Toronto Festival Tower and tiff Bell Lightbox | 156.96m | 42s | Daniels | KPMB

Redroom Studios said:
I agree, there is nothing remarkable about the tower at all - infact its a rather ugly design. And it doesnt seem to play off the podium either, but rather is just a run of the mill green glass box tacked on top.
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Agreed. The tower is a huge lost opportunity. Overall I like the project, but I also find it pretty overrated.
 
If I recall correctly Michael Snow was hired to complete a light art component in the mechanical penthouse - which should be quite interesting if that is still a part of the plan.
 
I find the critics of the tower harsh, the balcony glass, from the one segment that has been completed, looks rather good. The tower will look more like frosted white glass, and a lot less green glass when finished. The frosted white balcony glass will then be a nice compliment to the white glass which has been installed at the podium levels.
 
caltrane74 said:
I find the critics of the tower harsh, the balcony glass, from the one segment that has been completed, looks rather good. The tower will look more like frosted white glass, and a lot less green glass when finished. The frosted white balcony glass will then be a nice compliment to the white glass which has been installed at the podium levels.
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I agree caltrane, sure beats out this

skyscraper-farm-11.jpg

The Skyfarm
Architect Gordon Graff design for the city of Toronto – 48 floors and millions of square feet of growing space.
 
I would like to see that thing stuck somewhere out of the downtown fabric. It might look cool as a space filler in Toronto's inner 'burbs. Hell, they could certainly do worse; and have.
 
caltrane74 said:
I find the critics of the tower harsh, the balcony glass, from the one segment that has been completed, looks rather good. The tower will look more like frosted white glass, and a lot less green glass when finished. The frosted white balcony glass will then be a nice compliment to the white glass which has been installed at the podium levels.
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This is turning out to be nothing more than a run-of-the-mill condo tower. It may have some nicer balconies, but otherwise there's really nothing special about it at all.
 
Hold judgement until more of the exterior is complete. The buildings defining feature will be the white frost glass, and off the top of my head I cant think of any run of the mill projects around town finished as such.
 
I know many of the forumers are all just reaching for greatness with every project built in Toronto, but I for one am glad that not every building is a "standout".

Sorry to invoke such an old cliche, however:
If everything was special, nothing would be special and worse than that the built form of Toronto would have no cohesion.

We would look like a carnival sideshow of freaks. Each building outdoing the next in a visual assault of conflicting architectural styles. Even Dubai has a general theme running through it's structures and proposals. Be that one you like or dislike, they still somewhat go together.

Praise be to the "skyline-filler" buildings!

:D
 
Traynor said:
Sorry to invoke such an old cliche, however:
If everything was special, nothing would be special and worse than that the built form of Toronto would have no cohesion.
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I think I agree with you. I went to China last year and I felt really weird staring at this:

Shanghai_skyline.jpg


I know people SAY that looks good but it just looked really wrong to me. There is a ruby ball tower with a huge globe in front of it. Then there is the bottle-opener looking building seems incredible and should be headlining a skyline.. but having it fight for your attention with that ugly tower makes it all just not work for me.

(after I saw this, I decided I never want anything approaching the height of the CN Tower in Toronto unless it was extremely carefully planned to compliment it in some way)
 
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There are enough bad to mediocre highrises around town already. Striving for greatness should be of the highest priority, there are plenty of "skyline filler" buildings already.
 
I think greatness is defined differently by each individual.
Greatness dosesn't have to be over-the top look-at-me styling that a lot of people seem to like. It could be elegant streetwalls, use of high-end stone/glass etc.

While Toronto is bereft of "icons" in the New York or even Dubai sense, the ones we DO have are quite nice. That being said a few more would definitely be welcomed. :)
 
I wholeheartedly agree that a few more "standout icons" would be appreciated... I just question everyone bemoaning that every new project not being that icon. They can't ALL be designed by Starchitects! That would just get oppressive.
 
Don't forget the podium here is standout, for those that need that little boost to the collective ego...And then the understated refinement of the tower makes sense as to not overwhelm its reason for being, which is the Festival Center.
 
Repeating a building form to expand and strengthen an existing context can also be iconic of a city - the Bay and Gables that defined Toronto in the late 19th century, for instance, the neo-Modernism of Freedville and the new Regent Park maybe ... or the symmetry and order of Haussmann's Paris. You can create a strongly differentiated city form in a way that avoids "standouts" entirely. Ladyscraper's image shows the opposite - the visual screaming match that happens when discontinuity is all that matters and architecture isn't about fitting in.
 
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