Toronto Quay House | 73.15m | 21s | Empire | Kirkor Architects

But it is good to see movement on this site. For some reason I thought it was part of the FedEx site at 215 Lake Shore Blvd E.

I am curious now if there has been any movement on the Castlepoint Numa site at 176-180 Queens Quay East.
 
It's more than reasonable; 21s, 73m. Architect is Wallman.

174980
 
given the following:
  1. maximize profits
  2. constrained building envelope
what would you have done differently?

Unfortunately, if #1. is the reason to end-all-reasons, all urbanistic frills usually go out the window and you get an investo-box. However, if you must have a superblock, it should try to wear the mask of a finer-grained built form.

Well at the very minimum, I would look into providing some vertical visual breaks to the podium massing to break it up into something at least human-scaled. Some natural materiality (i.e. brick) on the podium and streetlevel would go a long way in ensuring that the streetscape doesn't feel too dead in bleaker months. If possible, a second residential entrance closer to Queens Quay might provide an additional level of animation to the street. Retail frontages should be intentionally partitioned and made deeper, rather than the spaces that seem all-too-well designed for BMOs and Shoppers Drug Marts (you know that if they take up the entire retail space, none of the other entrances will be used). Less parking would be a benefit, but this is something that would need to be addressed by the city.

This project is thankfully not as large as something as what's going up next door, but I have a gut feeling the whole area will never be as vibrant as what planners envision.
 
162 QUEENS QUAY E
Ward 10 - Tor & E.York District

Site Plan Control Application to permit the development of a 21-storey mixed-use condominium with 460 residential units and 852 m2 of at-grade retail fronting Queens Quay East. The proposed condominium will include four levels of underground parking which will house short-term and long-term bicycle parking, as well as at-grade.
Proposed Use ---​
# of Storeys ---​
# of Units ---​
Type​
Number​
Date Submitted​
Status​
Applications:
Site Plan Approval​
19 128983 STE 10 SA​
Mar 21, 2019​
Under Review​
 

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