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

EnviroTO said:
Affordable is relative. A home going for $2 million that was once $500,000 only 10 years ago is a problem too. There is a affordability / value for money issue at all levels of the market.
Click to expand...
Our house was $500,000 in 2002. It's now probably somewhere between 3.5 and 4. We have undoubtedly put work into it, but as you say value is a major issue. On paper we're multi millionaires. In reality, we're upper middle class who purchased a farm house back in a time when it wasn't actually overvalued. The value of the house is almost entirely meaningless unless we were to move to a much more remote area or completely different province.

Housing prices are so ridiculous that they're completely detached from reality and can only really be compared against eachother, their value does not translate elsewhere.
 
TheSix said:
IMO, no one outside of TO knows that we already have a Gehry. Heck, most people who live in Toronto don't know this. That's because it's a watered down version of what he's known for. Any tourist visiting I've taken to the AGO didn't even bother taking their phone out to snap a pick of the building, or even ask about the architecture.

I'm confident Forma will be a beautiful tower. But IMO, it's a tall box with quality materials, that's it. The street level connection even looks average. Why not create some drama and excitement even at the foot of the building? It's really too bad they couldn't incorporate any curves, what Gehry is known for.

I doubt it will gain any major international attention and I do worry about sales with the recent chatter about pausing international purchasers for the next two years.
Click to expand...

The budget legislation about no foreign buyers is all bark no bite. If you read the fine print you'll see there are enough loopholes that any prudent person can get around them. For instance if you have students going to school here you're exempt, if you're not a citizen but a permanent resident... you're exempt. If you owna business here, you're exempt.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
I for one am glad that this project hasn't turned out to be a 8 Spruce Street lookalike. I'd rather have something unique to the city, given the landmark nature of this building.

Also, given the materials Gehry has used in the past (see Luma Arles below), I'd caution against writing off Forma's redesign as typical "cheapening". If Gehry is using similar materials here, I'm sure Forma will prove to be far more more refined, mature and spectacular than 8 Spruce.

View attachment 390838

View attachment 390836
View attachment 390837
View attachment 390839
Click to expand...

WeirdFishes said:
I'd agree with you if Forma wasn't just a few boxes. Your comparative example is stunning because it has curves, emulating movement – not because of its glazing. Forma has none of that, just cool cladding. Which, don't get me wrong, will be pretty – but I doubt it will put Toronto on the map.

In the end, Toronto will always be Toronto. Safe, expected, conservative and boring.
Click to expand...
The idea of looking across Toronto's skyline, and seeing a pair of glistening towers playing with the light (with one of them being a supertall!) is tremendously exciting. There is nothing safe, conservative or boring about that. You won't find skyscrapers like these anywhere in the world.

And I have to disagree with your characterization of Luma Arles. It's stunning precisely because of how its glazing catches and interacts with the light. I expect Forma to be similarly stunning, but on a far grander scale.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
The idea of looking across Toronto's skyline, and seeing a pair of glistening towers playing with the light (with one of them being a supertall!) is tremendously exciting. There is nothing safe, conservative or boring about that. You won't find skyscrapers like these anywhere in the world.

And I have to disagree with your characterization of Luma Arles. It's stunning precisely because of how its glazing catches and interacts with the light. I expect Forma to be similarly stunning, but on a far grander scale.
Click to expand...
Hmmmmmm... "you won't find skyscrapers like these anywhere in the world."

Correct, you'll find better.
 
Saw an ad for this for the first time today.

20220416_113639.jpg
 
Last edited:
I went back through the thread and maybe I missed it, but why is this called Forma? Does it mean something or is it just a random made up word? It doesn't seem to fit at all to me and sounds super generic.
 
Last edited:
concrete_and_light said:
I went back through the thread and maybe I missed it, but why is this called Forma? Does it mean something or is it just a random made up word? It doesn't seem to fit at all to me and sounds super generic.
Click to expand...
“As we continued to meet with Frank, his team and our partners, we couldn’t help but be drawn to the name, Forma,” stated Amanda Wilson Watkins, a senior vice-president with Great Gulf Group in a statement. “The ‘form,’ in true Gehry fashion, reflects, both literally and figuratively, the city of Toronto, and pays homage to where Mr. Gehry grew up.”

Well, that's what they said in the press release anyway. Who knows how companies come up with these names (Danny Danforth, Immix, etc). There must have been a brainstorming session or two, and for some reason, the powers that be liked "Forma". Then someone crafted a statement about how it reflects Toronto, etc. Reminds me of some of the installations you see during Nuit Blanche. You could be looking at the most banal object, like a fallen bicycle, but because the accompanying explanation tells you that it represents resilience, or the plight of refugees, or whatever, it's transformed into something profound.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top