Toronto St Lawrence Centre Redevelopment | ?m | ?s | CreateTO | Hariri Pontarini

[springroll]

I live in the east tower of the London on the Esplanade (38 Esplanade) facing north on the higher floors (14th to be exact).
I fear that my view will be obstructed. I can't tell by the rendering. It seems to show that 5 Scott and 20 Esplanade but not 38 (could it be that it's going to be right in front of it?!) Can anyone take a guess?

 

[Granny]

Looking at that rendering long and hard. Would it hurt your view?
It would appear that it would have to be almost flush against Scott Lane much the same way both our towers abutt to the lane. Look down at that blank wall across the lane. Now picture that going straight up. Just add balconies and windows to that visualization.
I figure about 15 metres max separation.
There are still some massive logistics to contend with here before anything gets really serious here. Pretty picture though..
A couple issues come to mind quickly.
Will everyone on board with the project be prepared for the extensive overhaul on the original design? Will they go so far as to level this sucker?
I doubt it it on the former and I would say impossible on the latter.
Why? One word. Heritage. That word in architectural design is the equivalent to knee high stockings in fashion (often being referred to as passion killers).
Remember what's paying for all this? The condo. Condos need parking. The Ltower pulled it off by building a another condo across the street to hold extra parking.
Sadly, I can almost hear the air going out of this balloon. Personally, I would love to this thing flattened, even with a new condo almost right outside my window.
City life, Springroll. This is the way it goes.

 

[Tewder]

This is pretty nice.

So I found some delicious renderporn here http://www.cicadadesign.ca/portfolio/lawrence.html Architect is indeed D+S

Hard to believe, but my dream of a crazy bright-coloured balcony painted condo may actually happen!

As for Granny's reservations... In the words of Tim Gunn, 'make it work'!

 

[interchange42]

We've put a dataBase entry up for this one now, here, with more renderings, including those of an entirely new interior.

Granny: looks like the proposal is to demolish and rebuild.

42

 

[Granny]

We've put a dataBase entry up for this one now, here, with more renderings, including those of an entirely new interior.

Granny: looks like the proposal is to demolish and rebuild.

42

Looks like Santa was listening to me.. Running a a little slow, but that's ok. So am I.

 

[Urban Shocker]

It looks they are rehashing the city room at the Four Seasons Centre.

All good ideas are worth stealing ( or repeating ).

Does anyone know if the two existing performance spaces will remain substantially intact? It's difficult to visualize, from the rendering, how far back City Room II will extend. The logic for the vertical bifurcation of the balconies on the north side isn't clear. I'm surprised that painting the undersides of balconies in a range of different colours hasn't occurred before, locally; sometimes simple ideas are easily overlooked.

 

[adHominem]

I clicked on this thread quite ready to be irritated by this project, solely based on the height. What a pleasant surprise! I'm actually cautiously optimistic.

 

[Automation Gallery]

I'm actually cautiously optimistic.

Yeah no-kidding, especially when it includes incorporating and developing a public space.

 

[ProjectEnd]

All good ideas are worth stealing ( or repeating ).

Does anyone know if the two existing performance spaces will remain substantially intact? It's difficult to visualize, from the rendering, how far back City Room II will extend. The logic for the vertical bifurcation of the balconies on the north side isn't clear. I'm surprised that painting the undersides of balconies in a range of different colours hasn't occurred before, locally; sometimes simple ideas are easily overlooked.

But it has! Developers sometimes paint the undersides of balconies in grey and as we all know, grey is the most colourful colour! Range included at no extra cost!

 

[interchange42]

UPDATE: A condo tower plan for this site has been rejected outright. The updated story on the front page is here.

42

 

[Granny]

UPDATE: A condo tower plan for this site has been rejected outright. The updated story on the front page is here.

42

I so hoped my initial gut reaction on how this would go forward would be wrong.

Damn it. ..and damn you 42. Did you you have to post that last pic of that pig in full sunlight?

I'll be dreaming of what could of been.

 

[interchange42]

Aren't I a stinker?

42

 

[urbandreamer]

That's crappy news. But at least we can read the Globe and Mail's or Toronto Star's critique of the project and know who broke the news....

 

[interchange42]

Neither the Globe nor the Star should be critiquing this: it's just a massing study so far.

42

 

[urbandreamer]

Well you know what I mean....