Fantasy Renderings

[innsertnamehere]

my fantasy building to replace the pizza pizza beside the flatiron;

it is 10 floors, and a boutique office building, with one large penthouse condo on top. 41.5m tall.

 

[someMidTowner]

Downloaded sketchup at 2 AM last night so this is obviously my first try...got really carried away. Ended up with an ugly 320m wannabe streamline moderne mess sitting over the former eglinton station bus terminal...once again this is my first attempt at sketchup

 

[innsertnamehere]

pretty good for your first sketchup! might be a bit too big for yonge and eglinton, but not too bad! I suggest making the roof of the building a different texture next time though.

 

[someMidTowner]

The "too big for yonge and eglinton" part is the only thing i set out to do in the beginning that i actually accomplished in the end. Thanks I guess putting it at 10 york and cutting off about 50 meters would be a bit more appropriate

 

[someMidTowner]

kinda hooked on sketchup now... heres my 2nd sketch so far. decided to put something tall in a more appropriate place this time. heres my take on 45 bay. scratched together in about 45 minutes:

319m to roof, didnt measure to spire because spires dont count

the offset box on the west facade adds a bit of context at street level in relation to nearby buildings...but

i gota work on my context especially in the street level department

 

[someMidTowner]

decided to "e-develop" the lot on Yonge street just north of the Toronto Star Building for my 3rd attempt at sketchup. started this after lunch today and more or less finished. 2 towers, one faux deco style and one "toronto style"

just started entrances, heres the beginning of the east side

 

[innsertnamehere]

I decided to make an extremely basic model of what The waterfront could look like at complete buildout. I added a 345m tower at one yonge, and a 250m building on the LCBO lands to go along with the 75 floor condo rumour that has been flying around for that site.

 

[urbandreamer]

Good to see others into this geeky hobby.

I've been hitting the sketch pad after a few months in the depths of misery. (A great stress reliever at any rate.)

1)Market Squared, a proposal for the St Lawrence Market area. Peaked roofs should make a comeback I think. Afterall, peaked roofs are great for getting rid of snow. And I think they look damn cool after all the flat roofs of the past condo boom.

Think red brick, simple shapes yet striking silhouette. Buildable.

2)ConservaBOX at King & Spadina. Core Architect's 401-415 King St West proposal was sent back to the boards after the June 2012 Design Review Panel rejection. Besides, the market's shifting, so can the area really absorb another 400+ units? So let's whack it down a bit, under 250 units but it could be more. ConservaBOX describes this massing study: A conservative box-like shape broken down into interesting facades. A peek at what I'm working on:

This is the warehouse district, so a modern interpretation of classic red brick industrial Toronto would be a logical choice when standing at this corner, right?

Clarence Square is literally just right next door, so why do we need balconies again? Which is why you'll only get French balconies with a ledge for your plants.

The tower massing is still being sorted--although I'm sick of all glazed solutions, it could reflect the new built form around the site with a steel and glass facade broken down into simple forms. The goal is one midrise slab-style building internally with some unique yet unifyingexterior design features. ConservaBOX: conserve your box today!

 

[innsertnamehere]

part one of a building complex I am currently modelling:

 

[urbandreamer]

Cool. Are you using sketchup pro?

This morning I turned my attention to the Hungarian House site which appropriately (and tongue in cheek) am calling goulasHAUS. Knowing the developer is Urbancorp and the architect TACT, I decided to be tactless and tackle the urban core of this St Clair West block. (Essentially, I am keeping to the TACT aesthetic of modernism using their approach working with the developer to keep costs down.) My sketch tops out at 16s as it slowly steps up in height allowing for generous penthouse suites with large terraces. Once again I am going for the eco-trend of reducing glazing coverage and eliminating messy exposed balconies in favour of French balconies and ledges for growing plants. I break down the varying black precast brick and exposed concrete facade into classic storefronts 30 feet wide. It's a trick though--it's really one building but I like to break down everything to what I call "on foot by the foot" scale. The CRU at base are framed with splashes of colour to enhance the pedestrian experience. Here's a look at the Southeast corner:

 

[innsertnamehere]

No it's just regular sketchup. I use the kerkythea rendering software though.

 

[urbandreamer]

So here's the rest of the massing for 836 St Clair West.

I just noticed the TD bank has indeed been included in the package, so it would allow for a westwardly expansion of the massing, likely stepping down in height to about 6s to match the eastern end of this proposal.

Again, three basic "facade" treatments, with standarized window sizes to keep costs under control. The frames/ledges could either be precast concrete or coloured metal panels. Or a combination depending on how fashion forward the target buyer is. (It's St Clair you'd think the Euro crowd up there would appreciate finer modern design, but you never know....) Each "facade" is about 30 feet wide, so the idea is a slab building with extensive terracing and with massing mimicking historic Toronto main streets. This proposal would have about 200 units. The building also terraces down at the rear minimizing impact on the SFH on Barrie. The taller massing is closer to the Russian church/Winona Drive end of the strip to minimize shadowing over rear yards. Vehicle access via rear alley also wrapping around the eastern end, with proposed bicycle parking entrance facing the eastern alley off St Clair.

CRU are double height. (Build it right, right?)

PH units get taller ceiling heights. Highest point equivalent of a 15s building. Those ledges would be ideal for growing tomatos, eh?

What do the nimbies think?

 

[innsertnamehere]

what I would like to see at the one yonge site:



the lower levels of the current Toronto star building would be torn down and replaced with a mall. a 171m tall office building would be located beside the mall to the east.

a 275m tall signature building would be built north of the mall / Toronto Star building.

a 165m tall condo would then be built north of that:

a smaller 102m tall condo would then be built to the east of the 165m tall condo:

A park between the 102m condo and the office building to the south would finish off the site. There would 2 pedestrianized streets with lots of restaurants on them, and a couple of either false-historic structures or a couple of recently torn down structures from the city reconstructed here.

 

[urbandreamer]

Interesting. Your approach to the site is very different than the one I'd take. I'm working on it....

 

[DKsan]

This was sort of weird. It was a few weeks before OneCity was announced and a bunch of friends and I were coming up with weird ideas for a DRL.

This is West Don Lands station, at the corner of Cherry Street and Eastern Avenue. As you can see, I went for this (very improbable) double-decker elevated metro line.