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Infinity: Phases 1 & 2 (Conservatory Group, 35 + 16 + 12s, E I Richmond) COMPLETE

Nothing in this area that isn't at least mixed use should be allowed to go up. Infinity only looks somewhat good looking viewing it from the south west.
 
What's with the top being bare concrete? Are they still finishing it? If not, Phase 2 takes the cake for the worse new condo of 2007 and possibly the last few years.
 
DaninToronto said:
What's with the top being bare concrete? Are they still finishing it? If not, Phase 2 takes the cake for the worse new condo of 2007 and possibly the last few years.
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While it's not going to win any awards for great design, I think a little condo tower over in Liberty Village takes the home the prize for ugliest new condo in recent times.
 
Condo-fication is only a start TheStar.com - living - Condo-fication is only a start
c581301845baa2aba02a78db094e.jpeg

VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR
The Infinity on Bremner Blvd. is ordinary and instantly familiar for all the wrong reasons, the Condo Critic says.

Space between ACC and Rogers Centre needs more blocks to become an urban village

December 01, 2007
Christopher Hume
Suddenly all those downtown parking lots are sprouting condos. Just as well, too, not only do surface parking lots have no place in the city, these new residential towers mean more people can live in Toronto rather than out in the hinterland where the sprawl continues unabated.
Though there are some who decry the condo-fication of the city, it makes a lot of sense. Indeed, we should be doing everything possible to attract people to Toronto, including, of course, building affordable housing. But condos are a start, nowhere more so than in the area around the Rogers Centre and the Air Canada Centre.
These formerly industrial lands are now being turned into a 21st-century highrise neighbourhood. So far, the transformation has been handled with mixed success; rather than integrate the new projects into the city, we have been content to plunk them down willy-nilly. Architectural issues aside, the more pressing questions are those of planning. We need to create the infrastructure that can support this development, and even enhance it.
That means paying attention to the spaces between buildings, as well as buildings themselves. It also means ensuring connections, adding new blocks and extending the street grid. To be fair, the city has made some effort; Bremner Blvd. now extends west from the Air Canada Centre past the CN Tower and it's not surprising it has already become the site of several condo schemes.
Given the proximity to Union Station and the subway, the advent of these residential projects is very sensible. But surrounded by the Gardiner Expressway, Lake Shore Blvd. and the whole downtown traffic network, the area will have a hard time becoming the kind of urban village we find so appealing.
Then there's the architecture itself, which too often seems to have come out of the box – devoid of originality or basic individuality. This isn't true of everything we've seen, but given the height of some of what's been built and the fact these towers are landmarks whether or not they're worthy of attention, the need for better design is more critical than ever.

Condo Critic INFINITY CONDOMINIUMS: Sitting on the south side of Bremner Blvd. between Grand Trunk Cres. and Lower Simcoe St., this bizarrely named, twin-towered project shows no evidence of architectural intelligence whatsoever.
Dull, predictable and utterly devoid of interest, this is the kind of lowest common-denominator design that gives condos a bad name. The tall tower, which occupies the east side of the block, stands about 34 storeys tall and faces onto Grand Trunk; the shorter of the pair faces onto Lower Simcoe. This frees up the Bremner frontage for retail and public uses.
No one would complain, but why does it have to be so dreary?
Already it appears destined to be the sort of place attractive to dry cleaners, convenience stores, video rentals and the like – condemned to mediocrity from the start. But with all the pre-cast concrete, glass and brown metal cladding, everything about Infinity is ordinary and instantly familiar for all the wrong reasons.
This is one of those projects that could only get built in a market where condos sell themselves. It brings little to the city from which it gets so much.
GRADE: C
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Email us at condocritic@thestar.ca.
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"Dull, predictable and utterly devoid of interest"
Sounds like Chris has something in common with the Infinity.
 
Well, hopefully it will be surrounded by the City place and Maple Leaf Square things and thus be overlooked/ forgotten/ made largely irrelevant- HOWEVER- this is key:fact these towers are landmarks whether or not they're worthy of attention, the need for better design is more critical than ever- a painfully spot on point.

Now that the area is partly built, we're going to come around to some kind of arcturus control, a tad bit too late.
 
I was down at the convention centre last week so I had a look around. The amount of construction going on is amazing. As for the built environment? I would have to say I'm not a big fan. To date it is totally out of proportion with the human scale. I appreciate the desire to have such large traffic engineer designed swaths of open space and right-of-ways to drain the city at rush hour and to service the large civic buildings. But the feel of the place is still a no-man's land between the "real" city and the ever improving waterfront. We'll see if the new buildings additions will soften this experience. I'm not certain they will. We seem to be getting a Bay street canyon effect everywhere. I mean upper Bay street, the bad section.
 
I knew from the get-go that this project would be a downer, and as soon as the green glass and pale precast went on, it was confirmed. Why they decided to put the taller tower on the east side and plunk the slab in front of the curved glass wall is still beyond me.
 
Exactly. The sexy curved glass walls (the only good feature) of the taller tower was hidden behind the slab. I never quite understood that. Maybe so that they didn't have it facing the other way and then another developer could completely hide the nice curved facade?
 
I think they did it to give people on forums like this amunition for complaints. After all, we dont complain on this forum enough.

Consider their design a public service. What would we do without such horrible buildings to complain about??
 
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