Toronto KING Toronto | 57.6m | 16s | Westbank | Bjarke Ingels Group

There are many examples of this build form around the world working out to be drastically different from the rendering.

Massed concrete boxes such as this design have a tendency of looking messy and dirty and give a post apocalyptic feel once it's complete. Tree planters on the buildings rarely work out (see 650 King for example), and as concrete become old and dirty, they begin to look fairly unpleasant (see any brutalist building).

I'm very skeptical and very pessimistic about this. I look very much forward to be proven wrong.
 
UD2 said:
There are many examples of this build form around the world working out to be drastically different from the rendering.

Massed concrete boxes such as this design have a tendency of looking messy and dirty and give a post apocalyptic feel once it's complete. Tree planters on the buildings rarely work out (see 650 King for example), and as concrete become old and dirty, they begin to look fairly unpleasant (see any brutalist building).

I'm very skeptical and very pessimistic about this. I look very much forward to be proven wrong.
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Where do you get the impression that this will be concrete? It's been suggested that light coloured stone is being considered. Concrete would be a no no, in my opinion. We have plenty of concrete buildings and (as you mentioned) they look terrible with age (think: CN Tower).
 
I'm a brutalist fan, so concrete done well is pretty awesome. Having a coloured stone would just be a bonus here. With this proposal and The Well we could be looking at the 'coolest' area of the City (although King West is full of douchebags, but still...).
 
Very unique for the city. It has the same characteristics as the habitat complex in Montreal. I think this project would look great by the harbour front!
 
Wow! If anything is going to block my south view, I'm happy that it's going to be this.

I'm trying to understand the massing. Is anything tall going to be built on top of or behind the heritage buildings? I'm on the 10th floor directly in front of the area marked heritage component.

EDIT: Never mind. I misread the map, this will be off to the side. I'll have a great view of these towers and keep my south view.
 
NBGtect said:
I'm a brutalist fan, so concrete done well is pretty awesome. Having a coloured stone would just be a bonus here. With this proposal and The Well we could be looking at the 'coolest' area of the City (although King West is full of douchebags, but still...).
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Connecting this site to Wellington would be excellent. I'm sure this will happen. With Westbank and Bjarke Ingels at the helm, I imagine that such a detail wouldn't be overlooked.
 
MetroMan said:
Wow! If anything is going to block my south view, I'm happy that it's going to be this.

I'm trying to understand the massing. Is anything tall going to be built on top of or behind the heritage buildings? I'm on the 10th floor directly in front of the area marked heritage component.

EDIT: Never mind. I misread the map, this will be off to the side. I'll have a great view of these towers and keep my south view.
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Lucky you. If you need someone to periodically show up at your place, uninvited, to clean bread crumbs off your counter, I'd be happy to oblige.
 
It'll probably end up being a concrete cladding panel, something like FibreC that's clean and simple to install. I think this building is great in concept - though it'll be interesting to see how well these units sell with such limited views.

I'm also really curious about how the cores work - the top units must be multistory to have them make any sense.
 
Josh said:
It'll probably end up being a concrete cladding panel, something like FibreC that's clean and simple to install. I think this building is great in concept - though it'll be interesting to see how well these units sell with such limited views.

I'm also really curious about how the cores work - the top units must be multistory to have them make any sense.
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It was mentioned that stone is being considered -

For the design to be successful, materials and the arrangement of the windows will need to be very carefully modulated. (Westbank is thinking about cladding the exterior of the building with some sort of light-coloured stone.) So, too, will the approach to the heritage buildings on site; these will have to be rebuilt, but should remain as discrete pieces within the design.
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AoD
 
Towered said:
While this is indeed a very inspired design, I think it's wise to not get one's hopes up too much. We're always just one re-design away from an extremely dumbed-down version, and lord knows how often we've seen that happen. Toronto is, apart from a handful of exceptions, allergic to bold design.
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Whatever makes you happy. We are all worried about you.


Love the concept but, I have concerns over the scope and the incorporation of the historic buildings.
 
I don't even have many words yet, but I am super excited about this. I was expecting a very toned-down proposal from BIG for this site, maybe riffing off the typologies we've come to expect in Toronto. But this is truly something different.

The rendering from underneath has me intrigued at what the structure would have to be like to support those sorts of spans and still create the pixelated "chipping away" effect; this will be no inexpensive project. Really glad ALLIED/Westbank are stepping up to the plate here. Hopefully they'll stick to the budget required to make this project the best it can be.
 
With all these great projects planned for King, they should have put the DRL under there. King is also a better looking street than Queen.
 
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