Toronto 80 Bloor Street West | 263.4m | 78s | Krugarand | Arcadis

fiendishlibrarian said:
Strange building. When I worked at Banana Republic there 15-odd years ago we often had to use a freight elevator in that building to access some off-site storage rooms in the basement, and on a lark a buddy and I took the elevator up to an unused floor and the offices were strewn with hundreds of old rotary phones and Mad Men-era desks and other furniture. Can't even imagine what they would fetch on the vintage market these days. There were also long-standing rumours of closed off passages that led directly to Bay station and even Lower Bay, but I could never confirm that. I think the building *is* still connected to Bay station through a hallway near the gym but I think it's only open during the day.
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Love the story of an unused floor full of vintage office equipment.

As adma said, the passageway to this building is real. It's easy to find if you start on the Bay Station side -- the entrance is on the mezzanine level, in the same corridor as the TTC Lost Articles Office.
 
In Hull there is at least one giant warehouse full of beautiful old oak office furniture (desks, chairs, filing cabinets, boardroom tables, etc.), stacked 40 feet high, probably never to be used again. Government waste.
 
Ramako said:
I've never been particularly enamoured with it either. I'm actually relieved to see that this proposal isn't for the tower on the corner, 1200 Bay, as it's one of my favourite brutalist buildings in the city.


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http://www.firstapexcapital.com/contact.html
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Agree, it adds great texture and character to the area. It has a good chance of surviving with a tall building proposed right next to it.
 
Though I don't know why, I liked it with the other orientation. I guess they wanted to get the balconies away from the property lines though. Can't think of another reason for the swap.
 
I liked the other orientation more as well, though this makes much more sense. It will make it much easier to get approved.
 
Profilewise, I feel 80 Bloor's big problem over the years is that it's a "midblocker"; that is, it doesn't anchor any corners, nor does it register as a sufficiently "exciting" urban event relative to its neighbours. But it could also be just as well a subtle virtue--all the more so in how it's escaped significant alteration, let alone condo-conversion. (As such, it may be the perfect embodiment of what George Baird once spoke of as Toronto's "first-rate second-rate" architecture. As praise, mind you.)
 
Sometimes I feel nervous walking under big condos like this with balconies. That at any second something might fall off of someone's balcony and kill me.
 
khristopher said:
Sometimes I feel nervous walking under big condos like this with balconies. That at any second something might fall off of someone's balcony and kill me.
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Yep, the woman in the first render posted by AlbertC is thinking the same thing.
 
Boooooo, it looked better the other way.

And to think I was going to give it praise for being an interesting design, they go and just put more rectangle balconies on the main facade.
 
The original design had a lightwell between 1200 Bay and the tower. Units wrapped around this void before they met 1200 Bay. This lightwell extended down into the lobby which is still located between the existing building and the retail.
 
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