Toronto 11 Bay | 269.45m | 54s | QuadReal | Daoust Lestage

Riseth said:
The waterfront is turning into a huge wall/clump of buildings. This should just blend in when all is said and done.
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There's enough green space along the edge of the harbour (along with the additions that are planned), plus the coming York Street and Rees Street parks to the west, and the park that will have nearly a quarter of the LCBO lands site, plus the two new piazzas that will result from the eventual removal of the Harbour to Lake Shore ramps at Yonge Street… that I am not lamenting that this will be a tall mixed-use building here, and one that will add immeasurably to the street life here. Bringing (during Post Covid times) thousands of new office workers onto this block can only enhance the liveliness of our Harbourfront area parks. I'd be happy to go taller here than they're proposing even. (I haven't looked into what the constraint on the height here is, whether it's shadowing of one of those parks a couple blocks away, or whether it's simple economics of how many floors you can efficiently serve by the space you have for elevators here, or whatever it was…) so ignoring practicalities that I haven't looked at here yet, it will be cool to bring a building this tall this close to the water. If it were a little taller, great, but more than that, I'd just prefer a stronger, bolder, simpler design. Put a big ass lantern up top and call it The Lighthouse.

42
 
Great post 42 ... and great reminder of public space that's here and yet to come.

One suggestion: could we split this into 3 threads?
1. tower
2. podium
3. discussion of my brilliant suggestion earlier for the crown glazing
 
interchange42 said:
There's enough green space along the edge of the harbour (along with the additions that are planned), plus the coming York Street and Rees Street parks to the west, and the park that will have nearly a quarter of the LCBO lands site, plus the two new piazzas that will result from the eventual removal of the Harbour to Lake Shore ramps at Yonge Street… that I am not lamenting that this will be a tall mixed-use building here, and one that will add immeasurably to the street life here. Bringing (during Post Covid times) thousands of new office workers onto this block can only enhance the liveliness of our Harbourfront area parks. I'd be happy to go taller here than they're proposing even. (I haven't looked into what the constraint on the height here is, whether it's shadowing of one of those parks a couple blocks away, or whether it's simple economics of how many floors you can efficiently serve by the space you have for elevators here, or whatever it was…) so ignoring practicalities that I haven't looked at here yet, it will be cool to bring a building this tall this close to the water. If it were a little taller, great, but more than that, I'd just prefer a stronger, bolder, simpler design. Put a big ass lantern up top and call it The Lighthouse.

42
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No argument there but I still have mixed feelings on the development of the waterfront myself. From a ground level perspective, all this new development has and will continue to add immeasurably to the street life and general atmosphere of the area compared to the wasteland it was 20 years ago. From a skyline perspective though, I'm not so sure they're improving it. In fact it's starting to look a bit awkward IMO with all these tall towers right up against the water. Part of me wishes this area was kept more low-mid rise and taller buildings were instead built further north. A more gradual build up to the bank towers as opposed to the wall-like nature of these proposals.

So I guess my earlier post was more superficial and aimed at the rapidly changing skyline which for me isn't always changing for the better. Call me nostalgic but I do sometimes lament the loss of our classic city view. I'm all for development and Toronto is not a museum but surely sticking tall buildings wherever we can fit them isn't the only solution?
 
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ptbotrmpfn said:
Only blocked if you live on the island. From many other angles it still shines
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There's a lot of places those will be blocked from the waterfront once everything in the works is developed though. Goodness...
 
TheSixLover said:
I kinda like the blocked out vibe, it makes the city feel bigger when there aren't open spaces everywhere downtown.
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In some places the blocked out vibe works well but along here, I would have preferred a more balanced approach to development. There's already plenty of density downtown.
 
Upon examining this tower further I think it's better than Bay Adelaide Centre..... those three are just 3 plain clear glass boxes with nothing else. 11 Bay at least has some dimension on the bottom third of the tower, and the gold accents will tie in nicely with One Yonge's Sky Tower. It will add some character and richness to what otherwise would be a boring box.

I gave Bay Adelaide a 5/10 , so this project for me gets a 7/10. It's a definite improvement compared to what's there now. If built with quality materials I think it could surprise many.
 
Riseth said:
In some places the blocked out vibe works well but along here, I would have preferred a more balanced approach to development. There's already plenty of density downtown.
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there clearly isn’t, given the unprecedented demand for both office space and residential space in the core. I do somewhat share in the lamentation for the “classic skyline”, but it’s vital to note that the great skylines of the world grew organically, rather than via any sort of planning intervention.

And honestly, I’ll take a slightly more generic skyline if it means greater density/greater vibrancy/a stronger public realm/etc any day of the week.
 
DSC said:
Yes, it's clearly the only new development looking for a lead tenant! :->
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Though, in fairness, there's more than 1 lead tenant looking for a development.

No, that is not an indication of who may be leasing where! LOL
 
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