Toronto Concord Sky | 300.2m | 85s | Concord Adex | Kohn Pedersen Fox

I think it's reasonable to say in getting all those towers up as quickly as possible, quality got thrown under the bus over quantity. Hopefully with the current downturn, we can all reflect as to why quality should have been first and foremost. And hopefully this city can move on from there, IMO...
 
Mav01 said:
Toronto Architecture is simply some of the worst in the world. Walking around the city, you just wonder does the city even have a city council? is there a division for architecture and urban planning? Spanning glass from building to building, nothing is matching and nothing is relatable. It's a mish mash of unbounded boredom. Simply a big mess. I will say one thing positive tho, it seems things are getting a bit better, but still not to par of other mega cities
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Tarazet said:
A bit hyperbolic, if you ask me. I’ve been to 57 countries and I can tell you that there are many cities with architecture worse than Toronto. If you walk around and really look at the built environment, there are some very interesting buildings, from low rise to high rise. I get that the spandrel-fest we suffered through for 15 years was a blow to the overall look of the city, dominated as it was by bottom dollar, cheap developers. But there are great buildings in this city. And great ones to come.
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I think it's less about the quality of our buildings than it is the quality of our public realm that makes Toronto look really worn down...
I just came back from visiting Metrotown, Burnaby and all the new developments have some uniform public realm design aspect to them that makes it much more pleasant to walk around.

And no, it's not necessarily just their natural surroundings.

Here are some examples I took.

These are all by different developers, but notice the uniformity in the way
the types of vegetation are used, the materials for the sidewalks/bike lanes, and even the fire hydrants and street lamps.
You just don't see this kind of city-wide effort in Toronto.

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Also, notice how the developers remove the power lines in the vicinity of the construction project (unlike most Toronto projects)
I've been saying this over and over on UT, but removing the power poles and burying the lines really does make a difference. And Vancouver gets it.


Before:
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After:

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Before:

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After:


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R
 
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biospherian said:
I think it's less about the quality of our buildings than it is the quality of our public realm that makes Toronto look really worn down.
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Absolutely agree. There are plenty of gems of buildings in Toronto that struggle behind the wall of utility wires, overhead transformers, wooden poles, cracked narrow sidewalks, lack of street furniture, lack of trees etc, etc.
 
wmedia said:
Absolutely agree. There are plenty of gems of buildings in Toronto that struggle behind the wall of utility wires, overhead transformers, wooden poles, cracked narrow sidewalks, lack of street furniture, lack of trees etc, etc.
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+1

The downtown and all our major arterial roads could eventually get built out but Toronto will never shine till we completely re-think how we design our public realm. Even the new stuff usually leaves a lot to be desired. Absurdly wide roads, crude narrow sidewalks made of concrete, overhead wiring, a jumbled mess of signage, ugly utilitarian lamp posts, and when we do think to install landscaping they often place it in the middle of the sidewalk instead of by the curb. Having entire blocks with next to nothing but a sheet of glass doesn't help either. We are astonishingly bad at this.
 
Toronto still seems to be trying to find its footing as Canada's premier city after playing second fiddle to Montreal for almost 200 years. Growing pains, if you will.
 
unrealestate said:
Not really apples to apples. Metrotown has no historical significance like yonge. That looks more or less like City place. Parts of downtown Vancouver that have a mix of old and new are gritty like Toronto
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My view still doesn't change if we go to Yonge and Eglinton (which is similar in feel to Metrotown), St. Clair West, or Vaughn, or Markham. Doesn't matter where.
Developers suck at landscaping here and the city doesn't care as much as they do in Vancouver.

Also, downtown Vancouver projects are often high-end and have even better uniform public realm design quality than Metrotown. That's what Yaletown is known for.
Additionally, the city itself has its own project to remove power poles and they just completed removing most of their infamous H-frame poles in the downtown area.
Have you ever seen a city-wide effort like this in TO?
In Toronto, developers will re-route power lines to the other side of the road rather than burying them

Here's Yaletown (DT Van) before:

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After:

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biospherian said:
I think it's less about the quality of our buildings than it is the quality of our public realm that makes Toronto look really worn down...
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This may be one of my favourite posts ever on this forum.

It's something I've felt for a long time while living here, but haven't been able to put it into words.

Edit: wanted to also mention that it gives me hope - because the public realm seems easier and quicker to improve than, for example, re-cladding existing buildings.
 
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unrealestate said:
Not really apples to apples. Metrotown has no historical significance like yonge. That looks more or less like City place. Parts of downtown Vancouver that have a mix of old and new are gritty like Toronto
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Start Fox said:
This may be one of my favourite posts ever on this forum.

It's something I've felt for a long time while living here, but haven't been able to put it into words.

Edit: wanted to also mention that it gives me hope - because the public realm seems easier and quicker to improve than, for example, re-cladding existing buildings.
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Well, we could start with places like Yonge and Eglinton, but I'm not seeing much improvement with our new projects.

To conclude my point, notice the difference?

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