Another piece re: the opening of Bay Adelaide that seems to have a very optimistic tone to it
New towers have city looking up
Sep 17, 2009 04:30 AM
Royson James
Architect Joe Berridge manages urban regeneration projects all over the world and has not been shy in giving Toronto a kick in the rear whenever the city needs a bit of motivation. So when he says his hometown is hopping while other world centres limp along, you listen.
"Toronto is the centre of the universe right now," Berridge said yesterday as a few hundred suits celebrated the opening of the first major office building in the financial district in 17 years. Cranes continue to dot our skyline while other world centres are in the doldrums.
So much so that Toronto should take advantage of its image as a safe banking centre and promote itself as the new Switzerland.
That kind of heady talk, the antithesis of the market-induced gloom of the past year, is making a comeback.
For the better part of two decades, city hall deliberated and debated the virtues of a massive office complex down the road from Nathan Phillips Square.
Through mayors Art Eggleton, June Rowlands, Barbara Hall and Megacity Mel (Lastman), the project barely managed to rise out of the corner of Bay and Adelaide Sts. to the height of a six-storey elevator shaft. For 13 years, all residents saw was "The Stump" – a sad symbol of the decline of Toronto's business heft and a reminder that once a city loses its mojo, getting it back is a long and difficult task.
Yesterday, phase one of the Bay Adelaide Centre opened, and with it, a promise that maybe Toronto's office market is healthier than feared. For the first time in current civic memory, office towers are rising in Toronto's downtown financial corridor.
The Stump is across the street from The Trump, as larger-than-life Donald Trump's hotel/condo complex continues to add storeys.
An essential side benefit of the Bay-Adelaide project is that it completes the missing link of the city's underground PATH pedestrian walkway. It will open mid-October. Pedestrians will be able to go from the Eaton Centre to Union Station and the Rogers Centre without having to meander west over University Ave. and back.
Cadillac Fairview is to open the 43-storey RBC Centre complex near University Ave. and Wellington St. Menkes' 780,000-square-foot Telus Tower near the Air Canada Centre is to open in November. And condos and boutique hotels continue to scrape the sky.
Toronto has about 105 buildings over 12 storeys going up in the city, gushed Mayor David Miller, beaming as he presides over what he appropriately calls a "renaissance."
"We are building more tall buildings in this city than all other cities in Canada combined," he said.
"This does mark a renaissance and a new confidence in downtown Toronto," Miller told the guests at yesterday's opening. "We've not seen investments like these in nearly 20 years."
The building itself – 51 storeys distributed over 1.2 million square feet – is not iconic in the least. But it is very green and energy-efficient, tidy and corporately elegant, and is perfect for the likes of law firms like Heenan Blaikie, who've already moved in. Visitors who love marble – think Michelangelo's David – and boardroom mahogany will be impressed.
A semipublic park/square animates the eastern portion of the site, though we'll see how much of it remains when the other two phases are erected. And developer Brookfield Properties spent nearly $3 million for public art: an unusual installation of wall lights in the lobby. Brookfield spokesman Ryk Stryland says a nighttime visit will reveal the art and its "mesmerizing" effects.
Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
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