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

Festival Tower:

4601787039_c4ec9b866a_b.jpg
 
Bell Lightbox to open for TIFF

After being a coming attraction for seven years, Bell Lightbox will finally open on the first weekend of the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, the Star has learned.

TIFF’s long-awaited new home at King St. W. and John St., which has endured some difficult birth pangs, gives the organization a year-round presence in the city’s entertainment district.

Following the opening of the festival on Thursday, Sept. 9, TIFF will put the spotlight on the Lightbox, with a public opening set for Sunday, Sept. 12.

Detailed plans for the opening celebrations will be announced Friday in Cannes, France, with the aim of maximizing publicity throughout the international film world.

Designed by architect Bruce Kuwabara, the Lightbox has five screening auditoriums, gallerys for exhibitions, an enhanced film reference library and educational facilities as well as restaurants and bars suitable for social events.

In 2003, TIFF announced a partnership with filmmaker Ivan Reitman and his two sisters, whose family had for years owned the site (a former parking lot and onetime car wash) and the Daniels Group, a developer specializing in condos.

TIFF’s five-level podium is part of a complex that also includes a 46-storey residential tower.

Reaching its fundraising target of almost $200 million (including $129 million for the building itself plus money for operating costs and endowment) proved to be much more problematic than anticipated. As much as $40 million of that money may have to be raised after the building opens.

Nevertheless, the opening is sure to be one of Toronto’s hottest cultural/social events of the year.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/article/809309--bell-lightbox-to-open-for-tiff
 
here's another article about lightbox's unveiling:

TIFF to unveil its new Lightbox building, Tim Burton exhibit this fall

Courtesy TIFF
Art by Tim Burton, which will be included in an exhibition at the Toronto International Film Festival's new headquarters this fall.

By Mary Vallis May 14, 2010 – 3:51 pm

The Toronto International Film Festival yesterday announced that its new headquarters — a boxy, five-storey building featuring five theatres — will open on Sept. 12, in the midst of this year’s festivities.

A collection of drawings, sculptures and videos by filmmaker Tim Burton will be one of the first exhibits featured at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The TIFF Bell Lightbox, now under construction at in downtown Toronto’s theatre district, will also feature a three-storey public atrium, a bistro, restaurant, lounge, two galleries, three learning studios, staff offices and more.

The Burton collection, comprised of more than 700 items, was organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. While the work is on display, film lovers can also attend limited runs of Mr. Burton’s films or attend free family activities and lectures.

“Connecting a lot dots is going to be, for me, the most amazing thing,” Piers Handling, director and CEO of TIFF, said from Cannes yesterday. “It’s to have not just in-cinema experiences, where people just go and see a movie. It’s to actually broaden that.”

The TIFF Bell Lightbox was designed by KPMB, a Toronto-based architectural firm. The cinemas range from 80 seats to 550 seats and are designed as “distinct architectural volumes — a box within a box,” TIFF says.

Most of the building’s first floor will be in operation by the grand opening on first Sunday in Toronto’s annual film festival, including one theatre and a gallery. Other part of the building may also be open, depending on the summer construction schedule.

The project has been in the works for a decade. TIFF has raised 90% of the $196-million needed to finance the project. A few weeks, ago, TIFF hired John Tory — chair of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, broadcaster with Newstalk 1010 and former leader of the provincial Progressive Conservatives — to help raise the remaining 10%.

“As we get closer to completion, we’re running through the people on hard hat tours and they’re getting really excited about it,” Mr. Handling said.

Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/0...g-tim-burton-exhibit-this-fall/#ixzz0nx5pqWsG
 
That is good news, that they will be able to open this year. Even though it will be a partial opening.
May 15


 
are they planning to dress up the mechanical box on top with any lights or architectural details? I like the Red LEDs on the King st podium, and it looks like they corrected some of the fit/finish of the medal cladding in that area.
 
the LED option is definitely the most likely, if even that. this is not batman. projecting images or film into the air will achieve no result, however romantic that is. let's remember first and foremost, this is a condo in toronto. that has a nice ring to it. but, fingers crossed, i will be proven wrong.
 

Back
Top