Toronto Living Shangri-La Toronto | 214.57m | 66s | Westbank | James Cheng

Uno Prii lived and worked in Toronto and as far as I know did not obtain work elsewhere.
 
...the KPMB/aA condo towers could have been built anywhere...
 
They're examples of good Toronto architecture, unlike parachuted-in designs by foreign hotel chains that could go anywhere.
 
What are good examples of Toronto architecture? aA? They are building modernism, which by its very design, was meant to be built any and everywhere. And you just have to go to forum pages of other cities like New York or most mid-west cities, to see plenty of aA type condos.
 
... though Canadian Modernism wasn't the same as American Modernism, or European Modernism the first time around. We got it later, it was less political, less preachy, less this-architecture-is-good-for-you. It was gentler and more stylistic. And the current Canadian Modernist Restoration style, characteristic of several of our leading Toronto firms, reflects that. We also had to put up with a smaller PoMo stylistic hiccup than our American cousins did - we have more of a continuity with our post-WW2 Modernism. There is a distinctive voice to everything that creative Canadians produce - architecture, illustration, music, design, you name it.
 
The Shangri-La is designed by a Canadian. I guess it can't be build anywhere.
 
I think it can, because it is paid for by an international hotel chain to reflect their global commercial branding requirements.
 
Its being developed by Canadians, paid for by Canadians and they do not even have the hotel chain lined up for the project, the last we heard.

So who pays for it determines the architecuture? Then this in Canadian and the Cosmopolitan is Israeli.
 
Yikes! They're calling it the Shangri-La and it isn't even part of the hotel chain? That's clever.
 
Yeah, its kinda funny. With the city application they admitted that they did not have the hotel lined up yet. They do have a relationship with the chain having the chain come into a condo building in Vancouver (which is what is happening here), but we have not heard of a confirmation that they have them secured for this Toronto project. This probably explains why there is no sales centre (as opposed to the Four Seasons which is presently building theirs and was approved at the same time).
 
alklay: Sometimes I wish I had the kind of business or entrepreneurial mind that can wrap itself around such issues, but I don't. I'm therefore surprised that a basic capitalist concept such as "who pays for it determines the architecture" surprises you - someone who apparently studies such stuff. I would think that a hotel, regardless of the nationality of the architect who designs it, has to conform to the branding requirements of the owner in order to churn out the profits that are expected of it.
 
The Shangri-la website reads:

In its first foray into the Toronto market, Westbank will arrive in the grandest of style with a 700 foot tower featuring a 5-Star Shangri-la Hotel and luxury residential condos.

So this means, a) they've secured the deal, or b) they're getting ahead of themselves on the website. Maybe an agreement in principle but not signiature on the dotted line? Anybody?
 
"has to conform to the branding requirements of the owner in order to churn out the profits that are expected of it" is too broad a phrase to mean anything. Its much like "could be built anywhere." It's too broad and therefore meaningless.

Hotels, like any brand, can come in numerous shapes, sizes, packages, forms and identities. The Four Seasons in Toronto certainly does not look like the Four Seasons in L.A. or Prague. And thankfully, for the rest of the world, there are no Holiday Inns that look like the one on King St. They may share the fact that they serve certain functions at certain price levels, but the 'brand' is hardly forcing conformity in architecture. Show me two Four Seasons hotels that look the same.
 
A random glance at the Holiday Inn website shows plenty of buildings every bit as hideous as Toronto's - some even worse. The price level of their chain is reflected in the buildings - you'd never confuse a Holiday Inn with a Four Seasons for instance - and there is no reason why the owners, who are selling a brand, would want to create that confusion.
 
In a differing context, there are some red brick buildings on Church Street with balconied gables that are considered quite unique to Toronto. Apparantly at one point in time this style of building was more common in Toronto too.
 

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