The Waterford

calgarywaterford.org
Four buildings: 2411 and 2419 Erlton Road, plus 2416 and 2422 Erlton Street, S.W.

Turrets with cupolas and fifth-floor dormer projections make the Waterford buildings hard to miss as you pass by on 25th Avenue SW, just west of the Stampede Grounds. These four buildings were erected in three stages, beginning with the southerly two in 1998, then the north-east building in 2001, and finally the north-west building in 2003. Each building takes a 45-degree turn toward the middle of the city-block development, adding interesting angles and creating two roomy garden areas between the north and south sets of buildings, with a gazebo in the very centre of them all. Fifth-floor suites have dramatic sloped ceilings, rising perhaps 19 feet above their entry doors.

Combined, there are 197 large suites and about 248 titled parking stalls, some in tandem configuration when suites have double parking. The south-west building has eight suites that are two-level homes with from-the-street access, and other buildings have bungalow suites that also can be accessed off the street or via the hallways. Suites that have a section of the six-storey turrets each enjoy a sun room with windows facing three points of the compass. Floor plans tend to be spacious, ranging up to 1,816 square feet. The most common are over 1,000 square feet, two-bedroom, two-bathroom layouts.

The north-west final building burned because of a construction accident in 2002, destroying that framing-stage building plus the already-occupied north-east building and the northerly third of the south-west building. A number of new townhouses across Erlton Street were also destroyed in one of Calgary's largest-ever residential fires, causing about $65 million of property loss. Everything has been rebuilt, of course, and on-balcony sprinklers were added to the new buildings. In 2009 the Waterford condo corporations still had lawsuits pending against the City of Calgary, the builder Statesman Corporation, architects and contractors for about $25 million.

Construction here is the same as the River Grande development, using engineered floor joists with gypcrete overlay, but heated by baseboard hot-water radiators rather than in-floor hot-water tubing. Buildings that were re-built after the fire now have sprinklers out on balconies, as well as throughout the suites. There's a large below-grade parkade divided into three areas, with ample guest parking.

Exterior windows and doors at The Waterford are common property. I have Condo Plans for both corporations and all four buildings on file.