Toronto 700 University Avenue | 196.41m | 57s | KingSett Capital | KPMB

interchange42 said:
They've done a pretty nice job with this!

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This makes me wistful for what might have been.

The 2 corners n/e and s/w that address the circle and Queen's Park in form and direction.

Would have been nice to see that mimicked in some fashion on the other corners (though the historical portion of Mars would limit that.)

Meanwhile, at ground level, this is better than what's there now in every regard. I think this will improve the public realm at this intersection significantly.
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I agree it's an improvement at street level on the north side.

Not so sure about the west.

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Look at all that healthy, vibrant green!

I like outdoor public space; indoors is not the same.

There's also patio space there now, I see none in the proposal.
 
What's that tall grey thing sticking out from the back? A placeholder for another project?
 
I like the improvement at street level. However, I do not like the new crown. I like the terraced level and how it creates a distinct crown appearance, but I feel like it needs to be more consistent with the style of the original facade in order to look clean and cohesive, as opposed to just tacked on.

There's not enough information about the condo tower yet to judge, but I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it.
 
The rental tower looks awkward attached to the back of this building. Buildings at at 45 degree angle to a street always look bad and it doesn't work with the curved nature of the office building. I'd rather they just made that 4 floor crown 30 floors instead with the same design of that 4 floor crown. That office building has always looked massively under scaled relative to University Avenue. The street level podium is a big improvement.
 
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I'm stunned at how many people are saying the podium looks good and even more at those saying "I'm relieved" or "it works well" when we have no drawings yet. I'm interested to see how on Earth they attached/did not attach the res. tower to the existing building and still achieved separation distances and/or appropriate unit layouts and/or sunlight access to residential units.

The way the "podium" is shoehorned into the existing sunken plaza but is very incongruent with the design of the existing building isn't looking good to me. I get that the existing building is dated to a developer's eyes but I think there would have been many ways you could integrate this new podium in a way that's more congruent.
 
This whole proposal is just awkward. The courtyard additional blends in poorly with the existing office tower, the office addition is just plopped on and doesnt blend in well to the existing tower, and the residential proposal shouldn't even be there to begin with.
 
Amare said:
This whole proposal is just awkward. The courtyard additional blends in poorly with the existing office tower, the office addition is just plopped on and doesnt blend in well to the existing tower, and the residential proposal shouldn't even be there to begin with.
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But that would leave the proposal exactly the way it is. Only instead I gather, to bring the building up to modern standards where energy and conservation is concerned without 401 Bay'ing it?

Not saying that is bad thing. Rather I tend to agree with you in spirit that some things should be left alone design wise.
 
Not a fan of the corner. Nice treed courtyard covered over and sealed as a private climate-controlled space. A bit in line with the trends elsewhere in the city: removing porous fine-grained human-scale stuff for block-long glass mega podiums. Either leave the corner or open it up more. Don't close it up.
 
That courtyard space functions as public OUTDOOR space. Enclosing it to expand your retail presence and replacing the greenery with constantly shadowed "amphitheater style" seating is not good. At a minimum, making that 2nd level green space publicly accessible is important. That negative space there now is so important to the corner, it provides a relief and balance to the space north of it. Reworking that podium is where i hope they focus their efforts on this important public corner.

The condo element is fine and the office extension is non-objectionable at best so meh to those parts... 🤷‍♂️ (but i would prefer they leave the office component)
 
The only thing that reads as a genuine enhancement over the status quo, to me, is the north side public realm, removing the long concrete form that leads to the subway entrance in favour of more at-grade space, a visual and practical connection to the existing public space from the north.

The rest just doesn't read an enhancement to me; the only question is how negative it might be vs neutral.
 
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