Toronto Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Toronto | 203.9m | 52s | Lifetime | a—A

18 Yorkville is great. Such refined buildings surely helped to establish Peter Clewes in the city. It's so sleek and minimalist but still nicely detailed with some major distinguishing features like the sculptural "comb" balcony structure amidst the high-quality glass on the west facade and the "hat" that nicely relates with the "comb" and makes for an attractive roofline. The way the balconies are limited to the bottom half of the building on the south facade gives the top of the building an attractive sense of lightness and balance that's missing from many New Modern buildings. The other two facades are decidedly more generic with just glass and a forgettable arrangement of balconies, but the two great facades do get a lot of attention. The podium is well proportioned and clad with a pleasant arrangement of warm brick and sleek glass, with attractive retail spaces. If it has a deadening effect on the sidewalk, it doesn't seem to be the architecture that's at fault because it provides for enlivening retail with many spaces and attractive storefronts.
 
18 Yorkville's podium is one of the most successful condo podiums in the city, even 7 years and dozens of new buildings later. Definitely enhances this otherwise dull stretch of Yonge Street. Walked by recently, and I believe all the retail units are currently occupied. The attractive podium also offers a good variety of retail uses too, not just the typical dry cleaner, Rabba Fine Foods, etc.

I will always remember 18 Yorkville as it was one of the first condos to go up in the construction boom to initiate good residential architectural. In a time when trash like RoCP, French Quarter, pre-cast dreck on the Bay canyon, and junk on Wellington by Tridel were the norm in the city, 18 Yorkville offered us a refreshing change of pleasing contemporary design. IMO, it remains of the best condo projects to date and along with Mozo, provide a great standard for future urban developments in the city.
 
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As I recall it is might have been the first non-Context aA project? Speaking of street killer - as sleek as Four Season is, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be such.

AoD
 
The_Architect said:
Yea.. the podium looks good. Doesn't mean it isn't a street killer (which it is). Tower's ugly too.
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Truly hilarious criticism, given that that the site’s last incarnation was a surface parking lot and a D.O.T. Patio Furniture store.

Then again, nothing captures the energy of the “pulsating streets of the big city†better than a place that sells composite plastic patio furniture.

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Folks on this site are such drama queens! The use of phrases like "piece of shit" to describe perfectly good buildings etc.

I'm not a fan of 18 Yorkville, but it's not a piece of shit. Neither is the Regency.

A "piece of shit" would be a crumbling disfunctional building in a Detroit ghetto. These are just buildings that are not to your liking. Learn the difference, please!
 
Note that you're the first to use that phrase in this discussion.

And your attempt at some sort of 'condo democracy' in which 'perfectly good buildings' speak equally is ridiculous given the extreme variability in the design and, perhaps more importantly, the construction of many recent structures. Would the deficiencies noted by residents of buildings such as M5V and Bridge also simply be 'not to your liking,' or is it that in some cases, builders rush their tradespeople through resulting in shoddy workmanship and a poorly-constructed end-product? If today's buildings can't even receive their first set of tenants without the sort of quality deficiencies we've seen, how are they any better than something in said 'Detroit ghetto' which is finally starting to fall apart after 30, 40 or 50 years (think re: the recent comments about how tough it's been to take 45 Charles down)?
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
As I recall it is might have been the first non-Context aA project? Speaking of street killer - as sleek as Four Season is, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be such.

AoD
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Yes, back to this building: I am looking forward to some updates on the base of the building (I get how the tower looks 6 blocks away). And I too am interested to see how this building works at street level and at this point, I am not sure it will (either by way of materials that do not seem to work with the rest of the podium or in its attempts to animate the street).
 
Four Seasons yesterday... not much to document anymore. this one seems to have been pretty finished up for the last month or so...

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Are they putting up the Four Seasons signage or not?
 
It's a shame that a building that looks so stunning up close looks like just another green box from a distance in that photo. I'm hoping it looks better in the right light.
 
I agree its not as impressive from a distance. But then again, even from that far away I'd say its still one of the better looking buildings in that photo. Also, does the glass really look green to you in that image or did you just mean that figuratively?
 
For me, 1 St Thomas is the winner in that photo. I also love 4S, but not in that particular pic. Direct sunlight can kill even the best looking glass buildings. I personally love the appearance of glass buildings just after sunset on a clear day.
 
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