Toronto Forma | 308m | 84s | Great Gulf | Gehry Partners

And what makes that structure a deserving podium for Gehry's beautiful 8 Spruce that rules out the possibility of using what currently stands on King at least partially as a podium for this three tower development?
 
Gehry did a fabulous job putting this building into an existing context, though:

TEE2461.jpg
 
RC8:

Except using Fred and Ginger as an example ignores the different programmatic requirement - and besides, he certainly didn't put it into context by preserving what was.

AoD
 
RC8 said:
Actually, the city's official plan and vision for this area called for mid-rises, and all that went to hell with the precedent-setting TIFF Bell-lightbox tower which was not supposed to set a precedent, and was in fact approved conditionally on it not being precedent-setting...
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Thankfully, that did not happen. There is very high demand to live in the area; I'd hate to see what condo prices would've been had highrises not been constructed.
 
DtTO said:
Thankfully, that did not happen. There is very high demand to live in the area; I'd hate to see what condo prices would've been had highrises not been constructed.
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There would likely be significantly more units available in the area today if high-rises were not constructed. The construction of high-rises has meant that the value of land there has skyrocketed and therefore many lots that would have otherwise been already developed are in stand-by.
 
RC8 said:
There would likely be significantly more units available in the area today if high-rises were not constructed. The construction of high-rises has meant that the value of land there has skyrocketed and therefore many lots that would have otherwise been already developed are in stand-by.
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So construction of many high rises in the area has hampered construction? In terms of inventive objections to M-G, you usurped SP!RE!
(Just kidding SP!RE, but you clearly have a challenger...)
 
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Big Daddy said:
Makes you wonder how the CN tower ever got approved.

Sometimes the city has to acknowledge a landmark project that ultimately benefits the city - without setting the stage for 7 new Auras across the street.
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Then again, remember that the CN Tower was but a redesigned/heightened smidgen of Metro Centre, which, at the time, could itself have been plausibly argued as "a landmark project that ultimately benefits the city".

Look at it this way: to use the UT time machine and pretend it existed in earlier periods, go back 40+ years and Metro Centre would have been strongly embraced vs the hidebound shortsightedness of the Union Station preservationists. Go back 45ish years, and likewise w/SOM's Eaton Centre scheme. And go back *50* years to a hypothetical NYC equivalent, and the gripes over Penn Station would have had less to do w/the existing building than w/Charles Luckman's replacement scheme, which was the 60s version of "7 new Auras across the street"...
 
RC8 said:
There would likely be significantly more units available in the area today if high-rises were not constructed. The construction of high-rises has meant that the value of land there has skyrocketed and therefore many lots that would have otherwise been already developed are in stand-by.
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That's such an interesting point. Care to show us your evidence? :rolleyes:
 
I was at the M/G site today and thought, how surprised the people who worked in these buildings would be, if they knew that the town of York refused to allow three 21st century monuments be built there.
 
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E.B. said:
I was at the M/G site today and thought, how surprised the people who worked in these buildings would be, if they knew that the town of York refused to allow three 21st century monuments be built there.
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... and the folks who toiled away at the Distillery would probably be just as equally surprised to see what was done there!
 
Tewder said:
... and the folks who toiled away at the Distillery would probably be just as equally surprised to see what was done there!
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I wonder what the Old Distillery buildings replaced in their construction - presumably something even older. That's a shame.
 
buildup said:
I wonder what the Old Distillery buildings replaced in their construction - presumably something even older. That's a shame.
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I presume there was nothing there before, as it was a port district. A better comparison would be of Yonge Street's Edwardian towers.
 
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