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Is this infill suitable for Toronto?

SpadinaBus

SpadinaBus

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A friend visiting New York City brought back these pics of a slender new condo building in the lower east side (Bowery & Spring) - an "emerging" neighbourhood.

I still can't decide if I like it or not, but perhaps in the context of the lower east side (an area than needs investment) it does fit in, but can something like this work in Toronto, perhaps at lower heights such as 10-12 storeys?

Comments?

boweryelevationny4.jpg


springstelevationjr4.jpg


eastelevationly4.jpg
 
Some of this has been practically happening on King and Queen with setbacked 'lofts' and condos in the mid-rise range. I'd say, properly done, it works very well and is my prefered range. That particular example is hideous, however.
 
It's grey and imposing, and not very detailed. It clashes with the colourful brickwork of the older buildings. This kind of narrower midrise development will work, but hopefully with a different facade.
 
The colour is not suitable and I don't know why it would have been chosen.

It seems to fit New York a bit. To me, it somewhat resembles the big old apartment buildings dating from the 1920s in New York, many of which were not detailed, to reflect junctionist's point. It's a bit of an old-fashioned design, intended to be seen only from one or two sides, not from all around. I'm not sure that this style is suitable any longer.
 
I really like this type of New York building for several reasons:

1. I love thin narrow buildings. It's 14 stories tall and it already feels more vertical than B/A, which even at 50 commercial stories is a glass hulk. It is unmistakably Gotham simply because of its profile.

2. It's a facadectomy, but it seems much more genuine, because it doesn't just graft the skin of the old building onto the new one. The new one is positioned behind the old house, but you would have to look closely and from a far away vantage point (as you have done) to see that this is the case.

3. I love black brick. Black makes buildings as well as people appear thinner and more lithe. Dark brick makes Raymond Hood's American Radiator building soar seemingly as high as the Chrysler Tower, despite only having 23 floors.

A building like this would be very appropriate for Toronto. It would work extremely well in the Entertainment District, along pretty much the entire length of King street, in the Junction, in Leslieville and to soften the scale of parts of Yonge street in NYCC. If this building were built in Toronto, I would consider it one of the best so far.
 
suitable Only in Manhatten

Having spent a lot of time in New York, I can tell you this is fairly typical of some the bland (edging on ugly) you see going up in that city.

Why do the developers there build this kind of stuff?
Because they know they can.

This building is no doubt been sold out before it is finished. You can be guaranteed that the inside is just as mediocre.

Housing availability is tough in this town and EXPENSIVE. Unbelievably expensive!

That is where we are lucky in Toronto. Lots of availability, hence reasonable pricing and quality (though I know I would get arguments on that).
A builder knows he is not going to get away with kind of a building here.
 
The massive gray wall will be covered up when an adjacent building is built next door.
I'm surprised that it's not cinderblock!
 
I also find myself liking it. Simple and unpretentious, it fits into its surroundings quite well.
 
If the old facade is integrated so that residents can look out its windows, it's a better example of the facadectomy. If the colour palette was more similar to the original buildings or if it were clad in glass, I'd like it more. It must really fit in when it's cloudy.
 
Sticking with the traditional vocabulary for building on a narrow and deep lot in an urban warehouse and factory district, including small windows on the side walls and metal balconies that resemble fire escapes from an earlier time, it also updates the look with a few small terraces, and maybe a roof garden. Surely it is intended to be seen from all sides - how can it not be? They've gone with neutral grey, and the subtly lighter grey cladding at the front appears to reference decoratively scalloped tiles from an earlier era without hitting us over the head with "faux". It looks suitably industrial and I think it works.
 
I think it's great (other than the corrugated steel). It's thoroughly urban and New Yorkish. This would be a great way to intensify some of our older streets without destroying them.
 
Toronto can always spread outwards and there are endless spots to build condos in Toronto. If not at Queen street west why not near Queen and Gladstone???


See NY has these set urban area where it can't really expand while Toronto can just keep on expanding its urban core into the less urban areas no problem.

That is why TO or even Chicago cannot become like NY/
 
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