dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
Dec 29 Update
The Towns on Wellesley, and down Bleeker Street
The Towns on Wellesley, and down Bleeker Street
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Star of Downtown, The (Willowfield/Norstar, 12s, Kirkor) COMPLETE
cdr108
Senior Member
Is there any brickwork ???
It looks like it's all stucco !
What happened to the brickwork from the renderings?
Yellow or red bricks would have blended well with the true Victorians in the neighbourhood.
It looks like it's all stucco !
What happened to the brickwork from the renderings?
Yellow or red bricks would have blended well with the true Victorians in the neighbourhood.
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dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
As BUGEYEDBRIT indicated, it's stucco on the front.
Lauren
New Member
Re: townsuites
I was shocked to see the butterscotch yellow STUCCO! It's quite the deviation from the artist's renderings. The builder has extended our move in to the max (per contract). Was anyone in the highrise compensated for any additional delay???
I was shocked to see the butterscotch yellow STUCCO! It's quite the deviation from the artist's renderings. The builder has extended our move in to the max (per contract). Was anyone in the highrise compensated for any additional delay???
ganjavih
Senior Member
Those townhouses look good enough to eat. Mmmm, I'd love to stick a fork in that.
grey
Senior Member
The worst part of Mississauga called: it wants its cheaply made stucco townhouses back.
egotrippin
Senior Member
It honestly looks like they just painted the concrete or whatever it is they built those things out of.
junctionist
Senior Member
On the bright side, at least it's concrete, which is advantageous in terms of durability, fire resistance, and energy efficiency. Yet of course one can't overlook the cheap details and exterior finish which doesn't suit the city.
ShonTron
Moderator
Member Bio
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The condo itself turned out better than expected, the townhouses are bad.
That's unfair to Mississauga. After all, there's the shortbread stucco townhouses on Bathurst north of Queen that look just as bad.
That's unfair to Mississauga. After all, there's the shortbread stucco townhouses on Bathurst north of Queen that look just as bad.
adma
Superstar
They're not bad, they're Camp.
cdr108
Senior Member
Where east never meets west
Where east never meets west
http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/559907
January 3, 2009
Christopher Hume
Standing at the corner of Parliament and Wellesley, a visitor to Toronto would be hard-pressed to guess that one of the city's most desirable neighbourhoods, Cabbagetown, is just metres away. The way it works in this part of town, boundaries are as specific as one side of the street versus the other. On Wellesley east of Parliament, the sidewalks are lined with trees and renovated Victorian houses, each more exquisite than the next. To the west, however, everything changes. Though the south side of Wellesley still boasts two or three blocks of 19th-century, mostly Second Empire row houses, modernity intrudes abruptly.
It takes the form of St. James Town, that misguided monument to '60s notions of urban renewal. The sheer scale of the project, let alone the way the towers meet the ground and relate to one another, make it hard-to-like, even if one does admire the intention. Certainly none of the main streets that border St. James Town – Wellesley, Parliament and Sherbourne – are enhanced by its presence. Far from it: This highrise community, still the densest in Canada, presents a blank face to the rest of the city. On the east side, where St. James Town looks onto St. James Cemetery and St. James-the-Less Chapel, the contrast between old and new becomes decidedly surrealistic. On one hand, there's Victorian Toronto's evocation of an English country setting, on the other, early modern housing for the masses. This dichotomy lies at the heart of what's wrong with Wellesley.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Condo Critic
THE STAR OF DOWNTOWN, 225 WELLESLEY ST. E.: This improbably-named slab, which sits on the south side of Wellesley at Ontario St., is completely, startlingly, out of place. It is the wrong building in the wrong location, yet another insult to a neighbourhood that seems to suffer whether the intentions toward it are good or bad.
Most obviously, this is one of those marketing-department projects where the architects have set out to give the buyers what the salespeople think they want. That means unseemly cuteness, inappropriate decorative motifs and a gentility that couldn't seem more fatuous in this gritty precinct. Gentrification is one thing, but this smacks of attempted prettification, a mortal sin for architects, neighbourhoods and cities.
