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TheAlmightyFuzzy
Guest
And speaking of surprises, Windermere by the Lake turned out to be quite nice. I'll create a new thread since I don't think we've had any threads on this project in recent times.
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Windermere by The Lake (Cresford, 28s + towns, pellow + associates)
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Ed007Toronto
Guest
The townhomes at the bottom are an abomination.
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SD2
Guest
The townhomes (and base) are disgusting, but the tower is indeed a nice surprise. One of those rare towers that actually looks a lot better than it did in the renderings. It serves as a nice gateway too.
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adma
Guest
Well, they might have been an "acceptable" abomination (i.e. no better or worse than a lot of its cutesy-wutesy ilk). But the true abomination is the jaw-dropping, flabbergasting way how they're wrapped around to be the base of the tower.
Why? Dumb NIMBYS, or dumb developers, planners, politicians, whatever who think this is the proper way to appease NIMBYs? "Gee, they won't like this shiny glass condo tower, so let's wrap the base in something nice and Historical and they won't complain so much." Hoo boy, the net effect even demeans the tower into something like a yokel west-end Cityplace wannabe...
Why? Dumb NIMBYS, or dumb developers, planners, politicians, whatever who think this is the proper way to appease NIMBYs? "Gee, they won't like this shiny glass condo tower, so let's wrap the base in something nice and Historical and they won't complain so much." Hoo boy, the net effect even demeans the tower into something like a yokel west-end Cityplace wannabe...
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paulbali
Guest
Especially nice looking glass on this one.
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EnviroTO
Guest
The roofline of the townhouses remind me of a suburban restaurant chain building. The materials seem fine and from the Queensway they seem less unfortunate.
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Bogtrotter
Guest
The juxtaposition of the tower and those row houses is very awkward. Perhaps they look better from the front. But I quite like the tower itself.
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Archivistower
Guest
Bog, no, they don't look any better from the other side, the entranceway is as gracefully handled as the "ye oldeing" of the ground floor of Sutton Place.
This building's only possible saving grace is that casual passersby might not realize the townhouses and the building are linked in any way. I myself assumed, against all evidence to the contrary, that the building was actually behind another development of townhouses.
This building's only possible saving grace is that casual passersby might not realize the townhouses and the building are linked in any way. I myself assumed, against all evidence to the contrary, that the building was actually behind another development of townhouses.
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mark simpson
Guest
don't care for the tower as well
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interchange42
Guest
I pass this building often - it's close to home for me - and I agree with the criticisms here: the base and townhomes are ridiculous, the tower is rather pleasing.
It's especially pleasing at night: the roof is now dramatically lit, and is best from the west side where the glowing top floor undulates opposite to the dark line of the penthouses below it. I'd include a picture, but that would mean setting up a tripod on some dark cold night. You'll have to wait for spring if you want one from me!
42
It's especially pleasing at night: the roof is now dramatically lit, and is best from the west side where the glowing top floor undulates opposite to the dark line of the penthouses below it. I'd include a picture, but that would mean setting up a tripod on some dark cold night. You'll have to wait for spring if you want one from me!
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Oliver Tweed
Guest
I kinda like the way the whole thing looks. Seems like there's a lot of pretty harsh criticism. I don't think the townhomes are all that great, though I like the fact that there are townhomes there. The Queensway looks much better with them than without them.
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dziogo
Guest
no problem with townhouses IMHO... they look weird from the south (gardiner / rail tracks) (look more like square bird-houses) but are quite pleasant from queensway. i also like the whole thing including tower (i think we already had this discussion here on another thread)... anyhow, my only complaint is i would like to see retail in the base on the tower closest to the windermere / queensway intersection and another similar tower on the south - west side of the intersection to create nice gateway to windermere - with retail in podium as well. That streetcar stop right on queensway is quite busy and would be very nice to be able to drop into corner store or tim hortons / starbucks for a coffee before 20-30 min streetcar ride downtown. To me this is just a plain lost opportunity.
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interchange42
Guest
It boggles my mind why we can't have modern townhouses go with the modern tower here. The pastiche we have ended up with is a pathetic architectural joke. For some reason developers don't think that townhouse purchasers in this city want modern, only condo apartment purchasers do. One of the few good modern townhouse communities constructed over the last several years here is at Context's Radio City site. They are handsome inside and out and go perfectly with the towers there. They prove there is no reason why a handsome set of modern townhouses could not have been designed for Windermere-by-the-Lake.
Currently on the site plans for the west side of the project where their latest batch of Vic Schtick townhouses are rising along the Queensway, are two slab-ish towers closer to the Gardiner. I have not seen any sales ads for them at all, and no renderings, but their symmetrical footprints on the site plan do not bode well.
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Currently on the site plans for the west side of the project where their latest batch of Vic Schtick townhouses are rising along the Queensway, are two slab-ish towers closer to the Gardiner. I have not seen any sales ads for them at all, and no renderings, but their symmetrical footprints on the site plan do not bode well.
42
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dziogo
Guest
i cant see where they would put the two slabs there -the townhouses are pretty much going all the way from west end of the property to the bridge on windermere. unless they will be "inside" away from the streets... can you post that site plan?
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building babel
Guest
A truly ghoulish collision of styles. The result, I think, of a developer bringing together two separately marketed-to groups without thinking through the implications.
There seems to be a kind of "taste apartheid" happening here: a lowrise shantytown for timid aspirational buyers, drawn to the status and security that they believe traditional faux stylings will give them, huddling at the feet of the sleek cheap-trick-easy-sell appeal of a rounded quasi-Modernist tower for the get-up-and-go crowd.
There seems to be a kind of "taste apartheid" happening here: a lowrise shantytown for timid aspirational buyers, drawn to the status and security that they believe traditional faux stylings will give them, huddling at the feet of the sleek cheap-trick-easy-sell appeal of a rounded quasi-Modernist tower for the get-up-and-go crowd.