FAD Condominium (170 Spadina Ave @ Queen, Triwin Int'l, 19s, Wallman Architects)

[gristle]

The application is for 17 floors. This is more than that. Is everyone sure this is the right rendering for the area?

[AlbertC]

Rendering just tweeted by BlacktowerTV. I count 19 storeys.

http://twitter.com/#!/blacktowerTV

[grey]

Not much to praise about this. Generic design pulled from a binder. Does nothing to draw upon the rich character of Spadina. Not every developer can afford a design like The Morgan, but come on...

[Automation Gallery]

Not much to praise about this. Generic design pulled from a binder. Does nothing to draw upon the rich character of Spadina. Not every developer can afford a design like The Morgan, but come on...

I agree, awfull....

[AlbertC]

Better rendering from Urbanation:

http://twitter.com/#!/urbanation

[kkgg7]

I know some people will feel that highrises marching up Spadina will kill the atmosphere of the street but I had pointed out about 6 months ago that Spadina all the way up to College seemed like an area that was being overlooked by developers. I think a certain degree of gentrification is appropriate for this street to bring it into the 21st century.

So true. Spadina is strictly in the downtown core, right? But it looks like a total mess. such fine location overlooked by developers and city planners.
As to Chinatown, who says Chinatown has to be chaotic, dirty with deserted newspapers flying around and $2 shorts hanging everywhere? It is NOT character, even a third tier Chinese city doesn't look like that more. That's more like China stuck in the 1980s. I have been to Chinatowns in London and Montreal, both are much smaller but turn out to be much cleaner and nicer yet still maintains the characters.

The street needs to be cleansed and gentrified, big time!

[Automation Gallery]

I wonder what the area residents will have to say about this hunk.

[alklay]

This building certainly does nothing to acknowledge its context. A different design, with a 5-7 story brink podium, would do wonders.

[timeo]

It is NOT character, even a third tier Chinese city doesn't look like that more. That's more like China stuck in the 1980s. I have been to Chinatowns in London and Montreal, both are much smaller but turn out to be much cleaner and nicer yet still maintains the characters.

And when you mean "nicer", you really just mean more palatable to largely white audiences who think it's "edgy" to go get barbecued duck dangling from a hook or to buy live fish from a tank. I've been to London's and Montreal's Chinatowns as well, and they have little if any of the vibrancy, excitement, and chaos that you experience in Toronto's, New York's or even San Francisco's Chinatowns. They're sanitized boring places largely catering to non-Chinese folk rather than their local communities.

And of course third-tier Chinese cities don't look like Chinatowns. That's like saying third-tier Italian cities don't look like Little Italy; it's the real thing already, it doesn't need to be anything else.

[TrickyRicky]

The people with units on the South side of this building are going to be pissed when their units are blocked-off by inevitable development of the adjacent lot.

P.S. people generally don't like to be cleansed

[grey]

The street needs to be cleansed and gentrified, big time!

It's happening at a gradual pace. New businesses and hotels and cafes are moving in and restoring neglected warehouse buildings, and more historic properties are open for lease right now.

Based on my experience with "rapid cleansing gentrification" in Toronto, we're often left with an all-new, sterile type of mess. I prefer a slower, natural pace compared to a one or two developers coming in, bulldozing everything, then throwing up blocks of bland condos with poorly designed retail space. I do not have much confidence in the ability of most developers to transform an important avenue like Spadina.

[junctionist]

This building certainly does nothing to acknowledge its context. A different design, with a 5-7 story brink podium, would do wonders.

Yes, it looks quite out of place, like a completely generic development. The attractive midrise buildings in the area are clad in brick and this glass-clad building doesn't break away in any meaningful way. What's the deal with mechanical boxes? Rather than being progressively integrated into the architecture, these afterthoughts seem to be getting bigger and bigger. In one rendering of this building, it looks like it's three stories tall. That's just cutting corners.

[grey]

Yeah, it's a 2011 slab.

Or, as long as we're being honest, a 2006/2007 slab.

[Ramako]

It pays zero attention to the street. Definitely a disappointment. I've come to expect better from Wallman.

[Irishmonk]

Terrible, lazy design. It must be stopped.