BobBob
Senior Member
Losing Westinghouse, even to a facadectomy, I think qualifies as a tragedy for Toronto.
Toronto King Blue by Greenland | 155.75m | 48s | Greenland | Arcadis
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khris
Senior Member
Does someone have a photo of this Westinghouse building? I'm not sure which building this is.
Jayomatic
Active Member
The beautiful west side typeface.
khris
Senior Member
They are tearing this down? Yikes 
Not good.
Not good.
Irishmonk
Senior Member
This building really outta be going up at Yonge and Bloor.
Sir Novelty Fashion
Senior Member
I dunno. It has a bit of the Kazakh Moderne to it. Speaking of Yonge and Bloor.
freshcutgrass
Senior Member
Using truly modern buildings to fill in the gaps in what is otherwise a 1910's/20's warehouse district is the best way to handle the situation IMO. As long as they meet the street well, how tall they are doesn't pose a problem either. Modern simulations of older styles and scales are not always the best way.
Uh...as vintage warehouse buildings go, it's ok. As part of this project, it, and its periphery will look much better than it did. From what I can tell, it appears to give the impression of a stand-alone, completely renovated building, rather than the worst kind of paste-on facadectomy.
lordmandeep
Banned
\
So it should rise around 550-600 feet.
Not bad at all.
nellasb
New Member
Westinghouse is not going to be demolished. The North Elevation in the prelim report (pg.10) says "Existing Building facade retained"
ProjectEnd
Superstar
/\ The building is gone, trust me. All they are retaining is the face which is basically the only part worth keeping at all. All other sides have been changed or bricked up over the years.
adma
Superstar
A bit of an overstatement:
a few bricked-up openings; but otherwise, nothing much has changed; anyway, it's always been a party wall with "architectural" treatment, plus those delightful terra cotta letters.
Guilty of being a party wall, but not of having been fatally changed or bricked up.
Irishmonk
Senior Member
I can't believe the architect is Page and Steele. Seems like the milqetoast firms are getting more experimental while our highfallutin' firms like aA and KPMB keep cranking out the same boxy tedium.
ceaz40
Active Member
Ramako
Moderator
Neither. I just think it looks like the Ritz.
yyzer
Senior Member
from this morning's Globe:
Rising again - without Harry Stinson
David Mirvish is back in the condo game, Deirdre Kelly reports
DEIRDRE KELLY
August 2, 2008
While Harry Stinson tries to get back on his feet by planning a new hotel/condo tower in Hamilton, another comeback kid is emerging from last summer's feud over One King West.
David Mirvish, who took his former One King West partner to court after Mr. Stinson allegedly reneged on an $11.8-million debt, is also looking to re-enter the condo business, this time with a solo project.
The art collector and theatre impresario owns the old Westinghouse building at 355 King St. W., but now wants to convert the six-storey historic property into a 48-storey high-rise building that would expand into a rear parking lot, within view of his Princess of Wales and Royal Alexandra theatres. A boutique hotel would occupy the first 18 floors, with private residences situated above.
"This project [at 355 King St. W.] is something I have been thinking about doing long before Harry came on the scene," Mr. Mirvish said. "I want to do it, because in life, you look for the best, and not the worst. This is a chance to create something good."
To build it, he has enlisted Peter Kofman, the engineer and real-estate developer who had been project manager at One King West, originally hired by Mr. Mirvish's nemesis, Mr. Stinson.
Mr. Kofman has put a proposal before the city, awaiting approval, on behalf of Mr. Mirvish, who has no interest in being officially connected to the project as its builder.
"I'm not a developer, and I don't want to be a developer, I'm in the theatre business," Mr. Mirvish said in an interview at the King Street West offices that house Mirvish Enterprises. "I want to create value for my land because it allows me to do theatre. It allows me to draw people around me, draw them downtown, which means more people for my theatres."
And a busy corner it soon will be. The Hilton Garden Inn, a 16-storey hotel, is being constructed on nearby Peter Street, not far from the Festival Tower and Bell Lightbox project on the north side of King between John and Richmond streets. In addition, Pinnacle International and Hariri Pontarini Architects have recently submitted to the city a proposal to build a 42-storey condo building with 450 suites at the south end of Adelaide Street and John. The proposal would see the small heritage building housing the Fox & Fiddle Pub moved to sit next to another two-storey heritage house at the southern end of the site, in order to accommodate the new development.
