Toronto Aura at College Park | 271.87m | 78s | Canderel | Graziani + Corazza

My my, I love this new and hopefully final design for ROCP III. May I add my opinion that this design -- in counterpoint with the original Eatons College Street building, works exceptionally well. Better this than some 'faux' (tee hee) stone exterior.

I have a respect for ROCP I and II; they're muscular yet slim (could have stood better finishes). ROCP III will be a fine last touch for the superblock at the Yonge Gerrard site.

I hope this goes up exactly as depicted. So glad the planning department saw the light and solicited opinions on it.

For the record --- I am pro-height, but not always (i.e. that proposed thing behind City Hall should be disallowed so as to leave what's left of the vista of New City Hall as viewed from the square). And I agree with those of you who feel that Toronto could stand a couple of new super-talls; it depends on where situated and the design(s) of course. Front / University is best vicinity for a 100 storey office skyscraper.
 
/\ Good point but where would you put it. If my memory serves me right there is a rather large open parking lot at Simcoe and Front - is this what you mean? A Supertall would look fantastic there.

Sometimes I think about when this boom ends and the next one begins. (about 10-15 years?) There is going to be a definite dearth of open parking lots to use as bases...
 
ProjectEnd said:
/\ Good point but where would you put it. If my memory serves me right there is a rather large open parking lot at Simcoe and Front - is this what you mean? A Supertall would look fantastic there.

Sometimes I think about when this boom ends and the next one begins. (about 10-15 years?) There is going to be a definite dearth of open parking lots to use as bases...
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But there is no lack of disposable office buildings from the 70's & 80's that could easily make way for something bigger, i.e. NE University/Wellington, SW Adelaide/York, everything on Wellington between University and Simcoe, the Strathcona Hotel site, to name a few.
 
I am hoping that the eventual dearth of parking lots to build on (no dearth yet) will lead to the Avenue-ization of the streets this city wants to turn into Avenues. At some point it will be more difficult to find appropriate properties to put up tall buildings like RoCP3, but when developers do get their hands on those spots you can expect that a good number of those proposals will be even taller than this one, Trump, or 1BE.

I forget who it was that said that Toronto is Vienna Surrounded by Houston. I get the idea, but the truth is not so rosy in regard to Vienna, and not quite as dire as Houston (other than Vaughan, which is quite dire). Maybe someday we'll be Chicago surrounded by Vienna surrounded by Houston as the tall buildings continue to rise higher in the core and we get some European density on the Avenues. Houston still remains in that epigram unfortunately...

42
 
interchange42 said:
I am hoping that the eventual dearth of parking lots to build on (no dearth yet) will lead to the Avenue-ization of the streets this city wants to turn into Avenues. At some point it will be more difficult to find appropriate properties to put up tall buildings like RoCP3, but when developers do get their hands on those spots you can expect that a good number of those proposals will be even taller than this one, Trump, or 1BE.

I forget who it was that said that Toronto is Vienna Surrounded by Houston. I get the idea, but the truth is not so rosy in regard to Vienna, and not quite as dire as Houston (other than Vaughan, which is quite dire). Maybe someday we'll be Chicago surrounded by Vienna surrounded by Houston as the tall buildings continue to rise higher in the core and we get some European density on the Avenues. Houston still remains in that epigram unfortunately...

42
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I think you are quite right about future dearth = future super density. BTW, I believe Houston is off the hook. It was Phoenix (that refuses to rise from the ashes)
 
Well, better than Whitney surrounded by Houston
225px-Whitney_Ontario.JPG
 
I agree with 42 here. I was in Rome this past summer and although there are probably less than 10 'high-rises' in the entire city, it feels like a denser, more 'lived-in' space. Obviously they have a slight chronological advantage over us Torontonians but I'm left wondering, how will Toronto's streetscape (not the skyline) look in say, 20 years?
 
I found the same thing with San Francisco... much denser and consistent feel to the streets there... everywhere felt alive and vibrant. Here, once you go east or west past a certain point or off a main street its just like small town anywhere...
 
"Here, once you go east or west past a certain point or off a main street its just like small town anywhere..."

Is this a testimony to the failure or success of the built form? The local population likely benefits more from a high density environment that is inconsistent rather then homogeneous.
 
^ I'm agreeing with you - I'm just adding to your point by noting that it is a common misconception that L.A. sprawl is built at very low densities like many other American cities. Toronto suburbs are among the highest densities for suburban areas - they aren't really comparable with the American experience of urban sprawl.
 
Comparing city densities is interesting, though sometimes difficult because of the ways borders of individual cities are defined. A few examples using data from Wikipedia:

San Francisco ~ 15,000 / sq. mile
Toronto ~ 10,000 / sq. mile
Los Angeles ~ 8,000 / sq. mile
Houston ~ 550 / sq. mile !!!!

There was a fascinating exhibit about population density at the Tate Modern Gallery when I was in London, UK back in August. They used 3D models of 4 cities for comparisons sake with the vertical axis representing population density.

London was the lowest of the 4 @ about 12,000/sq. mile its model was about 4 feet high. Next was Mexico City slightly higher at 15,000 / sq mile. Ranking second in the comparison was Mumbai, India at 56,000 / sq. mile and perhaps 16 feet high. The highest was Cairo, Egypt with about 62,000 / sq. mile and a model about 18 feet high!
753723318_84e2e88d2f_b.jpg
 
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