H
Hydrogen
Guest
Double post
i bet you guys will forget about it in a day...
Okay, here's something to debate.
Clear Spirit versus Tour de Thorsell (ROM Condo). The ROM condo would have developed an area of historic interest (the university precinct) and provided a "return on investment" for the ROM, and would have "mixed new and old". That condo was rejected by most on this board as being not having any context to the area and would have destroyed the McLaughlin Planetarium. There was also a general agreement that such a condo near by, like One Bedford, was acceptable. Why is there a different standard here. Why must we destroy a part of the district for a clashing condo? Why not use some of the very developable property nearby? Why destroy a very rare district in this city, the only fully intact industrial district from the Victorian era? Something that is a National Historic Site? I see enough condos around, enough leased space that Artscape should walk away with a tidy profit anyway.
I really get frustrated about this project in particular.
The modern insertions into it (the art galleries, the shops, the restaurants, the theatre) look super-cool because their sleek, modern appointments are set off so well by all the old brick and wood.
Sean, the Distillery District is not a public institution. It is a private enterprise. It's a Victorian Industrial theme park. The modern insertions into it (the art galleries, the shops, the restaurants, the theatre) look super-cool because their sleek, modern appointments are set off so well by all the old brick and wood.
A tower at the ROM might have looked similarly cool, so it's not the look that's the problem there, it's the land use. The ROM and U of T are all part of this massive and dignified quasi-public landscape of reasonably august institutions that has been set aside for years for 'higher purposes', and should continue to be. No condo tower there, especially one aimed at the very well heeled, could fit into that 'this area is a reflection of who we all are' vibe.
For me, the Distillery District carries none of the psychological weight that the ROM/U of T does. It's just a mostly sensitive and cool re-use of an old booze factory.
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For the most part, the modern insertions into it are really cool, and I agree with you there. They complement the old, and is really good adaptive reuse.
I am not against private enterprise, I understand that profit is part of the deal. I even like, to an extent, the theme-park atmosphere - the area is getting busier, and as it integrates with the surroundings, will be lively enough all the time, not just weekends. I'm not talking Colonial Williamsburg, but more like St. Lawrence district, where tight height restrictions allow old and new to work - Festival Square versus St. Lawrence Market, Gooderham building versus the new condos at Jarvis. St. Lawrence to the west (a great mixed use, mixed income, mid rise, mixed age nabe that we again forgot how to build), and Lower Donlands to the east, even Corktown to the north call for shorter towers and mid-rise development.
I'd even go out on a limb and suggest that it could even use a little bit of "Disney" if it brings in the tourists while keeping to its core job of being an artsy gallery and theatre district, and condos in the area (but not overwhelming the site) would keep it useful for the rest of us.
I like the modern architecture, the condos look very nice. They are just too overbearing, and I think in two or three decades, people will see the condos as a mistake, a symbol of weak planning and a condo-mad city.
If I wanted total preservation, I would have advocated keeping it as a booze factory. I would have said that the parking lot at the back was wrong, or the exiting condos closer to Parliament, which work. I would have been against development of the edges. I just think it's too much. Demolition to add a second or third highrise tower goes too far in my opinion.
I see your point, but then that's a matter of perspective. Some may view it on that level of importance. As Sean mentioned, it is a National Historic Site.
But it isn't a theme park. This a legitimate historic area that just happens to be owned by private enterprise. It isn't a Disney recreation.