Toronto Nathan Phillips Square + Spirit Garden | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto

I saw the new cladding today (sorry no pic). I thought it looked pretty great. No doubt it will draw mixed reactions on here, though.

It looks like a kind of irregularly coloured precast that has a hint of roughening and weathering to it. It has also had it's surface saw-notched in thin parallell lines that run the length of the face - so that the face has some real fine detail to it. Put all this together, and you end up with a material that is deliberately synthetic, yet artistic, smart, and one that matches the existing tone of the square. Interesting.
 
We had an offsite two Thursdays ago in one of the meeting rooms at the Sheraton. I have to say, after reading all the 'one guy in a hard hat snoozing' comments on this thread, it was weird to see all the activity. The square was hopping with various construction; at least a dozen and probably more like 20 guys working on various aspects. Looks like they're making some progress.
 
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Knowing the Fords, they'd probably not bother with the cladding and excuse the shiny Johns-Manville on Gehry-esque aesthetic grounds. (Yeah, there's an idea. Change NPS's name to Johns-Manville Square)
 
Not sure that's qualified as an insult...Regardless, you have to admit its pretty funny and kind of accurate....right? right..?

Automation Gallery said:
Strange you would talk about a super tall when all we are talking here is about a new cafe/restaurant and the revitalization of Nathan Phillips Square
We all know where supertalls belong,,,so stop with the insults.
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I don't know if someone has already posted this, but the plaza area immediately north of the skating rink/reflecting pool has been restored to it's original flat glory.

There are a few small plywood pieces (?) here and there, though. The renderings show what looks like installed seating, and maybe splash pads in this area - so still looks like there's more coming.
 
CanadianNational said:
I don't know if someone has already posted this, but the plaza area immediately north of the skating rink/reflecting pool has been restored to it's original flat glory.

There are a few small plywood pieces (?) here and there, though. The renderings show what looks like installed seating, and maybe splash pads in this area - so still looks like there's more coming.
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The plywood panels cover where the jets for the sprinklers will go - this is another of the 'water pads' that we already have at Dundas Square, Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Common.
 
androiduk said:
This is going real slow but I'm going to guess Aug 1 as the completion date.

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Great.. more Grey. Just what Nathan Phillips Sq. needs :s

Bring on the trees!!
 
this is a very old photo taken on Doors Open weekend, sorry for posting it so late because i just discovered this thread:

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So I saw it in person today ... it's actually pretty nice, I didn't get that close (due to the hoarding) it does look like granite but it's apparent it's not i.e. the textured stone looks good.

I really hope that those plywood squares will be fountains!

The front of the square i.e. fronting Queen is really what needs the most work.

One slightly concerning thing to me is no matter how much they do, the existing tile isn't in great shape, maybe it's just dirty, but all of that is staying unfortunetly.
 
Pics taken July 1st:

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I'm not a fan of the new black tinted windows going up on the towers.


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Fountain locations covered in plywood

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