Toronto Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Toronto | 203.9m | 52s | Lifetime | a—A

I was reading today that the Four Seasons was awarded AAA's Five-Diamond award for 2014. That makes two for Toronto now - the other being the Ritz.
http://newsroom.aaa.com/2014/01/aaa...4-additional-hotels-and-restaurants-for-2014/

Nice picture from the link above. IMO, I find the whole base too cold and uninviting. Like there's something missing. More greenery would have softened it up a bit. Otherwise, a fantastic project.
four-seasons-hotel-toronto_toronto_ontario_exterior_1_dj.jpg

Photo credit: http://newsroom.aaa.com/wp-content/...tel-toronto_toronto_ontario_exterior_1_dj.jpg
 
IMO, I find the whole base too cold and uninviting. Like there's something missing.
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A bunch of of bare walls with a few doors will do that. At least Bay should have had some retail or something. Very inward looking project.
 
I agree, but wait for the trees to grow and some big planters along the walls can easily fix that problem.
 
I have mixed feeling.

We always talk about how buildings 'meet the street' ... but just about every large city has many many buildings that are very cold and sterile at street level just like this ... but that's the point, imposing architecture ... I think it has its place, and in this location it works OK.
 
It seems my suspicions are confirmed. As this building went up, the wind issues at pedestrian level increased significantly along Bay, Yorkville, and Bloor Streets.

From National Post article on Yorkville towers:

"Towers also create wind tunnels.

“Wind is another big factor in Yorkville that we’re paying close attention to,” says Mr. Tamir. Mr. Palmer shares this concern.

“The wind impacts are amazing for the Four Seasons,” Mr. Palmer says. “They were required to do a wind study. I guess it didn’t work. The next time we get a big tall building, we need to do a better job on the mitigation.”"
 
greenleaf said:
It seems my suspicions are confirmed. As this building went up, the wind issues at pedestrian level increased significantly along Bay, Yorkville, and Bloor Streets.

From National Post article on Yorkville towers:

"Towers also create wind tunnels.

“Wind is another big factor in Yorkville that we’re paying close attention to,” says Mr. Tamir. Mr. Palmer shares this concern.

“The wind impacts are amazing for the Four Seasons,” Mr. Palmer says. “They were required to do a wind study. I guess it didn’t work. The next time we get a big tall building, we need to do a better job on the mitigation.”"
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This became a huge issue for me too. I've said it before, but this tower has created a ridiculous wind tunnel. I intentionally avoid walking north on Bay Street because of it. Huge fail with respect to the wind study analysis. Last year they had a patio set up along the south and west side of the building, but it was almost always empty (especially the west side) because it's always way too windy.
 
bigtony22127 said:
but it was almost always empty (especially the west side) because it's always way too windy.
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The south patio is actually quite nice. It gets great sunlight and the wind is limited to gusts every now and then. However I completely agree the patio on the west side is practically unusable due to poor sunlight and high winds.
 
Big Tony's post makes it sound like the south patio is gone. It's not, it's there, and looked ready to serve people when I passed by this evening. I'd agree with Confusion that the wind tunnel effects is more limited than others have been making it sound.

From early in the evening 2014.05.12:

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Logan said:
Nice picture from the link above. IMO, I find the whole base too cold and uninviting. Like there's something missing. More greenery would have softened it up a bit. Otherwise, a fantastic project.
Click to expand...


agreed. it's such a shame that the beautiful glass curtain wall ends so abruptly at street level and is replaced by that grey-stoneish material. the randomly placed window slits also make little sense with the simplistic box above it. All in all this is still a beautiful (amazingly beautiful) building, but not the most inviting to pedestrians. It would have been nice to see glass wrap around the base, it would allow more natural light to flood the lobby (but ironically I actually really like how dark the four seasons lobby is on the inside... perhaps the design was intentional to keep light out.)
 
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