some info in this JBM column in today's Globe:
DESIGN
John Bentley Mays
Developer Danny Salvatore took a chance that avant-garde design would work in Toronto. Condo buyers are proving him right
JOHN BENTLEY MAYS
From Friday's Globe and Mail
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January 25, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST
Toronto developer Danny Salvatore helped make architectural headlines a couple of years ago when he picked a romantic, bazoomy design — instantly dubbed "Marilyn" in the press — by Beijing architect Yansong Ma for a new condominium tower he and Cityzen Development Group were aiming to put up in central Mississauga.
It was a decision that seemed to come out of nowhere. For decades, Mr. Salvatore had been just one among many suppliers of routine tract housing in the GTA sprawl. (His firm: Fernbrook Homes.)
Then suddenly, he became a backer of one of the most avant-garde high-rise designs ever picked for a place in the Toronto area. Developers are rarely surprising. Danny Salvatore, we discovered, is one who can be.
With hoardings up around Marilyn's site on Hurontario Street at Burnhamthorpe Road, and with construction scheduled to begin shortly, I decided it was high time to catch up again with Mr. Salvatore, to find out what's currently on the mind of the man behind the tower. (Or towers: Because of heavy buyer demand, a sister building, also by Yansong Ma, will rise on the site.)
"We're on target with everything," he told me a telephone interview last week. "Our excavation is just about completed for both buildings, Marilyn and her counterpart. We're going to be pouring the first concrete within the next month. Occupancy will be in 2010. Sales exceeded our expectations. We thought it would take us to 2010 to sell the complete project. We have 61 units yet to be sold in both buildings, out of 860."
(When finished, the Mississauga complex, called Absolute, will feature five towers, including the two designed by Mr. Ma and three by Toronto architect Roy Varacalli, for a total of 1,780 units.)
But in a market full of buyers ready to snap up condos no matter how ordinary the packaging, why go with a little-known Chinese architect with a flair for sensational artistic gestures?
"We were just going into the high-rise business, and we wanted to create something iconic, something we would be recognized for. The corner where it's located, which is the major intersection in Mississauga, looked like a good fit. And we also wanted to make sure, in a competitive market, that we would succeed.
"The design absolutely helped sell it."
"We wanted to create something that would be a landmark for Mississauga, and that we could attach our names to, as we went ahead."
Since Yansong Ma's Absolute towers were unveiled in 2006, Mr. Salvatore has embarked on two other condominium projects that promise to make an impact on Toronto's urban landscape. With Cityzen again, he is working on Pier 27 on the waterfront, which will feature an unusual design by Peter Clewes. And alongside Castlepoint Realty Partners, he will be putting up star architect Daniel Libeskind's L-Tower, slated to loom 49 storeys over Peter Dickinson's handsome, modernist Sony Centre for the Arts, from 1956-1960.
"We chose Peter Clewes for Pier 27 because he's a well-liked architect in Toronto, very talented," Mr. Salvatore said. "We thought he could deliver something a little different, and he did. What makes Pier 27 unique is the residential bridge that joins the two buildings. It is visually unique, and it is structurally unique."
But will Pier 27 be as dashing as Marilyn?
"It's different. I think Marilyn is so unique, it's never been tried before. Marilyn has the height, while Pier 27 is sensitive to its position on the water's edge. It's a different feel."
As for Mr. Libeskind's L-Tower, Mr. Salvatore is even more enthusiastic.
"I did not choose Daniel Libeskind. He had already been chosen by Castlepoint when I was asked to go partners on the site. But I liked the fact that Libeskind was involved. He has a real sense of what belongs in what neighbourhood. He is sensitive to the [Sony Centre], to what has to be created at the podium level, to shadowing. People like Libeskind and Clewes are set in their ways, which I respect because that's why we choose them! Libeskind has a great name — a name that produces something that will be striking and iconic."
Danny Salvatore's passage from laying down modest suburbs to hobnobbing with the likes of Daniel Libeskind has been long and steady. He learned his licks in the building trade during more than a decade with developer Morris Atamanchuk before striking out, in 1980, on his own. His first project was Heart Lake Village, in Brampton. Mr. Salvatore still keeps his hand in low-rise, single-family housing: Last year, Fernbrook sold 610 houses in suburban sites.
These days, however, his heart is clearly in high-rises that make significant architectural statements.
"I don't think the general public is generally in tune with architecture, but the more astute people go around the world and know who Libeskind is, who Peter Clewes is. The reason for us to go the architectural route is that we want our buildings to stand out, and for our names to be associated with them. Architecture combined with a great location will make us a success."
