Nobu is a good example among many. I've photographed buildings in 55 countries and in over 300 cities.There are beautiful designs that get built in many of those cities and they actually look like the original render. The issue in Toronto is that there are a large group of condo developers who are simply maximizing profits at the expense of quality. Obviously, making money is the whole point and value engineering happens everywhere, but the overall track record here is pretty dismal. Being jaded is simply the result of being disappointed too many times. In my opinion, if a condo developer hires HPA or, to a lesser extent, Aa, we know we will probably be getting a quality design. Commercial buildings here are a different story. Some recent builds and under-construction projects are really terrific. The sad part is that in many cases, non-Toronto architects were hired as the lead designers. Is that simply name branding? Or is it a sign of a deeper issue?
