Toronto Aqualina at Bayside | 47.85m | 13s | Tridel | Arquitectonica

[raype6]

Why have a building at all, why not make this grand lot a public square?

Your question is misguided for 2 reasons:

1. There is no money to pay for it and not having the money to pay for your hypothetical park is not just Toronto small mindedness. Grand boulevards and their amenities like the parks and museums of the Ringstrasse in Vienna were paid for by selling public land to private developers who built 5 star hotels and apartments.

2. Even if free money were available, large parks that are not ingratiated into residential/educational/commercial space like the often referenced Grant Park in Chicago are very much out of vogue. Having been to Chicago more than most I can tell you that 95% of the time Grant Park is a desolate place. It is just a large expanse of grass with a giant fountain.

Arguments about the quality of the development aside, just having a park would not add very much to the city and would cost a fortune.

 

[RiverCity1]

I always love to read the glib one-liners from architecture students haha....they always make me laugh

From an industry/business perspective: Reality is architecture is difficult to sell in this city, having a British protestant background and all...with mostly conservative buying tastes.

I'd like the see the area populated with residents. People tend to buy safe and comfortable buildings in TO. This looks safe and comfortable and decent. And it's on the water. And Tridel is involved. Mission (likely) accomplished.

p.s. I'm looking forward to seeing actual renderings than a tiny thumb nail lol.

 

[ProjectEnd]

These are a little old but give more detail than we've seen so far.

 

[RiverCity1]

The recent thumbnail rendering that Tridel released looks better building than these old renderings. There may be some similarities, however, like massing and balcony details.

 

[RiverCity1]

A slightly larger image than the little thumbnail we have seen. Can't wait to see official renderings from Tridel!


From 2013 Land & Development Conference presentation

 

[AlbertC]

Personally not a fan of Arquitectonica's work. The blue-white Miami Beach aesthetics don't work on Toronto's (central) waterfront either. Brick buildings mixed with some warehouse motifs like Hamburg's HafenCity would have been more engaging and also pay tribute to our waterfront's industrial past.

http://condo.tridel.com/aqualina.html

 

[CanadianNational]

An utterly disappointing entry from Arquitectonica, and doubly so for WaterfronToronto. A middling boxpile of pointless accents, arbitrary volumes and stilted composition all lacking any notable public or dynamic component that might bring it to life. Unless reality far exceeds the renders, this one looks like a permanent dud.

 

[RiverCity1]

Wow, that looks great...and fits its name. It's beautiful days like today that I want to live on the water. The rooftop terrace with an infinity pool, sun deck and lounge sounds pretty amazing. If you have checked out the rooftop terrace at George Brown already you will know how beautiful the lake is here at this location across from the Islands.

I'm happy that Tridel just posted a better rendering on their website than my crappy photo last week lol. I was excited when I saw it in person.

p.s. I wonder if a condo unit comes with one Canadian Goose, too

 

[syn]

Tridull strikes again. The central/east waterfront architecture is shaping up to be pretty disappointing so far.

 

[RiverCity1]

Some of us are excited lol

I like that the two, 9 storey office towers on Queen's Quay East could be released by Hines at around the same time as Aqualina. Maybe one wouldn't need to use an LRT every day if they worked in one of the buildings (or at Corus or George Brown...). I'm all for new employment lands!


image from Tridel Facebook page

 

[ThomasJ]

An utterly disappointing entry from Arquitectonica, and doubly so for WaterfronToronto. A middling boxpile of pointless accents, arbitrary volumes and stilted composition all lacking any notable public or dynamic component that might bring it to life. Unless reality far exceeds the renders, this one looks like a permanent dud.

a tad harsh I should say.

 

[CanadianNational]

Well, it'll be nice to possibly be proved wrong in this case, once the thing is up. But compared to what could be, and compared to what we're being shown, I won't be holding my breath.

 

[CanadianNational]

Here's just a quick glimpse at other waterfront projects, mostly northern European.
Some of them are concert halls, but I've included them because of their professional flair - also, because of the botched subtraction of the wintergarden public space from the Aquilina project.
Even if some of these might seem a bit rich, I'd like to see more ambition to deliver buildings this engaging than settling for the stale-on-arrival dullness of what Aquilina's offering.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

CN:

What's the last photo? I quite liked it, in small doses.

Not crazy about the design, but as a one-off I am ok with it. It seems that the newest design eliminated some of the limestone panelling at the podium level.

AoD

 

[ChesterCopperpot]

URL says Brisbane