Toronto The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza | 92.05m | 31s | Camrost-Felcorp | WZMH COMPLETE

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

...sort of historicist...

historicist

totally historicist

shamelessly historicist

sort of historicist

 

[adma]

I've always felt that clocktower was sort of mundane anyway - sort of historicist.

Okay, so you'd rather it look like this

Or, to use an even better Helsinki example

Though we're getting a little off topic re this thread (even if that skinny Helsinki Stadium thing might look neat on the Four Seasons site)

 

[buildup]

alright, ALRIGHT....point taken.

 

[khris]

So the original developer is re-doing the design? Or there is going to be a new design by someone else?
A bit disappointing because it appeared to be pretty cool!

Either way it sounds like the current Four Seasons will be coming down. This is the property owned by Bill Gates and some Saudi right?

 

[Evan]

Damn. They should just sell that site and go elsewhere in Yorkville. When the city considers this part of the Annex you know somthings really wrong.

 

[DaninToronto]

It was still really early on in this project's development and we didn't even have a formal application to the city, so at the moment this is to me more of a rumour site with no real formal project announced until the application goes in.

 

[Mike in TO]

Local Councillor Kyle Rae is supporting the application. This should be an interesting one to watch given the positions of the local politician, the application, the ratepayers, the BIA and the planning department.

Having Kyle's support is a big win for Menkes this early in a controversial application.

 

[Evan]

Local Councillor Kyle Rae is supporting the application. This should be an interesting one to watch given the positions of the local politician, the application, the ratepayers, the BIA and the planning department.

Having Kyle's support is a big win for Menkes this early in a controversial application.

Awesome. So the whole Queens Park view thing is BS? However, I understand this could still be a war as it borders the Annex.

 

[3Dementia]

I think the architects might wanna acknowledge "the view thing". Because the views they are changing. It's absurd that a major development could be nixed by one tourist but... the camera doesn't lie... Aa... build one tower (60+) worthy of the new postcard.

 

[theman23]

Can anyone here think of a residential tower that's been built in the latest condo boom that actually sparks legitimate praise? 1 St. Thomas is the only one that readily comes to my mind.

By "legitimate praise" I assume you mean a tower that you like? Then no, I'm sorry. We can't read minds here.

 

[adma]

If the world can look at the Burj Dubai with envy why can't Hogtown create a landmark tower that really generates civic pride?

Other than the SSC crowd and a few idiot parvenus, who on earth looks at the Burj Dubai with envy?!? I think, "shock and horror" might be the more common reflex there...

 

[marcus_a_j]

Other than the SSC crowd and a few idiot parvenus, who on earth looks at the Burj Dubai with envy?!? I think, "shock and horror" might be the more common reflex there...

My feelings exactly.

The landmark tower for Toronto should have been at 1 Bloor, but what is going up there is underwhelming. What goes up at 21 Avenue will just be a couple tall residential towers, regardless of their architecture merit.

 

[adma]

The Burj gets a lot of press. Let's put in that way. I think it is an interesting attraction.

What are you--Mel Lastman or something? There's more to healthy urbanism than "getting a lot of press" and being a so-called "interesting attraction", you know. And a lot of the press the Burj and Dubai in general get is of an implicit "what on earth are they doing?!?" variety, up there with other end-of-time Asian-continent boom-boondoggles such as the Three Gorges Dam, etc. It's the kind of stuff that's more likely to dissuade us from trying to keep up.

Now, if you chose something like Calatrava's Chicago Spire, you'd be on solider ground than with the urbanistic Engrish of Dubai...

 

[alklay]

Dubai style urbanism and tall building fetishes are everything we should avoid in Toronto. They will make us a worse, not better city.

 

[Mongo]

Sour grapes, anyone?

And here I had thought that Toronto had been all about height (most notably: Commerce Court North -- tallest building in the Commonwealth when built; TD Centre -- same thing; FCP -- same thing; CN Tower -- tallest freestanding structure in the world when built) up through the early 1990s, and Torontonians had been vocally proud of their city's height. But now that cities like Dubai are seeing loads of buildings far taller than anything ever likely to be built in Toronto, height is suddenly no longer interesting, and cities that go for height are immature, with 'style over substance' and the buildings are 'boondoggles'.

Sour grapes.