Toronto 629 King Residences (was Thompson Residences) | 53.34m | 15s | Freed | Saucier + Perrotte

atodaso said:
Freed chipped away at the quality of this one, and then plopped on a bunch more storeys. The original push/pull of the facade was to be much more dramatic but it cut into the sellable floor area and added to construction cost, so now it's a paltry one foot variation to the facade. S+P deserves better clients than Freed. Freed claims to be interested in city building but he's really just interested in making tons of cash.
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Pretty sure that he like all other developers is in the business to make money. Lots of it.
 
TheKingEast said:
Pretty sure that he like all other developers is in the business to make money. Lots of it.
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Yes of course they are all in the business of making money, but in this case he went to the OMB and just stuck it to the community. Any pretenses of being a good corporate citizen or whatever were shot with this project.
 
Actually, Freed went to the OMB twice, and after that, went back to the Committee of Adjustments with a request to reduce common element space and for additional commercial parking spaces.
 
28 December 2013:
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Thanks for the pics, smt. Although the King street facade is going to be the main attraction, I'm equally interested to see what will happen on Stewart St. Stewart street is one of my favourite streets in Toronto. It's a perfectly-scaled combination of equally tall midrise buildings with subtle variations in their facades. It might actually qualify as one of the few contemporary streets that's actually "beautiful".
 
TheKingEast said:
Pretty sure that he like all other developers is in the business to make money. Lots of it.
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I preferred the Travel Lodge. That could have been nicely renovated.

There's nothing interesting about Stewart Street. Compare it to basically any street in Cabbagetown and weep at your own words.
 
CN Tower said:
I preferred the Travel Lodge. That could have been nicely renovated.

There's nothing interesting about Stewart Street. Compare it to basically any street in Cabbagetown and weep at your own words.
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You are comparing a Victorian residential neighbourhood to a downtown mid-rise neighbourhood? And you preferred the old travellodge? Huh!?
 
Hipster Duck said:
Thanks for the pics, smt. Although the King street facade is going to be the main attraction, I'm equally interested to see what will happen on Stewart St. Stewart street is one of my favourite streets in Toronto. It's a perfectly-scaled combination of equally tall midrise buildings with subtle variations in their facades. It might actually qualify as one of the few contemporary streets that's actually "beautiful".
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The development along Stewart Street is well-scaled, the termination at 75 Portland is interesting and dramatic, and it's a short street which helps, but the architecture itself could hardly be deemed beautiful. It's concise, well-scaled, functional, but uninspired and not very beautiful.
 
Hipster Duck has a good sense of urban streetscape aesthetics. He once pointed out that rowhouses built almost right up to the sidewalk look more metropolitan and can make for an attractive streetscape like in Montreal and New York. I always liked such streets, but he delineated in words what makes them great. When I look at it, I see that Stewart Street is beautiful, lined with only finely designed and built New Modern buildings. The street furniture and paving is fairly generic, but minimalist so you only really see the buildings and greenery. The beauty of Stewart Street is another one of Hipster Duck's astute aesthetic observations.
 
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