Liberty Village Towers/Bliss (CanAlfa, 24 + 20s, IBI-HB)

[Ratazana]

I workout at the Goodlife in LV and I look at all these building daily. It seems like the whole area west of the train track is filled with 'Slabs': The Monarch ugliness, the CanAlfa developments, the Plazacorp developments... Even north of King, the Bridge, the Curve (a really thick slab in this case). Don't know why the planners would allow such build form which is terrible for the skyline IMO. They also create wind screen which discourage air circulation and block off sunlight in the worst way. Case in point, the LV buildings are completely blocking the Toronto skyline once all the buildings are complete. In comparison, the other parcels of condo dev (Cityplace, Fleet Street, etc) have almost no slab design. Can't help but wonder if LV is some sort of Urban Development experiment...

 

[gfunk5206]

i could be wrong, but i would hope they don't start finishing the bottom floors until they finish putting all the windows up on the top floors. i'd hate for the cabinetry and dry wall to get water damage from rain entering from the top floors.

 

[MattR]

I am pretty sure that once they hit a certain point with the glass they start on the below floors... At least a month or more ago someone had mentioned they received a call that their appliances were being delivered to the building and I believe he was on the 4th floor...

 

[simuls]

They have already started finishing the lower floors. If you look at the windows on the lower floors, you will see a bunch of paper stuck on the windows (I think right now they go up to floor 5 or 6) - these are for the trades and outline what goes where, a floorplan of the unit, type of appliances, flooring, etc. There's no need to worry about rain as each unit, once the glass is installed, is pretty watertight.

 

[dob467]

Liberty Village is an unfortunate example why we need some sort of architectural review committee as in Vancouver. I understand the OMB poses challenges too, but the buidlings going up in this hood - and in WQW - are really embarassing.

 

[gfunk5206]

ok good to know. thanks everyone.

 

[Ratazana]

Liberty Village is an unfortunate example why we need some sort of architectural review committee as in Vancouver. I understand the OMB poses challenges too, but the buidlings going up in this hood - and in WQW - are really embarassing.

Compared to the LV buildings, the ones on WQW actually look ok from south of King. They might look hideous from Queens though.

 

[FutureBuilder]

Well the developers must be doing something right because units sell super quick in the area. The pace of sales in Liberty Village is pretty crazy.

I agree with having a system like Vancouver. There is no OMB, but also NO complaining from neighbours and NYMBY types. The planners in Vancouver have the final say.

 

[Ratazana]

Well the developers must be doing something right because units sell super quick in the area. The pace of sales in Liberty Village is pretty crazy.

Why is LV selling? All you need to do is hang around LV on a saturday afternoon and assess the attractiveness of the general population. Unfortunately, attractiveness does not translate to good architecture...

 

[FutureBuilder]

I agree with you. I'll be there tomorrow afternoon actually.

Demographically there are a lot more women than men in Liberty Village, so for a guy it's amazing down there.

I think architecture in general is not up to par in the city. If you compare projects in other cities like Sydney or Hong Kong (world class cities), Toronto is far behind, especially if you consider how many projects we have that come onto market every year.

Anyway, another thing to remember is that projects in Liberty Village have been very cheap on the pre-construction side. Monarch. Canalfa and Plazacorp have sold all their projects quite cheap. At the prices they sold I wouldn't expect anything crazy architecture wise. You get what you pay for in life.

 

[Ratazana]

HK has its own problem architectures/planning too. The ruthless developers there are favouring the 'Barrier' build form. Imagine ten 50 storeys towers linked together forming a barrier blocking the sea. They also favour monstrous podium as they are not included in the calculation of the development ratio. It was a government 'initiative' to encourage developers to build more amenities for the condos. That resulted in developers building excess number of parking spots and renting them out to auto dealerships. That also jack up the height of the building so that they can charge higher $/sq footage. All these podiums do not relate to the street level creating some sort of fortress.

Anyway, back to LV...
I wonder if they are really going to build a condo on top of the A.R. Williams Machinery Co. (i.e. the presentation centre). Too bad they couldn't have put the Metro in there instead of that stupid strip mall style crap. And really, they should really replace the huge parking lot with underground and convert it into a park.

 

[Towered]

Why is LV selling? All you need to do is hang around LV on a saturday afternoon and assess the attractiveness of the general population. Unfortunately, attractiveness does not translate to good architecture...

Tell me about it. The Goodlife gym is always packed with hot young ladies - way more than any other gym I've frequented. In terms of working out, it's both distracting and motivating

 

[simuls]

While I agree that it probably has the best looking citizens of Toronto overall, I highly doubt that's a significant selling point - at least I hope it isn't or all of those women and men are equally airheaded. For me, it's the perfect location in Toronto and while prices will decline over the next couple of years, it's well positioned to be one of the most sought after locales in the city once all is said and done in about 10 years time. As for architecture, it's not great, that's for sure, and builders like CanAlfa are seriously skimping on what should've been really distinct looking buildings. LVTowers is a perfect example of how NOT to respect your renderings and models, but because Real Estate doesn't come under the consumer protection act (for some reason), owners have little recourse but to grin and suck it up. That being said, it WILL look completely different from anything else that's been proposed and sold thus far in LV with a much darker vibe. What LV really needs, is retail on the eastern end and a couple good lounges. The Brazen Head while ok is simply overpriced and the other offerings in LV also leave some room for a good entrepreneur to make a killing. Unfortunately, CanAlfa also killed all the retail that was supposed to be in their buildings as well so as of right now the eastern end is looking boringly apartmentally suburban.

 

[bizlady]

yup....looks like all we have to look forward to is Chapelfor - which will be nice. It's supposed to have a farmer's market and cafe open during the morning/day and restaurant at night

 

[Towered]

What LV really needs, is retail on the eastern end and a couple good lounges. The Brazen Head while ok is simply overpriced and the other offerings in LV also leave some room for a good entrepreneur to make a killing.

What LV really needs is for all those cheap-ass, ugly townhomes to be demolished.

Oh and the Academy of Spherical Arts is a really cool place.