Toronto Aura at College Park | 271.87m | 78s | Canderel | Graziani + Corazza

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I think there is something to be said for wide sidewalks as well as squares. They really create a sense of place, rather than simply a streetwall. This part of of Yonge already has its street life and a wide sidewalk. I would hate to see it ruined by a narrower sidewalk and a streetwall.
 
I do like the compactness of the older section of Bay Street and the snug streetwall there (which I believe is threatened by the BA development).

However in this case there is the potential at Yonge and Gerrard for another public square if the tower was set back farther. I certainly don't want a "towers in the park" idea and would want it to be a high density urban square. There is a lot of pedestrian traffic there so it might be a nice touch if done right.

I would also support a strong street wall if they cannot make this square at the corner of Y and Gerrard. I believe the plans now are to maintain a "College Park" in between the three ROCP towers, and these kind of "tucked in behind" parks are never successful and actually attract crime and drug dealing.
 
New York and other major cities have very wide sidewalks and they work great. Besides, the sidewalks on Yonge are too narrow.
 
Remember that the width of this stretch of Yonge is the result of Eaton's College-era city planning, just like the College/Carlton jog elimination. (Some may remember a set of 30s spec buildings where the parking lot S of College Park now is.)
 
I like the retail fronting Yonge. It seems like a modern version of the retail along the original building.

Overall I like this plan much better. I'm less concerned about a square here. These little plazas don't seem to work too well in Toronto, and we'd probably just end up with some more bad corporate art. Tight streetwalls feel better along Toronto's bustling thoroughfares.
 
It's tough to say for sure, but the tower in this rendering seems to have about 68 floors, not 75. Above the 68th there's that angled top. Maybe there are more floors in there. The first three floors of that 68 would be approximately double height based on the way the podium looks.

Anyway, it's tough to tell anything for certian based on the rendering, but that's what I see in it.

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I see several different facades stacked on top of each other. If a portion of one of them went the full length it might help bring the design together more. I like the angled roof and the rounded face of the upper floors. The podium looks good to me- having more glass than precast. Overall I quite like it, definitely better than ROCP1-2.

I like the wide sidewalks, which are appropriate for a busy pedestrian street. For further develpements I hope they go wider on Yonge, the sidewalk is way too narrow in places for a such a busy commercial street.
 
i definately want to see a rendering from the west especially how the top portion of the building looks from there.
 
It's tough to say for sure, but the tower in this rendering seems to have about 68 floors...
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Interchange, you're not telling me anything about the building's height I couldn't have found for myself if I'd gone to the effort of looking at the rendering.

For which I thank you.
 
For further develpements I hope they go wider on Yonge, the sidewalk is way too narrow in places for a such a busy commercial street.
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Says who?
 
The Yonge sidewalks downtown seem to be about only three to four people deep at the moment- this on Canada's 2nd busiest street. It's not too bad at the moment although it can get conjested at times- particularly wih the inclusion of garbage dispensers etc. If they are permitting the building of residential highrises along the strip, and considering the city's rapid growth over the next couple of decades, one would think they would be considering the sidewalks be widened to accomodate this. Indeed I think they were considering losing a lane of traffic at one point to accomplish this- but obviously that didn't go over too well. I could be wrong, as I don't have the stats, but my perception was that New York and Chicago generally have wider sidewalks on their main boulevards and commercial strips.
 
Says everone who gets stuck behind another slow person and cant get by them because the sidewalks are too narrow. If you haven't noticed then you either have never been on them or are oblivious.
 
I think this isn't so much a traffic-circulation argument, as it's an argument over the "character" of Yonge--and hate to say it, but there's a fair argument to be made that the funky "small town main street in the big city" demeanour is actually fundamental to the whole Yonge (and Toronto) mythos. If you're suggesting that all those Victorian-and-dumpier storefronts ought to be redlined as unsalvageable old crocks on behalf of this "wider sidewalk/freer circulation" goal, you're going to run into a loooot of opposition out there, I reckon. (And Jane Jacobs might lob a few lightning bolts at you from the heavens, too.)
 
I'd love to visit the small town whose main street is entirely populated by the likes of what we see on that stretch of Yonge...
 
there's a fair argument to be made that the funky "small town main street in the big city" demeanour is actually fundamental to the whole Yonge (and Toronto) mythos.
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Actually, I agree with adma.

There is something about nearness to the storefronts that somehow adds to the "urbanity" of most of our major shopping streets, and to Yonge St. in particular. Wider sidewalks may somehow dilute that effect. Somehow, there is genius in all the old storefronts, and how they interact with pedestrians. Most of our newer developments seem to miss this.
 
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