Toronto Ïce Condominiums at York Centre | 234.07m | 67s | Lanterra | a—A

yyzer said:
nifty map posted by Fastwalking over at SSC shows the location of all the development happening on this block.......

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Looking at this photo cant stop thinking top of the Union station (the track/platform part not the historical building) should be turned into beautiful above grade park!!! Lost opportunity IMHO
 
found this somewhere....not sure if it was skyscrapercity or skyscraperpage. my apologies if someone already posted somewhere earlier in the thread, i'm not sure who did it but it looks really good

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dziogo said:
Looking at this photo cant stop thinking top of the Union station (the track/platform part not the historical building) should be turned into beautiful above grade park!!! Lost opportunity IMHO
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... and how many decades ahead of their time such pioneering ventures the little 1 Yonge street office building and the little Harbour Square condo buildings were as outriders for all this development.
 
Urban Shocker said:
... and how many decades ahead of their time such pioneering ventures the little 1 Yonge street office building and the little Harbour Square condo buildings were as outriders for all this development.
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It's perverse to put Harbour Square in a such positive light. Those high-rises should have never built beside the lake. They're the major reason why our waterfront struggles to earn respect and why a lot of Torontonians perceive the waterfront to be blocked off from the city.
 
junctionist said:
It's perverse to put Harbour Square in a such positive light. Those high-rises should have never built beside the lake. They're the major reason why our waterfront struggles to earn respect and why a lot of Torontonians perceive the waterfront to be blocked off from the city.
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I agree with Urban Shocker here. Taken from a historical perspective, 1 Yonge and Harbour Square are not so bad. Back in their day they were surrounded by dying industrial land. Those buildings actually represent the beginning of the populating of the waterfront.
 
I love this area and it can only get better, there was a Leaf party the other night , just amazing scene, so much more in up and coming, take a walk around and pop into the sports bar a must do.
 
junctionist said:
It's perverse to put Harbour Square in a such positive light. Those high-rises should have never built beside the lake. They're the major reason why our waterfront struggles to earn respect and why a lot of Torontonians perceive the waterfront to be blocked off from the city.
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I think its neither here nor there. Highrises at the water's edge (mostly) don't do a disservice to Lower Manhattan's waterfront. Similarly, Grant Park is not the only reason that Chicago's waterfront is admired. I would look to more definite culprits like the railway tracks when trying to determine why we feel blocked off from our waterfront.
 
Silence&Motion said:
I agree with Urban Shocker here. Taken from a historical perspective, 1 Yonge and Harbour Square are not so bad. Back in their day they were surrounded by dying industrial land. Those buildings actually represent the beginning of the populating of the waterfront.
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To be middle-ground here, it's probably more that those particular high-rises shouldn't have been built here, i.e. the form thereof. A better analogy might be Ren Cen as a "fix" for Detroit's relationship with its waterfront...
 
visualpixel said:
I would look to more definite culprits like the railway tracks when trying to determine why we feel blocked off from our waterfront.
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Yes, I think the vast expanse of tracks is more of an impediment than the Gardiner, and is probably easier to fix (given that much of the tracks are below grade) yet there seems to be little interest in addressing the issue.
 
The Gardiner and rail ttracks are not the issue. The issue is that these high-rise buildings take up so much room by the water's edge that there's very little public space and access along the most central stretch of waterfront. I'm not saying high-rises couldn't work but these quintessential mistakes by the lake don't deserve to be seen in a positive light. (Keep in mind, I don't have an issue with the Toronto Star building, which is north of Queen's Quay and not by the water's edge.) Unless people are going to the islands, one might assume that there is no waterfront to be enjoyed there. The 70s facades along Queen's Quay look very sterile, too.

Harbourfront Centre was built when there was still plenty of industry remaining along the waterfront, and the difference in approaches to development is night and day. Private residences, businesses, lots of public space and cultural programming. It was the real pioneer. Today's Sugar Beach and tomorrow's East Bayfront will thankfully have more in common with it than Harbour Square.
 
junctionist said:
The Gardiner and rail ttracks are not the issue. The issue is that these high-rise buildings take up so much room by the water's edge
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Ice isn't near the water's edge. And the Gardiner and rail tracks are real impediments for pedestrians to get to the lake.
 
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