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

Arquitectonica hit it big during the late '80's, with a bold use of big forms and colours. It made their name, but they've had a fairly middle-of-the-road profile since then. The last big project of theirs on the radar that comes to mind was The Westin in New York, from 2002.

I think they're borrowing ideas more now as a firm than generating them. Their condos, for example, look really generic. They do have a lot of 'types' on the menu right now, though, so maybe they've gotten good at delivering solid, dependable stuff more than making a splash.
I think Arquitectonia may be better at large-scale stuff. Not the kind of firm I'd go for to do an important smallish-scale building that's to border one side of a forward-looking park. I probably would have gone after a northern European team instead, as this sort of programme seems to be second nature to them.

I hope they come up with something skilled enough that it can pick up the ball where Sherbourne Common leaves off.
 
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Looking at the orginal design it seems to be more of the artists impression.
 
Not as bad as I feared either, though definitely still a bit undercooked. The close-up renders definitely improve my impression in relation to that overall render that we've seen.

I still feel like the 'iconic' glass box is the most underwhelming part of the project. Have they just not worked on that part of the building yet? It has almost no articulation, particularly in relation to what's happening elsewhere in the building.
 
I'm neither here nor there about the cube on the end. I'd probably be more excited about it if, instead of just being another block of apartments, it was actually a kind of cubic atrium, garden, or event space.

The 'textures' of the outer walls made by the combination of opaque and angled transparent cladding are chunkily interesting.

But, the squat, long horizontal divisions really weigh this thing down. They seem to diminish the building's height and make it look clunky and heavier, instead of helping it out.
The 'winter garden' -which was supposed to be a big feature of this building, looks like it has been shrunk to being the size of a high-school lobby. It initially looked like it was supposed to be a kind of glassy atrium to complement the park, but now it's more of a nondescript covered walkway, heavily overridden by the roof slabs hanging over it. It looks uninviting, IMO. A real letdown. Lets hope the slated refinements perk it up.

All in all, so far I think I liked the Hines renderings better.
 
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hmm, they look great ! I can't wait for these to start.
When do they go to sales ?

Anyone know how monde is selling ? Should give us a good idea how these will sell.
 
taal said:
Anyone know how monde is selling ? Should give us a good idea how these will sell.
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It's been just a few days past the rescission deadline, so the numbers might be a bit off but I heard some rumblings (unverified) of it being nearly 60 percent sold.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Renderings of the proposal that went before DRP (prior to refinements):

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/image_galleries/bayside_development/?13217

Need more work - esp. the block near the edge of the lake, but it isn't as much as a disaster as I feared.

More info from the EBF public meeting to come.

AoD
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It was on display lat night on the East Bay update meeting and not as shown here.

There was some opposition to it during the QA, but over all not a bad design. It has pass the design review panel with very little issues from what I heard.

There is a large opening just over haft way to the north that allows people to get from one side to the other as a pathway with retail on either side of it. Again, some opposition to this opening to the point that there was a call for 2 buildings. It was pointed out that if it was 2 buildings, you need to loading docks as well pickup area. Having 2 of everything's eats up space and I support the one building look. There is retail at grade for the whole complex.

A general layout of the whole complex was shown and should had taken a few shots now.

There will be a roadway at the south end that can be closed off if needed for events next to the boardwalk. There will be a few layover parking spots on the 3 streets for this development.

There is a neighbourhood park in the centre of the south road.

As a note, in 2012, a request will go out for building 2 office building in front of Corus Quay with another in 2015 going out for building the rest of the block east of Monde.

There was talk about having the LRT rough in was kind of a joke where buses would use it from Union Station. Down size to this dumb idea by TTC/Ford, where in the hell are you going to pickup and drop off riders at Union Station when its a construction war zone for this 2.5 minute headway service at peak and 15-20 off peak???
 
Wrk_InProgress said:
It's been just a few days past the rescission deadline, so the numbers might be a bit off but I heard some rumblings (unverified) of it being nearly 60 percent sold.
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Interesting, not sure that's a great sign though; I know it's only been in sales for a month or so.

Projects going up in downtown Markham (and of course the core i.e. entertainment district) tend to sell out very quickly, no ?

I recall some of the downtown Markham projects being nearly 100% snapped up before they make it to the public.


Not good news simply in the sense that investors are not as crazy about this area just yet apparently.
 
drum118 said:
It was on display lat night on the East Bay update meeting and not as shown here.

There was some opposition to it during the QA, but over all not a bad design. It has pass the design review panel with very little issues from what I heard.

There is a large opening just over haft way to the north that allows people to get from one side to the other as a pathway with retail on either side of it. Again, some opposition to this opening to the point that there was a call for 2 buildings. It was pointed out that if it was 2 buildings, you need to loading docks as well pickup area. Having 2 of everything's eats up space and I support the one building look. There is retail at grade for the whole complex.

A general layout of the whole complex was shown and should had taken a few shots now.

There will be a roadway at the south end that can be closed off if needed for events next to the boardwalk. There will be a few layover parking spots on the 3 streets for this development.

There is a neighbourhood park in the centre of the south road.

As a note, in 2012, a request will go out for building 2 office building in front of Corus Quay with another in 2015 going out for building the rest of the block east of Monde.

There was talk about having the LRT rough in was kind of a joke where buses would use it from Union Station. Down size to this dumb idea by TTC/Ford, where in the hell are you going to pickup and drop off riders at Union Station when its a construction war zone for this 2.5 minute headway service at peak and 15-20 off peak???
Click to expand...


I'd be very happy if these offices get off the ground but I have my doubts ... and this may be what kills east bayfront / the waterfront in general.

Monde was suppose to have a giant office component in the base, I'm talking about 300,000 square feet. They actually tried to market it (I know this for a fact, saw the adds by the brokers), yet clearly they decided to convert all of this to residential.
 
taal said:
Interesting, not sure that's a great sign though; I know it's only been in sales for a month or so.

Projects going up in downtown Markham (and of course the core i.e. entertainment district) tend to sell out very quickly, no ?

I recall some of the downtown Markham projects being nearly 100% snapped up before they make it to the public.


Not good news simply in the sense that investors are not as crazy about this area just yet apparently.
Click to expand...

I meant to type 80%, not 60% so maybe that's a bit better news overall.

They had their first "VIP" (heh) sales weekend the first weekend in November.
 
hehe, okay but you know what I meant right ? The projects in the core / downtown Markham / VCC - seem like the sell out 100% in a couple days no ?

Maybe they don't release all the units ...

I guess one thing is, Monde is huge I believe ! Probably the size of 3 or 4 of the projects above combined.
 
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While not atrocious to the point of considering it as the mistake-to-be by the lake, I thought it looked awkward, neither here nor there. It is not at all clear what the design rationale is.

AoD
 
I am very disappointed in this design, especially when comparing it to the placeholder used when Hines won the bidding contract for Bayside.

The loss of the winter garden is regrettable (my favourite design element of the old one), the loss of the 45' offset cube is more salient... However, nothing makes up for the loss of warmer materials. All this grey glass by the lake will make the neighbourhood that much more sterile.
 
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