Toronto Bloor Street Neighbourhood Condos | ?m | 32s | Cresford | Northgrave

dt_toronto_geek said:
I find it such an odd contrast between Cresford's Casa masterpiece on one side of the street, and then a mediocre BSN on the other side of the street. I know they're designed by different firms but I would have thought they would have rejected certain elements in the design process so that there would be two very different, but handsome buildings with quality materials to compliment each other and to proudly show in their portfolio.
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Why assume that the architect who sweated blood to give us this bleak, bland, beige behemoth isn't inordinately proud of it? Of course the eye will compare the two buildings, and find one wanting, but we're not dealing with a Commerce Court West that cleverly plays off of a TD Centre - a situation where the architects were equals. Here, it's a contrast between what a lesser talent and a greater talent can produce - and an object lesson for future generations on what our Toronto is about.
 
^Or more likely, BSN vs. Casa isn't about architecture at all; rather, it's about what the developers' marketing department thought trendy/sellable at the time. In c.2001, when Cresford was dreaming up this proposal, Northgrave was probably friendly with some Cresford people. By c.2005, aA had created buzz with Spire and Mozo, so everyone was jumping on that bandwagon. Today? Perhaps Teeple is the new go-to guy, with smaller edgier developers getting his firm on board first, with the other bores to follow in 2014?

BSN vs. Casa: products of their time.
 
And don't forget, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Cresford wanted BSN to have alot of design elements similar to their project in Summerhill, so the architect had to work with those constraints.
 
I was hoping this one would be done before Pride so that none of the out-of-towners would take notice. What an embarrassment. And to think it's being built now instead of 15 years ago when it might have been more understandable/acceptable.
 
From my vantage point it looks like they are removing the the crane right now. Can anyone confirm?

crane1.jpg


Edit: It definitely looks like it. Hope someone is there snapping pics.
 
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For those who keep track of such things: the crane for this project went in on May 12, 2007. (So 2 years and one month for the life of the BSN crane).

Here's a couple shots of the crane removal. (I'm sure others will have better). Cresford has also added a giant banner (like Casa's vertical banner, impossibe to read from the street -- they didn't learn from that lesson). I guess Brian Gluckstein is supposed to give this clunker some class. Well, I do like his bath towel collection.

And I'd have to say that the parkage garage is definitely the best looking thing in that last pic.

 
Crane Removal - June 21-09

JayBee said:
Quite possibly the ugliest new building in the downtown core.
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Ah come on, it's not even done yet! Give it a chance. It's not great but there's much, much worse out there.

casaguy said:
For those who keep track of such things: the crane for this project went in on May 12, 2007. (So 2 years and one month for the life of the BSN crane).

Here's a couple shots of the crane removal. (I'm sure others will have better)
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Not necessarily better, just more! :)

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.

 
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waterscapes-guy said:
They were using a Mammoet Crane. I was told there were only 3 of these in Canada. They will be all done with the removal by end of day today.
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O/T, it looks like the exact same piece of equipment that was used yesterday to haul up cell phone eyesore equipment onto the roof of the building across from me

 
It's not great. It's got that sort of 80s feel to it, with the color scheme and the large amounts of pre-cast. Only the large windows date it to the current era. It really is mind-boggling that the same company designed BSN and Casa, although Urbandreamer's explanation a few posts back makes sense.
 
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