Toronto Esports Performance Venue and Hotel | 112.23m | 30s | OverActive | Populous

Riseth said:
It's such a shame to see the DRP even try to fight back against this. The proposal is by far one of the most unique and unconventional ones we've seen so far. It would look absolutely gorgeous and any city would be glad to have something like this on their waterfront.
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I thought the comments around the ground experience made sense. I don't mind the "landed" architecture, and don't believe it has to be subservient to anything, but...it shouldn't just be a monument parked in a concrete field.
 
I'm not sure that many of you have actually read the story, What the DRP said is more comprehensive and more balanced than what most of the comments here reflect. Those include that they're not against the architecture specifically, it's more the scale of it, so one suggestion is trying to lower it into the ground somewhat, maybe by only a floor, who knows. There's another suggestion to swap it north-south so that the hotel fronts on Lake Shore and the stadium fronts on Princes' Blvd, and that makes a lot of sense to me. Like @allengeorge says above, their comments about (improving) the ground experience make sense too. So, they've got some potentially good ideas there for the proponents to consider in preparing a revised plan, so I'm pretty curious to see what comments will be picked up on and what won't.

Meanwhile, there's been no indication yet that the proponents are anywhere close to finding the funding.

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Riseth said:
It's such a shame to see the DRP even try to fight back against this. The proposal is by far one of the most unique and unconventional ones we've seen so far. It would look absolutely gorgeous and any city would be glad to have something like this on their waterfront.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I'll go that far, as it's is a bit of a cheeze sandwich to me...but knowing a bit about the industry, it's completely par for the course. As it also represents space age tech with a novelty component. The DRP should have at least understood that. So I can never accept their conclusion made with this degree of ignorance, IMO. (Read: No it's not a Gehry, because it's not meant to be a Gehry.)

...my only big gripe is about this is the hotel component that stinks of appeasing the glass box types looking to cut corners. And at its current design, don't really go together with the stadium portion at all. So it should go back to the drawing board as far as I am concerned.
 
SubHuman said:
canada.constructconnect.com

OAM to present revamped and more moderate design for esports venue - constructconnect.com - Daily Commercial News

Toronto-based OverActive Media (OAM) has significantly revamped its esports venue project proposed for Toronto’s Exhibition Place and the firm now feels confident it will get an easier ride from Toronto planning staff. In March the City of Toronto’s Desi
canada.constructconnect.com canada.constructconnect.com
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“The original vision for OAM’s esports stadium at Toronto’s Exhibition Place, pictured here, was deemed too bulky and “exciting” for the site along with other concerns cited by city planners and so the esports promoter will soon be introducing a more conservative design.”

Thanks DRP, I guess? Maybe we should add some spandrel and box-like forms. Make it look like a condo, which should get it an easier ride.
 
I don't get why the city is so reluctant to have unique designs? What gives? I don't understand the rationale, unless the Design Review Panel is a bunch of old people who don't understand anything about good city planning/design and want white picket fences and green lawns everywhere. It's depressing how out of touch the Design Review Panel is. They are going to diminish the allure of Toronto in the long term as other cities grow and become more interesting, because we're going to become super boring.
 
SubHuman said:
canada.constructconnect.com

OAM to present revamped and more moderate design for esports venue - constructconnect.com - Daily Commercial News

Toronto-based OverActive Media (OAM) has significantly revamped its esports venue project proposed for Toronto’s Exhibition Place and the firm now feels confident it will get an easier ride from Toronto planning staff. In March the City of Toronto’s Desi
canada.constructconnect.com canada.constructconnect.com
Click to expand...
Some notable outtakes:

Details on the revised proposal:
Told by city planners to go back to the drawing board, OAM and Populous have come up with a more conservative venue plan with an entertainment venue footprint of less than 200,000 square feet, though maintaining spectator capacity of 7,000, and less massing.

Hunter said OAM has been assured by planners and other stakeholders that the more modest proposal will be more acceptable when it is ready for site plan review some time in the fall. Groundbreaking would follow next spring with completion targeted for spring 2025.
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The project's design architects are committed to an equally "cool" design:
The architect, Hunter said, took the rejection in stride. Populous has tremendous resources and a great portfolio of projects including the new Tottenham Hotspurs stadium in the U.K., Hunter said, and they responded, “‘OK, we can go with that. Let’s come up with something that’s equally as cool.’

“I think they’re close to achieving that.”

The new plans should be unveiled within a month, Hunter said.
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The project will be a joint venture with New York-based Henry Kallan:
OAM is partnering with developer Henry Kallan on the project. Kallan is the owner of the 400-room Hotel X located adjacent to the OAM site, and Hunter said the tentative plan is for the new hotel, also to be 400 units in a 28-storey tower, to be marketed for families while Hotel X serves the luxury market.

The 7,000-seat capacity was reached after consultation with local event promoters who told OAM Toronto was under-serviced for arenas of that size, Hunter said.

The original price tag for the venue and hotel was $500 million but Hunter said with the smaller scale, the cost will be lower than that.

“I won’t say we’re taking out any amenities, but just reducing the footprint,” he said.
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allengeorge said:
“The original vision for OAM’s esports stadium at Toronto’s Exhibition Place, pictured here, was deemed too bulky and “exciting” for the site along with other concerns cited by city planners and so the esports promoter will soon be introducing a more conservative design.”

Thanks DRP, I guess? Maybe we should add some spandrel and box-like forms. Make it look like a condo, which should get it an easier ride.
Click to expand...

To be fair, I don't think that's what was said. From the UT article:

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To me, the challenge here comes in 2 parts.

1) Taken on its own, I thought the design was very interesting; and I also think the concept of an 'Exhibition Place' ought to be all about 'statement piece' architecture.

2) The building does have issues in terms of how it would meet grade; the design team did not present a detailed vision for that; and we have a planning process of some kind, ongoing, for both Ontario Place
and the Ex grounds, which is, to be charitable, really opaque. We need to have a better understanding of the future context of this site to understand how it can and should relate to its surroundings.
 
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The developers shot for something nice, but they just had to look a block away to realize what the city wants on this site.
I hope we are all ready for the "X-hotelization" version of the New Design that will meet the DRP requirements i.e. an non-descript unexciting box.
 
A whole slew of posters here keep riding the Design Review Panel and/or 'The City' (which are not one and the same); and clearly few, if any, read what the DRP wrote.
If you are commenting on what a member of the panel said, please read what they said first!
You are free to disagree with them; I have been known to do that on more than one occasion.
But you have to know what was said in order to disagree with it!
 
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