Toronto NXT & NXT2 Condominiums | ?m | 35s | Cresford | a—A

[p5connex]

I would much rather see something along these lines:

Aqua in Chicago:

courtesy of The Urban Politician over at SSC

movement has more to do with water, both thematically and architecturally than NXT does...

p5

 

[junctionist]

Anyone would want to see something the bold yet thematically appropriate architecture of Aqua here. This location is close to the lake, the Humber river and Grenadier Pond.

Besides the interesting proximity to a variety of bodies of water, the location is terrific for its recreational amenities, and for commuting cyclists, there's quick access to Queen, King and the Martin Goodman trail or even Etobicoke. The downside is that pedestrians won't find a stellar variety of retail, though ROW transit is a plus.

It's too bad about the faux historical architecture of the neighbourhood. The towers aren't being built by Queensway. Interestingly, their website's architecture section advertises this project as continuing "the modernist tradition of the tower in the park". If that's supposed to be a positive trait, it doesn't even accomplish that. It's more "towers in the subdivision".

 

[casaguy]

Came across this pic of the NXT model from the National Post. (Apparently the people in the shot are happy buyers).

Sure looks tragically boring when compared to the pic above of Aqua in Chicago.

 

[3Dementia]

I take them over Aqua. It tries way too hard to be novel but it's just plain ugly as sin.

 

[Redroom Studios]

I agree, that Aqua thing is an accident waiting to happen....

 

[ProjectEnd]

Woah! You're kidding me! I was lying awake last night thinking, "Toronto has way to much innovative design. We do do things differently every time. Why don't we have any buildings that actually look like cheap condos rather than cheap condos dressed in a (supposedly) luxury veneer!" And hey presto, these things appear. These condos will be another boring, tasteless, falsified, duplicitous, insipid, bland, ignominious pockmark on the southern Ontario landscape.

I could not be more disappointed with the lack of architectural essence here. They even fail in their "modernist-inspired" aesthetics and instead remind me not of Mies' playful rationality, but of the uncomfortable monotony of Peter Eisenman's "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe" in Berlin (2005). The conundrum however, is that Eisenman's breathtaking work is intended to make the 'user' (If I dare call him/her that...) uncomfortable and force them to contemplate the events in question. NXT only forces the 'user' to contemplate why he or she purchased a unit there.

Perhaps I should count my blessings, at least theres no tacky roof element glued on top.

 

[urbandreamer]

Oh well, it's Toronto afterall and does anyone force you to drive on the Gardiner? I'm only around that area a few times each year---yet I live within 2 miles of the site!

 

[jamesnumber2]

Well those buyers look happy,but I've always thought that this project was too much in the middle of nowhere.You have to drive everywhere.

 

[Archivist]

I lie awake at night considering Toronto's inferiority in every way to Chicago. Comparisons such as these, of a high profile massive development by a name architect in the very centre of Chicago, to small, suburban projects by no-namers in Toronto, seem entirely appropriate to me. [Heavy dose of Sarcasm]. [Capitalized Sarcasm]. [That means I don't mean what I'm writing].

Here are some other Chicago projects - three of the first four that I looked at this morning, in an effort that took about, oh, 15 minutes. (The fourth, equally atrocious, I could not download an image for).

As this website for this last informs us, 30 W. Erie exemplifies Chicago’s reputation for classic and enduring architechture.

Did they perhaps mean Architorture?

 

[junctionist]

That building in the background of the last photo looks very St. Jamestown-esque, but that might just be the result of the artistic representation.

 

[Hipster Duck]

As this website for this last informs us, 30 W. Erie exemplifies Chicago’s reputation for classic and enduring architechture.

Did they perhaps mean Architorture?

1894 was perhaps the last year ever to build a mansard roof that wasn't ludicrous.

 

[ShonTron]

While I'd take that over some condos here (French Quarter anyone), it's such a poor-looking copy of whatever it's trying to be (Second Empire? Art Deco? Modernist?), it's bad. Like architecture by committee of ex-Iowans.

Mansard roofs have worked on post 1900 structures, but it's rare.

Though I bet most would find this okay. At least it won't stick out too bad given its short height.

Thanks for proving yet again, Chicago isn't all wonderful (see also, CTA funding crisis that's at least as bad, if not worse, as the Harris 1995-7 TTC cuts here).

 

[ganjavih]

The difference is that Chicago already has the architecture reputation. They really don't need to prove anything and can afford a few duds. We don't have the reputation, we should be trying a little harder.

 

[interchange42]

While I'd take that over some condos here (French Quarter anyone), it's such a poor-looking copy of whatever it's trying to be (Second Empire? Art Deco? Modernist?), it's bad. Like architecture by committee of ex-Iowans.

Hey! I have an ex-Iowan architect friend. Care to step outside?

42

(Seriously, I do, and he'd never design that kind'a schlock. Poor old Iowa. Always getting tarred and feathered. You know, there's this amazing blue cheese from Iowa called, wait for it - Maytag - that's right, Maytag, made by the same family that makes washers and dryers, although the cheese itself is not made in either the washers or the dryers. Anyway, Maytag Blue is probably the finest blue cheese made on this continent (with a few rivals from Quebec), but because it's from Iowa, it's facing all this uninformed anti-Iowa prejudice whipped by Toronto blogger types, so you can't actually buy it here, and I'm left having to import it every so often. Oh, Iowa...)

 

[maestro]

Woah! You're kidding me! I was lying awake last night thinking, "Toronto has way to much innovative design. We do do things differently every time. Why don't we have any buildings that actually look like cheap condos rather than cheap condos dressed in a (supposedly) luxury veneer!" And hey presto, these things appear. These condos will be another boring, tasteless, falsified, duplicitous, insipid, bland, ignominious pockmark on the southern Ontario landscape.

I could not be more disappointed with the lack of architectural essence here. They even fail in their "modernist-inspired" aesthetics and instead remind me not of Mies' playful rationality, but of the uncomfortable monotony of Peter Eisenman's "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe" in Berlin (2005). The conundrum however, is that Eisenman's breathtaking work is intended to make the 'user' (If I dare call him/her that...) uncomfortable and force them to contemplate the events in question. NXT only forces the 'user' to contemplate why he or she purchased a unit there.

Perhaps I should count my blessings, at least theres no tacky roof element glued on top.

Thank god for blissful ignorance ...