Recent content by indense

I think that this design is really a wasted opportunity to connect Exhibition with the city to the north. The station should basically be a very wide bridge north to south, over the tracks and under the Gardner. Forget about pedestrian tunnels under the tracks. Stick a roof on it and elevators...

Team with Oxford to demolish the convention centre and the intercontinental hotel and deck over the tracks. Front Street entrances in the outfield, the skywalk extends over Lower Simcoe for a direct to Union entrance on the east side and on the west side, the stadium and its plaza are a nice...

They drive giant steel beams down into the ground (to bedrock?) and then attach the building’s steel frame to these anchor beams. As they excavate the basement floors, they install braces between the beams. The parking garage ramps and the subfloor are all metal welded to the braces. The...

In Japan, they often start going upwards at the same time as they are excavating. I watched as Toranomon Hills Business Tower was being built and they were installing windows on the 35th floor while dump trucks were coming out of the parking garage loaded with dirt.

I live in Tokyo. When I tell Japanese people that I'm from Canada about 90% will ask if I'm from Vancouver. All Japanese people seem to have visited Vancouver/Banff at some point. But they all know Toronto because of Niagara Falls and I do run into the odd person who has spent time in...

I don't think that's an official Tokyo Metro map. Tokyo actually has a very good system that's easy to navigate and the TTC would have been smart to steal it. Each line has a name, a single letter abbreviation and a colour. Each station has a name but also takes the abbreviation and...

I lived in Amsterdam for just over a year. That was really more than enough. Strangely, it's a city for partiers and for people with kids. I was neither. And winter weather is wet and windy and dark all the time. More depressing than snow. Any service is stereotypically horrible in...

In Tokyo, Walmart operate urban stores under the name 'Seiyu'. The shelving is the same, there are Walmart branded products, the store credit card says Walmart and on the cash register display screens it says Walmart. The one in my neighbourhood is 7 floors (although 1 floor is a Muji and 1 or...

I was approximately 40 floors up in Tokyo Midtown when the earthquake hit a couple of weeks ago and the building definitely did a lot of bending but it didn't break. Trying to walk down the hall was like being on a ship on rough water. I'm very thankful for Tokyo's building codes. Lots of...

I was at an aquarium in Japan (can't remember if it was the Osaka aquarium (disappointing) or the one in Enoshima (looks like a wharehouse from the outside but a really amazing main tank) and was looking at a tank with a very large octopus making its way along the glass. A three or four year...

I haven't been to NPS in a couple of years but I seem to recall that there is a gap between each of the large pavers. If there is already room underneath the pavers, how about an LED installation under the square. At night the light would leak out around the individual squares even changing...

Still no release date in Japan. I have a feeling that I'm not going to get to see this in theatres. Too bad, I think the Japanese audience would probably like this.

Two things that Japanese people do that I've been impressed with; they keep the wrapper for their gum and when they've finished with the gum, they put it back in the wrapper and throw it in the garbage (or if they can't find a public garbage can - THEY TAKE THEIR GARBAGE HOME) and many smokers...

I would like to see the giant support columns (if they are going to be part of the final design) contain anchor points for the street car cables. Then most of the poles can be removed. Look at the current picture - there are two poles six inches apart on the Victoria side of the corner. Then, I...