Yonge-Dundas Square/Sankofa Square (Brown + Storey Architects)

[ChesterCopperpot]

You were using Grammarly for a while, right? Any reason that you quit using it?

42

I thought he was having a medical episode

 

[Gotzvon]

That's what made it unique, just like Active Surplus that just vacated Queen Street, too bad everything nowadays is so generic..Yuk

OMG, someone else remembers Active Surplus! The giant gorilla at the front door scared the crap out of me as a kid.

On topic, the square is already filled with an insane menagerie of commercial billboards with ads that change weekly and hold no meaning to anyone. Why not add to that dissonance with a few nostalgic displays? Dundas square will never be "beautiful" in the traditional sense and I don't believe it was intended to. But it is exciting, and the Sam sign adds to that imo.

 

[jaborandi]

You were using Grammarly for a while, right? Any reason that you quit using it?

42

I thought he was having a great tanti.

 

[jje1000]

OMG, someone else remembers Active Surplus! The giant gorilla at the front door scared the crap out of me as a kid.

On topic, the square is already filled with an insane menagerie of commercial billboards with ads that change weekly and hold no meaning to anyone. Why not add to that dissonance with a few nostalgic displays? Dundas square will never be "beautiful" in the traditional sense and I don't believe it was intended to. But it is exciting, and the Sam sign adds to that imo.

Any sort of advertising/commercialized tourist nexus (i.e. Times Square, Yonge Dundas) will never really be a "beautiful" space- but what makes Times Square popular is the overwhelming scale and visual activation that's offered. So I say- bring on the advertising- more video screens and remounting of vintage signage please!

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Any sort of advertising/commercialized tourist nexus (i.e. Times Square, Yonge Dundas) will never really be a "beautiful" space- but what makes Times Square popular is the overwhelming scale and visual activation that's offered. So I say- bring on the advertising- more video screens and remounting of vintage signage please!

Except Times Square itself went through a redesign by Snohetta and it worked out great - and it didn't have to swoop low for its surroundings - that's the latter's job.

AoD

 

[skycandy]

The mounts are up....

 

[MetroMan]

The electronic posters on the light stands are now working. They’re really small and totally lost in the overwhelming signage behind them. I don’t see the point. But they’re harmless. It’s the ones being mounted on the canopy that are offensive. They made no effort to integrate them into the architecture of the canopy. A ticker would have made so much more sense.

 

[steveve]

The mounts are up....

I wonder if we’ll eventually see more than just the Sam sign atop that building. There’s a lot of valuable space up there for another LED screen that could generate some extra revenue. If CF owned the building, they’d be putting up a dozen of them.

 

[MetroMan]

I wonder if we’ll eventually see more than just the Sam sign atop that building. There’s a lot of valuable space up there for another LED screen that could generate some extra revenue. If CF owned the building, they’d be putting up a dozen of them.

It's a city owned building. I believe it was declared surplus some time ago. Maybe they already sold it but I doubt that it's going to remain there for very long. Consolidating the old Hakim building with this one would yield a nice space for a tower, maybe a hotel facing into the square.

 

[interchange42]

Toronto Public Health is headquartered in 277 Victoria St. Not sure how many other City departments are in there. I do not believe that it has been declared surplus, bit if you can find a reference for that, I'd appreciate seeing it. It would seem strange to me to have Ryerson spend as much as they are to preserve this sign if the building it were being mounted on had an uncertain future.

42

 

[DonValleyRainbow]

It's a city owned building. I believe it was declared surplus some time ago. Maybe they already sold it but I doubt that it's going to remain there for very long.

It was my understanding that Ryerson owned it (rightly).

 

[reetard]

Back When Kyle Rae was councillor, he wanted that building sold in conjunction with the Hakim site for a hotel, as I think they were both city owned at the time.

 

[innsertnamehere]

They still are. Public Health really doesn't want to sell their building apparently. Not really sure why.

 

[ShonTron]

Toronto Public Health is headquartered in 277 Victoria St. Not sure how many other City departments are in there. I do not believe that it has been declared surplus, bit if you can find a reference for that, I'd appreciate seeing it. It would seem strange to me to have Ryerson spend as much as they are to preserve this sign if the building it were being mounted on had an uncertain future.

42

Toronto Public Health occupies the entire building, and TPH is a big organization with local offices elsewhere too. The retail units on the first floor have all been converted to public-facing public health services: the needle exchange and safe injection site. It isn't the ideal location for either of those services, but the city owns the building, and it's central, and relatively close to other services and shelters further east.

This would be the ideal location for a "hip" hotel brand like aLoft - but I think a big question is finding a suitable new site for TPH.

 

[MetroMan]

@interchange42 It goes back to when Kyle Rae was councillor. In discussing the future of the square at a meeting, he said that this building had been declared surplus. Around that time, we found out here on the forum that Hakim Optical was moving out so everybody expected that the city was going to move out too.

But I guess it's safe to assume that after all these years, it's still occupied by Toronto Public Health, it's probably not the case anymore. Still, I'm sure the city could make a killing on selling this building to a hotel developer and just relocating Toronto Public Health to Metro Hall where they have available office space.