Daniels Corp. is also proposing a new 44-storey tower with a six-storey podium at 21 Widmer St., a site just north of their Festival Tower and Bell Lightbox development.
Janice Solomon, executive director of the Toronto Entertainment District BIA, says, "Because there is so much development in the neighbourhood, we're trying to come up with an idea of how we want the area to look."
She attended a recent public meeting on the proposed new building for 355 King St. W., specifically to know if Mr. Mirvish plans to conform to the area's historic character.
"I'm sensitive to those concerns," Mr. Mirvish said, adding that he plans to integrate the historic façade of the old Westinghouse building into the new building, in hopes of preserving some of its original 1930s exterior tile. "I have a long relationship with historic conversions. The Royal Alexandra was a historic building, and so was the Royal Vic in London, dating back to 1818."
Mr. Mirvish also had recent experience restoring One King West, site of the 1913 Dominion Bank Building at the corner of Yonge and King streets. It was the historic element that first drew Mr. Mirvish to the project that is now in the hands of a court-appointed receiver.
"But I was also caught up in the mystique of Harry Stinson," Mr. Mirvish said. "And it didn't work out."
Rising again - without Harry Stinson
David Mirvish is back in the condo game, Deirdre Kelly reports
DEIRDRE KELLY
August 2, 2008
While Harry Stinson tries to get back on his feet by planning a new hotel/condo tower in Hamilton, another comeback kid is emerging from last summer's feud over One King West.
David Mirvish, who took his former One King West partner to court after Mr. Stinson allegedly reneged on an $11.8-million debt, is also looking to re-enter the condo business, this time with a solo project.
The art collector and theatre impresario owns the old Westinghouse building at 355 King St. W., but now wants to convert the six-storey historic property into a 48-storey high-rise building that would expand into a rear parking lot, within view of his Princess of Wales and Royal Alexandra theatres. A boutique hotel would occupy the first 18 floors, with private residences situated above.
"This project [at 355 King St. W.] is something I have been thinking about doing long before Harry came on the scene," Mr. Mirvish said. "I want to do it, because in life, you look for the best, and not the worst. This is a chance to create something good."
To build it, he has enlisted Peter Kofman, the engineer and real-estate developer who had been project manager at One King West, originally hired by Mr. Mirvish's nemesis, Mr. Stinson.
Mr. Kofman has put a proposal before the city, awaiting approval, on behalf of Mr. Mirvish, who has no interest in being officially connected to the project as its builder.
"I'm not a developer, and I don't want to be a developer, I'm in the theatre business," Mr. Mirvish said in an interview at the King Street West offices that house Mirvish Enterprises. "I want to create value for my land because it allows me to do theatre. It allows me to draw people around me, draw them downtown, which means more people for my theatres."
And a busy corner it soon will be. The Hilton Garden Inn, a 16-storey hotel, is being constructed on nearby Peter Street, not far from the Festival Tower and Bell Lightbox project on the north side of King between John and Richmond streets. In addition, Pinnacle International and Hariri Pontarini Architects have recently submitted to the city a proposal to build a 42-storey condo building with 450 suites at the south end of Adelaide Street and John. The proposal would see the small heritage building housing the Fox & Fiddle Pub moved to sit next to another two-storey heritage house at the southern end of the site, in order to accommodate the new development.
Daniels Corp. is also proposing a new 44-storey tower with a six-storey podium at 21 Widmer St., a site just north of their Festival Tower and Bell Lightbox development.
Janice Solomon, executive director of the Toronto Entertainment District BIA, says, "Because there is so much development in the neighbourhood, we're trying to come up with an idea of how we want the area to look."
She attended a recent public meeting on the proposed new building for 355 King St. W., specifically to know if Mr. Mirvish plans to conform to the area's historic character.
"I'm sensitive to those concerns," Mr. Mirvish said, adding that he plans to integrate the historic façade of the old Westinghouse building into the new building, in hopes of preserving some of its original 1930s exterior tile. "I have a long relationship with historic conversions. The Royal Alexandra was a historic building, and so was the Royal Vic in London, dating back to 1818."
Mr. Mirvish also had recent experience restoring One King West, site of the 1913 Dominion Bank Building at the corner of Yonge and King streets. It was the historic element that first drew Mr. Mirvish to the project that is now in the hands of a court-appointed receiver.
"But I was also caught up in the mystique of Harry Stinson," Mr. Mirvish said. "And it didn't work out."