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Dreary complex is a `wasted opportunity'
Structures lack coherence
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Etobicoke isn't so much a place as a condition. It is a community built by people who appear to despise the city in which they live and who enjoy inflicting pain upon it.
The results can be seen in everything from the clutter of high-rises that clog the skyline to the anonymous strip malls that suffocate the streets.
The municipality had politicians and planners before it was amalgamated, but it doesn't show. From the bottom end of Etobicoke by Lake Ontario to the slabs that line Bloor and Dundas Sts., there's no sign of respect for anything but the automobile and developers' wishes.
The latest example is Port Royal Place, a dreary condo complex now going up on Michael Power Place.
So far, there are three towers, but more are planned. Ranging between eight and 16 storeys, these slabs are clumsy masonry-clad structures that exist in not-so-splendid isolation from their neighbours. Beyond this, the architectural component is minimal.
But the bigger problem is the lack of coherence. The issue isn't height, or even design mediocrity; it's the failure to integrate the complex into the larger whole.
The old village of Islington, along Dundas to the east of the site, had the makings of a genuine neighbourhood, but the main street with its stores seems to be fading into irrelevance.
More than anything, Port Royal Place is a wasted opportunity.
Rather than taking advantage of the occasion to enhance, reinforce and strengthen the existing civic infrastructure, the new complex turns its back on its context.
It's not hard to understand. If the decision-makers in Etobicoke have no respect for the place, why should anyone else?
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GRADE: C-
TONY BOCK/TORONTO STAR
Christopher Hume calls Port Royal Place, on Michael Power Place in Etobicoke, a `dreary condo complex' that fails to integrate into the larger neighbourhood and the nearby old village of Islington.
Structures lack coherence
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Etobicoke isn't so much a place as a condition. It is a community built by people who appear to despise the city in which they live and who enjoy inflicting pain upon it.
The results can be seen in everything from the clutter of high-rises that clog the skyline to the anonymous strip malls that suffocate the streets.
The municipality had politicians and planners before it was amalgamated, but it doesn't show. From the bottom end of Etobicoke by Lake Ontario to the slabs that line Bloor and Dundas Sts., there's no sign of respect for anything but the automobile and developers' wishes.
The latest example is Port Royal Place, a dreary condo complex now going up on Michael Power Place.
So far, there are three towers, but more are planned. Ranging between eight and 16 storeys, these slabs are clumsy masonry-clad structures that exist in not-so-splendid isolation from their neighbours. Beyond this, the architectural component is minimal.
But the bigger problem is the lack of coherence. The issue isn't height, or even design mediocrity; it's the failure to integrate the complex into the larger whole.
The old village of Islington, along Dundas to the east of the site, had the makings of a genuine neighbourhood, but the main street with its stores seems to be fading into irrelevance.
More than anything, Port Royal Place is a wasted opportunity.
Rather than taking advantage of the occasion to enhance, reinforce and strengthen the existing civic infrastructure, the new complex turns its back on its context.
It's not hard to understand. If the decision-makers in Etobicoke have no respect for the place, why should anyone else?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRADE: C-
![040108_condo_royal_250.jpg](http://www.thestar.ca/images/thestar/img/040108_condo_royal_250.jpg)
TONY BOCK/TORONTO STAR
Christopher Hume calls Port Royal Place, on Michael Power Place in Etobicoke, a `dreary condo complex' that fails to integrate into the larger neighbourhood and the nearby old village of Islington.