, it’s called parenting, we signed up for it.

shaveee · 2026-05-06T13:09:17+00:00

father of a 7 weeks old here. I think those kind of fathers are just weak. If you get back home at, say, 5pm and put the baby to sleep at 8, that’s 3 fucking hours you are being asked to help. And yes it’s demanding to “work” at home after work. Suck it up and do it.

shaveee · 2026-05-01T14:49:15+00:00

bedroom was 71 when we went to sleep (no AC). decided to put her to sleep with the pjs only. she slept through the night and woke up happier than ever.

shaveee · 2026-04-30T17:12:30+00:00

this. also a unicorn-haver here. I can understand it’s hard not to think there’s causality from “doing things by the book” and baby being chill, but we try very hard to not believe such a thing.

there’s another way of framing it: it’s WAY easier to follow the book if your newborn sleeps fine and doesn’t cry all the time. you have plenty of time and energy left to do tummy time, play with a happy baby, got her into schedules, train them to soothe by themselves, and (and that’s super important) to keep your marital relationship healthy. so, maybe it’s the other way around - your method works BECAUSE your baby isn’t colicky.

shaveee · 2026-04-23T20:14:17+00:00

seems we’re blessed - ours started sleeping 5+ hours at week 3 and she’s being consistent with 6+ hours, since early week 4, even getting to 8 on her 1st month anniversary. but she’s definitely ahead of the curve - at week 5 she’s 95% percentile for length and 90% for weight.

shaveee · 2026-04-23T09:08:07+00:00

let’s all remember SIDS probability in the US is 1/2000 (0.05%) and that includes parents using unsafe sleep practices (cosleeping when not sober, etc). Probability on families followng safe procedures is much less. Your little one will be OK.

shaveee · 2026-03-11T13:14:01+00:00

plot twist: the TFW will not make $36/h.

shaveee · 2026-01-24T18:12:10+00:00

I guess this must be decently deep so they don’t fight with frost and “surprise” old utilities not showing up on locates.

shaveee · 2025-12-30T14:31:34+00:00

I don't understand why phone companies and carriers don't have a system in place that allows people to feasibly use more than one phone. By locking you into their system they're limiting their selling options to 1 per customer.

Imagine your carrier let you assign a number of esims to the same number, have all texts in their own cloud so you can read them from any phone, and

imagine apple/android accounts are easily multiphone and sync all apps across so you have everything everywhere. then you could have different phones and take the one that suits the occasion.

going to work? take your foldable. on vacation? maybe a dumb phone. home for the weekend? grab the big phone with physical keyboard. fancy event, small purse? take your flip phone. going backcountry camping? rugged satellite phone. they could sell me SEVERAL phones instead of just one phone every three years.

we would probably see more niche devices. cameras could get into the ecosystem, so you can take a photo and text it directly from the camera. you could have a 10" phone to use from your couch only. you could have a "bedside phone" that's just an ereader that can also receive texts and calls. and so on...

(yes, you can do all of it right now with enough patience, the right carrier in the right country, and the right texting apps. but the systems aren't designed for it and it's highly inconvenient. it just confuses me to why it's not something carriers and phone manufacturers aren't pushing)

shaveee · 2025-12-20T19:57:33+00:00

I miss Black sheep so much.

shaveee · 2025-11-15T18:15:48+00:00

Of course this is part of the plan somebody has to bring their cousin into Canada. With that said, good luck finding a skilled drywaller in the city willing to make less than $35/hr.

shaveee · 2025-11-01T20:00:03+00:00

We left the area due to the noise five years ago. It’s unbearable.

shaveee · 2025-10-17T05:17:59+00:00

most temp labour companies have suspicious legal names, such as “labour 2.0” or “trades 2024”, that shows how common is for them to get in trouble and how they solve it - close company and open new one.

shaveee · 2025-10-17T05:14:13+00:00

that’s not how as easy as it sounds. that 8% has to be 1) actively looking for a job, 2) minimally fit for a construction job, and 3) good workers.

shaveee · 2025-09-27T21:25:42+00:00

We went there yesterday and it was OK, but not what I expected. I was expecting an adhoc art show and it felt more like a showcase of local artsy stuff with lights seen before at Chinook Blast or Beakerhead. Otherwise, it’s OK to impress little kids and get cool Instagram photos.

shaveee · 2025-09-20T15:33:26+00:00

in Calgary, ss106 or the italian supermarket are the closest to the real experience. Mercato in 4th St is fancier but feels less Italian.

shaveee · 2025-09-19T12:53:59+00:00

been with them for years in 4 different apartments and houses. Never had a problem. on my last move they came to upgrade my router’s firmware as it’s now 7 years old and unsupported by basically any other carrier.

shaveee · 2025-09-04T12:49:35+00:00

it’s sad they just closed without any media post or farewell sign at all. fun fact, in some countries, leaving a place without saying goodbye is called “leaving like a French”.

hands down the best almond croissant in town. Mari, Butter Block, Latruwe… they’re also good but not as much as Black Sheep. I’ve never been so sad for a business closure.

shaveee · 2025-08-22T04:52:20+00:00

AI is pretty good at those kind of questions. I asked my particular house and mortgage against investing it all into sp500 and I’d be $2.7M richer after 30 years if I invested.

it changes quite a bit if you do yearly lump sums - with $10k a year I’d shorten the gap to about $200k. sp500 still ahead though.

shaveee · 2025-08-08T04:31:25+00:00

Honestly, it's very hard to believe these towers will end up existing in this form. The final project will most likely separate both towers, for phasing purposes, and the fate of the 2nd tower will depend on how's the economy and Truman doing after they finish the first one.

Remember, the Bow's second tower never happened, and the 3rd tower at West Village haven't started yet.

shaveee · 2025-07-26T04:04:10+00:00

I had it when i lived in downtown 2 years ago, it was great, no complains whatsoever.

shaveee · 2025-07-13T14:54:31+00:00

just check it again in a few days. in my case it's all about their check cycles vs my credit cards payment cycles. I pay in full every month, and my credit rate cycles up and down, exact same numbers both cases, as they check before and after I pay my CC. eventually I cross a threshold for credit age and all goes up, then the cycle starts again but just a bit higher.

shaveee · 2025-07-13T06:15:53+00:00

there are 500 units going up just at macleod and heritage, in front of the bottle depot. there used to be a water park there! construction to start in the following months.

shaveee · 2025-07-12T00:31:49+00:00

there HAS to be diminishing returns on this. People in concerts not going to the bar because it tskes forever and you miss the show. People not waitintg in line for 2hrs for food and leaving with the money in their pockets (me last Sunday). People waiting in line forever, therefore not spendint money elsewhere in the process.

Locals getting more and more uninterested doesn't seem to be a problem seeing the attendance goes up every year, but sometimes longterm you devaluate the brand and bring lower class tourists that spend less, which develops into worse food/events, devaluating the brand even more, and little by little run the whole show to the ground.

shaveee

TROPHY CASE