Toronto Forma | 308m | 84s | Great Gulf | Gehry Partners

Aug 22, 2019


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Rather hope this does not get built because this stretch of King has charming sense of scale plus some lovely heritage buildings. The scale of the proposal is massive. Having said that another stretch of a more desolate street downtown would be more appropriate.
 
On the other hand… I'm really looking forward to the buildings on either side of Duncan being pulverized. Those mostly charmless lumps have a few more years left in them though… it's quite the wait! The terra cotta-fronted Anderson Building at 284 King West, beside the Princess of Wales, is the only one I have any love for, so I'm glad its facade will be incorporated into the Gehry redevelopment.

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Rather hope this does not get built because this stretch of King has charming sense of scale plus some lovely heritage buildings. The scale of the proposal is massive. Having said that another stretch of a more desolate street downtown would be more appropriate.

You're a worse than troll than I am - and that's giving you the benefit of the doubt.
 
I do find it odd that nothing has started here given the condo market - which won't last forever. Something does seem amiss. This project has been approved for a very long time. It's beginning to feel like change is in the air.

Agreed, if GG eventually claim they've missed the cycle or can't execute the design economically because of complexity, but have regretfully decided to proceed with a very good alternative but practical proposal; I will hit the roof!!! This is supposed to be THE world-class landmark to emerge from this cycle. Maybe they should talk to that little guy building One.
 

I'm quite curious what's going on here though, the only thing I could find is:

It seems to imply they're renovating the building, but according the website work started Oct 2018 ? Not sure I see much in the way of changes yet.
 
Is this an acceptable remark? Seriously.

I have faith in your ability to survive the violence of my remark. Seriously, at this stage saying the most spectacular project (possibly ever) in Toronto's history should simply be moved somewhere else so save some ordinary buildings that are going to be preserved anyway; is trolling big time. Assss you well know.
 
I have faith in your ability to survive the violence of my remark. Seriously, at this stage saying the most spectacular project (possibly ever) in Toronto's history should simply be moved somewhere else so save some ordinary buildings that are going to be preserved anyway; is trolling big time. Assss you well know.

No one should need to survive the violence of a remark. It doesn't matter what LUVIT said or whether we agree with it or not. Retaliating with insults isn't acceptable.
 
No one should need to survive the violence of a remark. It doesn't matter what LUVIT said or whether we agree with it or not. Retaliating with insults isn't acceptable.
There’s really nothing like like a Canadian-style politically correct comment. LUVITS comment was a troll, I bite, I responded. It’s none of your business :)
 
For the record:

I don't find @LUVIT! 's comment here to be trolling.

While I'm not in agreement with it, given the context of the proposal, and the timing; I am nonetheless sympathetic with it.

The 2 buildings at Duncan are not stunners; but they do offer a scale and design comparatively unique in the context of downtown Toronto, and are part of a row 2 full blocks (Simcoe to John) there whose 'feel' has been mostly preserved.

Toronto has relatively little of that. In as much as that's the case, it might have been nice to see something like M+G end up on the site of a building or buildings we'd all be happy to write off (convention ctr, cough) or somewhere where their presence didn't interrupt a desirable context.

But that's not the world we inhabit. We have a proposal for 2 very interesting buildings, that are indeed more interesting than those they would replace, and they won't be shifting to any other site.

If this proposal did fail, since the zoning is already in place on the 2 Duncan sites, it's rather unlikely that these two buildings would be preserved as is through this or future development cycles; the most one could hope for is probably facadism which would likely still make a hash of the historical massing.

Given that, I certainly do favour M+G moving forward, as it's likely the best proposal this site will see.

But that doesn't detract from my sympathy for the idea of trying to preserve a block here or there, with a sense of time and place that is comparatively unique in Toronto.
 

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