Toronto Gibson Square Condominiums | 137.46m | 42s | Menkes | Rafael + Bigauskas

maestro said:
Chicago ... really? Don't get me wrong as the city has a well decorated downtown and a rich storied history on architecture which it's slowly reconnecting with however its all a viel masking repetitive chain stores, car culture and a generally unfriendly overbuilt environment.

P.S. The Gardiner is a non-issue compared to the 'L'
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No doubt the city has its problems but overall I think the buildings are better designed and more enduring that the bulk of what Toronto is creating in the current condo boom. Cityplace is a giant disgrace to the Toronto development scene, particularly because of its prominence in the skyline. It's existence embarrasses me as a Toronto resident. It is way more appropriate for Regent Park than the focal point of most Toronto marketing material.
 
hmmm, no matter how much I love Toronto, I have to admit that Chicago is far superior in just about every way. Sure they have their own regrettable examples of condo-fication, but these are the exception rather than the rule. As for the 'L' being any kind of obstruction, all I can say is I have never thought of it that way. To me it was a link to "Old" Chicago, preserving its heritage and very much contributing to the flavour of the city. I think all major urban areas are over-populated with chain stores, its a sign of the times.
 
Gibson Square is perhaps the Bay-Adelaide Centre of North York. Not many realize it, but there have been two previous proposals for this site, also called Gibson Square.

GibsonSquare.jpg


GibsonSquareEarlyProposal.jpg
 
The use of curtain glass is more prominent but I honestly don't find the current Chicago boom yielding an overall better quality then here. I also think downtown Toronto has faired much better than Chicago in building atrocities like spearheader One Superior Place.

I'm not a fan of Cityplace however won't deny that I'm a homer and therefore I do think Cityplace stacks up fairly well with Lakeshore East
 
One Superior Place?
OneSuperiorPlace-001.jpg

Good point. Now, *that* looks like a future vertical slum, even if it ain't...
 
How come the waterfront gets all the attention when an existing street (Yonge in North York) is subject to haphazard development (I almost said "abandonment")? Tellingly, I emailed Howard Moscoe months ago asking about a vision for the street and he didn't reply. I honestly think city planners and politicians have no any idea what they want the street to look like in 10, 20, or 30 years. The street south of Finch is just too wide. There's way too much traffic, 401 notwithstanding. The streetscape overall is miserable: hostile and uninviting. Would you like to saunter along it (ala Queen East or Bloor in the Annex)? So many developers have put up these huge buildings behind decrepit single storey storefronts. The effect is hideous. When cars outnumber pedestrians by more than 10 to one, you have a serious problem.
 
jmacmillan said:
How come the waterfront gets all the attention when an existing street (Yonge in North York) is subject to haphazard development (I almost said "abandonment")? Tellingly, I emailed Howard Moscoe months ago asking about a vision for the street and he didn't reply. I honestly think city planners and politicians have no any idea what they want the street to look like in 10, 20, or 30 years. The street south of Finch is just too wide. There's way too much traffic, 401 notwithstanding. The streetscape overall is miserable: hostile and uninviting. Would you like to saunter along it (ala Queen East or Bloor in the Annex)? So many developers have put up these huge buildings behind decrepit single storey storefronts. The effect is hideous. When cars outnumber pedestrians by more than 10 to one, you have a serious problem.
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I supsect the Waterfront is such a magnet because it presents such an enormous opportunity whereas the Yonge North Corridor is so fragmented in its ownership that a master plan would be difficult to effectuate. Nevertheless, what they've created up there is just pitiful and benefits basically 3 parties- Tridel, Menkes, and Conservatory. The rest of us are essentially subject to an everlating ugly streetscape tax courtesy of these 3 very competent, yet good taste challenged developers.
 
City staff want to reject this one and send it off the the OMB since it doesn't include employment space. Funny how they'll do that up in North York but let Infinity slip through their fingers downtown...old habits die hard.
 
Archivist said:
Gibson Square is perhaps the Bay-Adelaide Centre of North York. Not many realize it, but there have been two previous proposals for this site, also called Gibson Square.

GibsonSquare.jpg


GibsonSquareEarlyProposal.jpg
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One was going to be Imperial Oil's headquarters. They've since moved to Calgary.
 
A bit of googling revealed this about the first rendering (the two towers with pyramids on top, found in previous reports:

"On February 20, 1992, the Ontario Municipal Board approved the site specific Official Plan Amendment (No. 326) and Zoning By-law Amendment (By-law 31237), with amendments. In addition to approving residential uses for the westerly portion of the site, a maximum 113,695 square metres of commercial floor area in two buildings was approved for the easterly portion of the site. Two commercial buildings of 27-storeys and 31-storeys in height were approved to be located on the immediate northwest corner of Yonge Street and Park Home Avenue. Of the total permitted commercial floor area, 63,701 square metres were a result of floor area transferred from roads, road widenings, local open space buffer lands, Gibson Park and the Gibson House
lands."

I can't tell what the Simcoe Place doppleganger is, or which one was Imperial Oil's HQ.

edit - err...no googling was required - I didn't notice it was in the most recent report that canuck linked to.
 
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