Emerald City/Parkway Forest: New Rental Buildings (ELAD Canada, various, WZMH)

[Silence&Motion]

Nice to see these older, bleak suburbs finally getting some proper streetwall action.

I'm all for urbanization, but I'm feeling very ambivalent about these projects going up along Sheppard (this and Legacy). I'm no longer convinced that simply building condos right up along a car-chocked, 6-lane street will really make the area any less bleak. I wonder if we're making a mistake by trying to impose an urban built form on a suburban streetscape, rather than just working on improving the built form that already exists.

 

[maestro]

^How exactly do you improve on the existing built form otherwise? I wouldn't call this intensification of late 1960s towers-in-a-park development urban in the sense of" downtown Toronto urban" as you will still a fairly low percentage of lot coverage with a lot of the extra space devoted to driveways. The reasoning behind the new buildings hugging the street probably has alot to do with the limitations in building around an existing apartment block.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

The mechanical boxes on top look silly. Buildings that actually front Sheppard with a bit of streetwall will seem less out of place once there are more of them. It's not really a streetwall if there's nothing beside it or across the street...it may seem more pathetic in the interim.

 

[junctionist]

The mechanical boxes on top look silly. Buildings that actually front Sheppard with a bit of streetwall will seem less out of place once there are more of them. It's not really a streetwall if there's nothing beside it or across the street...it may seem more pathetic in the interim.

It's sad to see an interesting midrise intensification effort flawed because of those huge stretches of featureless brick walls. If such ugliness can be built, then I suppose we might just see a development that builds a long block eight entire storeys of nothing but brick wall facing an arterial. Seriously, glass cladding would have looked so much better for those sections.

 

[urbandreamer]

I rather like how these new rentals look. It's sad that the condo towers' aesthetic will never match them.

The black wall is pretty nice--a "landmark" for that corner. Maybe a clock will hang off each wall? (More likely: an advertising banner.)

 

[junctionist]

The black wall is pretty nice--a "landmark" for that corner. Maybe a clock will hang off each wall? (More likely: an advertising banner.)

If it had a clock, it wouldn't be a blank brick wall. Alternately, some art could be added. Unchanged, they will look awkward and uninspiring for the ages.

 

[maestro]

Giant addresss numbers could look quirky. Heck, why no go full out and back light them with coloured LED.

 

[interchange42]

Here's an up-to-date selection of photos of the rental buildings:

I know those large walls of brick up top came in for some criticism when photos were posted of them before... but I like the monumentality they bring to the entrance to the project. I'm not sure I'd want that much blank wall everywhere... but they're placed up high here, not creating dead spaces at ground level, and they help the viewer identify the mirror image arrangement of the buildings lining either side of the road, which turns them into the gates of Emerald City.

42

 

[TheProfessor]

Nice pictures....you've made them look far better than they do in person in my opinion.

 

[interchange42]

Thanks - although it wasn't my intention to make them look better than they do!

42

 

[condovo]

I know those large walls of brick up top came in for some criticism when photos were posted of them before... but I like the monumentality they bring to the entrance to the project. I'm not sure I'd want that much blank wall everywhere... but they're placed up high here, not creating dead spaces at ground level, and they help the viewer identify the mirror image arrangement of the buildings lining either side of the road, which turns them into the gates of Emerald City.

42

I agree strongly.

 

[newbuyer]

I agree strongly.

I have never seen it that way, but it is true. They are like the gates of Emerald City.

 

[EnviroTO]

Are there windows on the rear facing wall? These buildings look so thin that it would likely be the hallway on the south side.

 

[probey]

There are some windows on the rear side of both buildings, but not too many of them. I believe they are windows for the hallways.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

I know those large walls of brick up top came in for some criticism when photos were posted of them before... but I like the monumentality they bring to the entrance to the project. I'm not sure I'd want that much blank wall everywhere... but they're placed up high here, not creating dead spaces at ground level, and they help the viewer identify the mirror image arrangement of the buildings lining either side of the road, which turns them into the gates of Emerald City.

Three cheers for the gaping maw of Emerald City! Three cheers for clunky massing and crappy masonry! Follow the yellow brick groan!