With its precast concrete facades and 12-storey bulk, the Star of Downtown also happens to be a building that occupies a lot of space. Despite the street-level retail, it fails to connect with its surroundings; it can't avoid its fate, which is to resemble something transported lock, stock and barrel from North York.
Let's be frank, from an architectural point of view, 225 is a bit of a mess. The geometric structure that runs along the front facade as a sort of podium blocks the balconies behind in a clumsy effort to add heft to this otherwise ordinary building. And who couldn't help but love the stub that extends horizontally from a pergola-like addition to the east. It could be a mistake, an unfinished element or perhaps an instant ruin. As is true of the building in general, it's hard to tell what its creators were thinking.
GRADE: C
Where east never meets west
http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/559907
January 3, 2009
Christopher Hume
Standing at the corner of Parliament and Wellesley, a visitor to Toronto would be hard-pressed to guess that one of the city's most desirable neighbourhoods, Cabbagetown, is just metres away. The way it works in this part of town, boundaries are as specific as one side of the street versus the other. On Wellesley east of Parliament, the sidewalks are lined with trees and renovated Victorian houses, each more exquisite than the next. To the west, however, everything changes. Though the south side of Wellesley still boasts two or three blocks of 19th-century, mostly Second Empire row houses, modernity intrudes abruptly.
It takes the form of St. James Town, that misguided monument to '60s notions of urban renewal. The sheer scale of the project, let alone the way the towers meet the ground and relate to one another, make it hard-to-like, even if one does admire the intention. Certainly none of the main streets that border St. James Town – Wellesley, Parliament and Sherbourne – are enhanced by its presence. Far from it: This highrise community, still the densest in Canada, presents a blank face to the rest of the city. On the east side, where St. James Town looks onto St. James Cemetery and St. James-the-Less Chapel, the contrast between old and new becomes decidedly surrealistic. On one hand, there's Victorian Toronto's evocation of an English country setting, on the other, early modern housing for the masses. This dichotomy lies at the heart of what's wrong with Wellesley.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Condo Critic
THE STAR OF DOWNTOWN, 225 WELLESLEY ST. E.: This improbably-named slab, which sits on the south side of Wellesley at Ontario St., is completely, startlingly, out of place. It is the wrong building in the wrong location, yet another insult to a neighbourhood that seems to suffer whether the intentions toward it are good or bad.
Most obviously, this is one of those marketing-department projects where the architects have set out to give the buyers what the salespeople think they want. That means unseemly cuteness, inappropriate decorative motifs and a gentility that couldn't seem more fatuous in this gritty precinct. Gentrification is one thing, but this smacks of attempted prettification, a mortal sin for architects, neighbourhoods and cities.
With its precast concrete facades and 12-storey bulk, the Star of Downtown also happens to be a building that occupies a lot of space. Despite the street-level retail, it fails to connect with its surroundings; it can't avoid its fate, which is to resemble something transported lock, stock and barrel from North York.
Let's be frank, from an architectural point of view, 225 is a bit of a mess. The geometric structure that runs along the front facade as a sort of podium blocks the balconies behind in a clumsy effort to add heft to this otherwise ordinary building. And who couldn't help but love the stub that extends horizontally from a pergola-like addition to the east. It could be a mistake, an unfinished element or perhaps an instant ruin. As is true of the building in general, it's hard to tell what its creators were thinking.
GRADE: C
H
Hydrogen
Guest
Shortbread you say? I always thought those were coated with cake icing.
adma
Superstar
Roy G Biv
Senior Member
How could someone who graduated from an architecture program create such a shit-box?
This is what I fail to understand. I realize that the architect was most likely handicapped by the developer's cheapness.... but you gotta be able to do cheap better than this..no?
Please help.
This is what I fail to understand. I realize that the architect was most likely handicapped by the developer's cheapness.... but you gotta be able to do cheap better than this..no?
Please help.
cdr108
Senior Member
I've seen some other works by Kirkor and they looked similar.
Funny enough, they did the Gardens at Queen (aka the other butterscotch project) ... LOL
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