Toronto Fashion House | ?m | 12s | Freed | Core Architects

neuhaus said:
This development is not finished yet, just give it some time. Once the building starts to be occupied, it should make a big difference.
I wouldn't go so far as calling it a landmark, but it's indeed a nice addition to the King West strip.

It's too bad that the LED light strips are not continuous and the unfortunate location of the exterior wall vents forces the light strip to kick down a foot lower than the rest of the lighting. The colour of the lighting appear a bit on the cool and harsh side like florescent lighting. I was hoping it was going to be a nice warm glow, but that could be just the photo. I'll check it out in person and hopefully take more pics.
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Its not actually the photo , the lighting is very harsh and reads as fluorescent strip lighting - giving it a "fast food chain" quality which I don't think will be improved when its finished. That being said I wouldn't be surprised if over time the lights are seen as an issue for both the residents and the neighborhood and either replaced with dimmer bulbs or turned off.
 
The colour of the lighting appear a bit on the cool and harsh side like florescent lighting.
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That's because white leds are very similar to fluorescent, the light is produced by glowing phosphors, excited by blue led light.
 
TOfan696 said:
Its not actually the photo , the lighting is very harsh and reads as fluorescent strip lighting - giving it a "fast food chain" quality which I don't think will be improved when its finished. That being said I wouldn't be surprised if over time the lights are seen as an issue for both the residents and the neighborhood and either replaced with dimmer bulbs or turned off.
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I predicted this earlier in the thread. There is no way that owners or tenants (which make up 50%) of these new condos will maintain these lights and drapes over time. It's a really bad idea and headache for the Board until the whole idea is dropped. Sooner the better.
 
Instead of the blinds they could have just added some red elements to the structure. The blinds thing always seemed silly to me. This condo seems to be more about "design" than function and practicality anyways. The bedrooms have no doors and are completely open to the living room (except the bigger units) and the kitchens have no upper cabinets either.
 
Are these lights controllable by the owners? Or do they all turn on and off at certain times? It appears that a fair bit of light must bleed into the space behind - I would imagine most people would end up turning the glaring lights off once the novelty wears off.

Also, the positioning of the curtains themselves. If people open them the lights will glare directly into the room. I realize they are behind a sort of valance but they will still bleed a lot of light into the room.
 
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Just what I want in my brand new condo: gigantic red drapes with harsh LED highlights!

They certainly create a dramatic aesthetic, but who actually thought this was a good idea from a practical standpoint? (neuhaus, good point about the features in this building not really being designed for anyone in particular.)
 
Some sort of external sun-shading system (using red sunscreens, red louvres or red shutters) would have been much more appropriate for a residential building.
 
VoicesCarry said:
Just what I want in my brand new condo: gigantic red drapes with harsh LED highlights!

They certainly create a dramatic aesthetic, but who actually thought this was a good idea from a practical standpoint? (neuhaus, good point about the features in this building not really being designed for anyone in particular.)
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The drapes are not red on the inside.

It remains to be seen whether or not the LEDs can be turned off by individual owners when the drapes are open/whether the LEDs will be automatically turned off when the drapes are open, but it not, then that's a fail.

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Having a mechanism that automatically turns on or off the lights when the drapes are open would be probably cost prohibitive and be a potential maintenance issue.

It's funny how this concept was so loved in the renderings (which show dramatic light scalloping from warm incandscent pot lights or pucks), but turn out to be so citicized when it came to its execution.
I could imagine some homeowners finding some way of disconnecting these lights because they find it annoying, just like a smoke detector. Dispite having a deep metal lighting valance on the inside to shield the light, there will always be some light leakage into the unit when the drapes are fully drawn.

Maybe having a red lens over the lights could make the red curtains a glow more evenly and make it less harsh, but the building may end up being nicknamed as The Red Light District!
 
Here's what the drapes look like from inside a unit

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Different unit
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atodaso said:
Are these lights controllable by the owners? Or do they all turn on and off at certain times? It appears that a fair bit of light must bleed into the space behind - I would imagine most people would end up turning the glaring lights off once the novelty wears off.

Also, the positioning of the curtains themselves. If people open them the lights will glare directly into the room. I realize they are behind a sort of valance but they will still bleed a lot of light into the room.
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The last photo is as I imagined - lots of light bleeding into the room in a distracting and unpleasant way.
 
Any rumours on the tenant for the ground level commercial in the new building? The Keg is going into the Silverplate but the other tenant hasn't been announced, yet their is no for-lease signage so I imagine it must be spoken for.
 
neuhaus said:
It's funny how this concept was so loved in the renderings (which show dramatic light scalloping from warm incandscent pot lights or pucks), but turn out to be so citicized when it came to its execution.
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Well, we haven't heard from owners themselves yet…

atodaso said:
The last photo is as I imagined - lots of light bleeding into the room in a distracting and unpleasant way.
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…but yes, there is light leakage. That photo above does not, however, give us a good idea as to how much, as the curtains are mostly open.

It will be interesting to see how bright the rooms are with all of the drapes closed at night. It will also be interesting to follow how problems are dealt with. This why some people become engineers, right? Get this figured out!

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The lights are quite bright. When turned on with the drapes open, the window lighting pretty much illuminates the suite. When the drapes are pulled closed, there are gaps where the lighting will be visible inside the suite. Based on observations of some of the occupied suites, the lighting has been turned off by the occupant. I highly doubt that there will ever be any consistency across the building.
 
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