Toronto 180 Queens Quay East | 75.5m | 22s | Rom-Grand Waterfront Ltd | a—A

This was supposed to return to the DRP tomorrow, on January 26, 2022, but the agenda only shows the PIC Core Urban Design Guidelines. Also missing on the agenda is 200 Queens Quay West, Bentway Bridge Re-design, and the Legacy Art Project. I am very angry with this design and it just goes to show that architectsAlliance does not care. I remember speaking at the Pier 27 Phase 3 consultations which they designed and Peter Clewes said my comments are subjective and therefore should be disregarded, whereas City Planning at least acknowledged that the waterfront isn't living up to its design potential. These people clearly don't care about what the public thinks and are only focussed on furthering their aesthetic agenda and the interests of their clients.
 
This was supposed to return to the DRP tomorrow, on January 26, 2022, but the agenda only shows the PIC Core Urban Design Guidelines. Also missing on the agenda is 200 Queens Quay West, Bentway Bridge Re-design, and the Legacy Art Project.

🤔

I am very angry with this design and it just goes to show that architectsAlliance does not care. I remember speaking at the Pier 27 Phase 3 consultations which they designed and Peter Clewes said my comments are subjective and therefore should be disregarded

Any comments on aesthetics and preferences by anyone (me, you or Peter) are subjective in some measure. You can objectively discuss what a material is; or what a height is; but not so much one's preferences for one or the other...

That said, the idea that a subjective preference on architecture should be disregarded; by an architect no less, is concerning.

, whereas City Planning at least acknowledged that the waterfront isn't living up to its design potential.

That's certainly a fair characterization.

These people clearly don't care about what the public thinks and are only focussed on furthering their aesthetic agenda and the interests of their clients.

I'm not sure that's true; I often don't share Peter's preferences; and I also think aA has gotten more than a little repetitive.

I also agree this design is seriously flawed, to say the least.

But I'm not sure I would say Peter doesn't care.

I might say some of his passion contributes to some serious blind spots; and that he may at times be too dismissive of those who critique his firm's offerings.
 
In the video recordings on WT's Youtube, you can see a draft list of upcoming items for the next meeting. On December's meeting, they anticipated that all those projects would return to the panel in January but they're not included in the agenda that was released today.
Any comments on aesthetics and preferences by anyone (me, you or Peter) are subjective in some measure. You can objectively discuss what a material is; or what a height is; but not so much one's preferences for one or the other...

That said, the idea than a subjective preference on architecture should be disregarded; by an architect no less, is concerning.
Spot on. Other people also complained about the aesthetics but they were met with the same response. I was mentioning projects like Aqualuna that I, and most other people on this forum, think is appropriate for our waterfront and encouraged them to try to evoke a waterfront language (not style, it's about advancing a certain identity) and to focus more on the public realm. I also asked them to consider materials that aren't glass.
I might say some of his passion contributes to some serious blind spots; and that he may at times be too dismissive of those who critique his firm's offerings.
Just look at the whole Château Laurier fiasco. Since 2016 (for five years), architectsAlliance has been going through a long process of submitting and resubmitting outrageous designs that ended up sparking actual protests and became one of Ottawa's biggest news stories. He knew no one liked the design, but insisted on making it stand out as much as possible, because apparently completely ignoring the Chateauesque aesthetic is actually the right way to conserve heritage. The people of Ottawa wanted an hotel addition that either had a respectful contemporary addition or one that continued the existing hotel's playful style. What struck me even more was why they were doing this. Wouldn't they want to get on with building the addition, instead of waiting so many years for it to finally get approved? Of course, there are other issues at play such as the alteration of a National Historic Site, which apparently don't have any legal protections and, even though Liberals promised to change this as a result of this very project, the laws weren't changed. After all this time with so much controversy, they ended up with a design that uses limestone and a copper roof... but that's it. Peter Clewes explained that "fear" was why people didn't like his masterpiece, not because people want to preserve the character of our capital. Maybe he does care but that only extends to his minimalistic approach.

To capture my sentiment, Jane Jacobs has a great quote... “The most cunningly ignorant people I know are architects.”

Another one is from Paul Joseph Watson, who I personally don't like but makes a good point when it comes to architecture...
"Whereas our new buildings used to look like the headquarters of some kind of post-apocalyptic totalitarian dictatorship, they now look like the headquarters of some kind of futuristic post-apocalyptic totalitarian dictatorship. That's progress!"
 
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Coming to TEYCC in 2 weeks:

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There's digging continuously happening in the site directly east to this (which is also not part of Lakeside). It seems to be very slow progress, but at least the machinery is moving and doing something there. Not sure if it's the same developer/owner though.
 
There's digging continuously happening in the site directly east to this (which is also not part of Lakeside). It seems to be very slow progress, but at least the machinery is moving and doing something there. Not sure if it's the same developer/owner though.
East of this site is Lower Sherbourne Street & Sherbourne Common so I assume you mean WEST of this site. That is Quay House and has its own thread. https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threa...15m-21s-empire-kirkor-architects.29486/page-8 I think it is proceeding as planned.
 
Ah yes!, it's west. My wife is always chastising my east/west when driving - just give me "turn right" or "turn left" instructions! Thanks for the link as well, I'll try to snap some pictures and post it there.
 
New renderings are updated in the database. The only changes are as followed. The overall building height changed from 75.80m, 63.98m, and 55.40m to 75.5m, 64.00m, and 55.40m. The total unit count changed from 576 units to 607 units.

Renderings are taken from the architectural plan via Site Plan Approval:

PLN - Architectural Plans - SEP 15  2022-2.jpg


PLN - Architectural Plans - SEP 15  2022-4.jpg


PLN - Architectural Plans - SEP 15  2022-6.jpg
 
Can't find my puke gif... anyone seen it?

This remains aAbsolutely terrible, particularly at grade. Hope no-one got a hernia at the firm adding those repetitious balcony wiggles.
 
Can't find my puke gif... anyone seen it?

This remains aAbsolutely terrible, particularly at grade. Hope no-one got a hernia at the firm adding those repetitious balcony wiggles.
With this never-ending building boom, firms are busy whether they produce good work or not and it's really starting to show.
 

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