garage or jail?  housing without the stores = drab

housinghttp://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/637253

3 stories perfect, but what of this building shows any character or humanity? Why are we celebrating this? They needed the colour windows to make it not look like a rundown garage or jail cell.

The facade for any dweller will get old pretty quickly with them guessing where they live everyday suffering from zero definition of space.   They’ll want to humanize it, but not with the amply provided concrete.  Seriously, how can it look any worse?  Some garden pots would help and a roof garden probably your only options.

How hard is it to put stores on the main floor, & two floors of housing above it?  The opportunity to create a real enjoyable street completely lost.

On the plus side, the 8 unit row has the smallest energy footprint of condos I’ve seen so far, & would directly benefit with geothermal heating & passive solar for a net-zero energy building. Some beautifying renovation only or at least a storefront mainfloor conversion is possible in version two.

Post Carbon Rating A