Toronto Forma | 308m | 84s | Great Gulf | Gehry Partners

Mirvish is a very recognizable, respected and marketable name in Toronto. However, a great deal of that cache is still associated with the whole "discount" empire and "impresario" image, which really doesn't represent the kind of branding these super high-end priced units are going to have to command.

Gehry on the other hand, is a name that does represent the highest level of sophistication in architecture. People expect, and pay a premium to be in a Gehry building. It's the building equivalent of a Birkin Bag.

8 Spruce Street, (formerly Beekman Tower) is now simply marketed as New York by Gehry.
 
Gehry's specifications for the exterior would not change whether it was Page and Steele or aA doing the arch-of-record work… and for those who need reminding, not only has it not fallen down, but Page and Steele's Delta Toronto is actually a lovely piece of recent work: the company is capable.

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Not quite. Gehry, as the design arch (and a foreign one at that), likely has little input into the sourcing and contracting of the component pieces. Meaning, it's up to IBI and the construction manager to arrange who's going to be making recommendations on the sourcing of the window wall and detailing how it's all attached. Now, if Gehry's contract with Projectcore stipulates that it's his office that will oversee this, then we're probably all good, but since his fees are going to be far higher than IBI's and because these sorts of things generally go to the lowest bidder, I doubt Projectcore will want them doing much more than is absolutely necessary.

A good example of this is L-Tower. Star design arch with P+S as arch of record. It's hardly the worst building in the city but it's certainly not the best...

Sure, Delta is nice but a) it's one project in...how many?; and b) I doubt (but would love to be surprised) they're going to be springing for curtain wall here.
 
I wonder if P+S/IBI have the expertise to do it - their portfolio doesn't have anything nearly as intricate as what's being proposed. For all the niceness that is Delta, it is pedestrian.

Interesting to compare this project with AGO - did it even have an Arch. of Record (don't recall it did).

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
I wonder if P+S/IBI have the expertise to do it - their portfolio doesn't have anything nearly as intricate as what's being proposed.
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No, no-one's does. This is not an ordinary project, and far more work has to be done in advance to understand final production costs here before Mirvish+Gehry can come to market.

When I visited Projectcore's offices about this time last year, they themselves were talking with potential suppliers to see who could produce exactly what Gehry was specifying for the buildings' exteriors, (possibly interiors too, but we didn't talk about them). In this case they were looking for both a particular glass and coating plus the right metal housing to make the waterfall effect that Gehry wants for the north sides of the towers.

Everything is being worked out to the finest detail here, and if you're thinking that Gehry will let something go up with his name on it that he doesn't approve of, well you've never talked with the guy.

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Also, just for the record because there's been a lot of discussion of 8 Spruce on this thread: I've been in multiple units there and there is definitely no sign of Gehry's design touch in the interiors. The innovation on that building is all on the exterior; I'll be interested to see if these towers employ a similar breakdown.
 
interchange42 said:
No, no-one's does. This is not an ordinary project, and far more work has to be done in advance to understand final production costs here before Mirvish+Gehry can come to market.

When I visited Projectcore's offices about this time last year, they themselves were talking with potential suppliers to see who could produce exactly what Gehry was specifying for the buildings' exteriors, (possibly interiors too, but we didn't talk about them). In this case they were looking for both a particular glass and coating plus the right metal housing to make the waterfall effect that Gehry wants for the north sides of the towers.

Everything is being worked out to the finest detail here, and if you're thinking that Gehry will let something go up with his name on it that he doesn't approve of, well you've never talked with the guy.

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I'd imagine they would have to source it from one of Gehry's go to - Permasteelisa.

http://www.permasteelisagroup.com/project-gallery/36/8

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
I'd imagine they would have to source it from one of Gehry's go to - Permasteelisa.

http://www.permasteelisagroup.com/project-gallery/36/8

AoD
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They also worked on Gehry's Novartis HQ and Foster's Renwick DC addition:

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Novartis does very little for me (especially the exterior) but the National Portrait Gallery (not the Renwick Gallery, @ADRM) courtyard is an absolutely sublime space and a beautiful, undulating, evolution of the original canopy covering the Great Court at the British Museum in London.
 
ProjectEnd said:
Novartis does very little for me (especially the exterior) but the National Portrait Gallery (not the Renwick Gallery, @ADRM) courtyard is an absolutely sublime space and a beautiful, undulating, evolution of the original canopy covering the Great Court at the British Museum in London.
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The design of the Novartis exterior doesn't do much for me (vs. Foundation Cartier; the interior is another story) - but it sure got chutzpah.

AoD
 
ProjectEnd said:
Now, if Gehry's contract with Projectcore stipulates that it's his office that will oversee this, then we're probably all good, but since his fees are going to be far higher than IBI's and because these sorts of things generally go to the lowest bidder, I doubt Projectcore will want them doing much more than is absolutely necessary.
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Since this project involves all complex custom fabrication from his design office's proprietary software (Gehry Technologies) and probably handling the BIM Process, I don't think this can be anything but a very hands on job for the Gehry team. This is where Gehry will actually save you money with contactors. Other Starchitects use his office for this purpose.
 
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