10 Dundas East (former Toronto Life Square, Ent Prop Trust, 10s, Baldwin & Franklin)

[Natika33]

I have no issue calling this terrible. And if we converted this to an age restricted website, I would use adjectives that were less kind.

What would you like to see there instead? I could be happy with something taller and less 90s looking, but I'd still vote for a coffee shop over-looking the intersection.

 

[alklay]

What would you like to see there instead? I could be happy with something taller and less 90s looking, but I'd still vote for a coffee shop over-looking the intersection.

I would like anything that used better materials, was better designed and amounted to better architecture. Anything.

No coffee shop is going to save this disaster.

 

[Natika33]

I would like anything that used better materials, was better designed and amounted to better architecture. Anything.

No coffee shop is going to save this disaster.

I would like anything that used better materials, was better designed and amounted to better architecture. Anything.

No coffee shop is going to save this disaster.

A coffee shop won't change the whole architecture, that's true. I guess I feel the whole square is ugly, so I don't care so much about the exterior, but I really like the open middle with all the escalators going off on different angles.

 

[interchange42]

A coffee shop won't change the whole architecture, that's true. I guess I feel the whole square is ugly, so I don't care so much about the exterior, but I really like the open middle with all the escalators going off on different angles.

I get where you're coming from re: the coffee shop. Point being, the shops lining the windows should be using the windows, not covering them up and deadening them. There also piles of cheap signage on this thing, tons of battleship gray cladding, and copious useless doodadery in the form of fake fans that are supposed to give it an industrial chic look (but which just give it an industrial cheap look). A thoughtful recladding combined with an internal reworking of spaces that used the windows properly could do a lot to improve this building and lift it out of disaster and embarrassment status.

42

 

[isaidso]

I have no issue with one part of downtown being a sensory overload of garish video screens and signs. Love it or hate it, the popularity of it is undeniable and it's arguably become the psychological heart of downtown. The problem has always been the execution: primitive and cheap looking.

The developer decided it unnecessary to design a proper building since the exterior would largely be covered with billboards, etc. We predictably ended up with a lemon. The interior is shockingly awful. I went inside once and vowed never to do it again. The advertisements hide 80% of the exterior but the gaps reveal what a cheap tin can this building is.

Covering the entire exterior with video screens and re-cladding the gaps might help but we'd still be left with that interior. This might be an exercise in throwing good money after bad. Perhaps in 20+ years they need to take this whole block down and start again.

 

[Davidackerman]

For all your model makers- course on model making
https://little-canada.ca/modelmaking101/