Toronto King West Life Condominiums | ?m | 25s | Plaza | Gabriel Bodor

Torontovibe said:
This picture clearly shows how badly planned Liberty Village was/is. In fact, there appears to be no plan at all. Look at the placement of all those slab buildings. Point towers would have been a much better choice. It's hard to imagine that the city could have done a worse job. I guess this is what happens when a city has no planning department. The funny/sad thing is, even the newer buildings are not making things better.
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I clearly see a master plan with respect to the tower placements and the flexible at grade usage. It has issues (blocks being too large, for one) but, it is far the being the worst out there. Liberty Village fails on architecture which is outside of the planning staff's jurisdiction.
 
Anybody know how bike parking will work? Wouldn't want to have it locked up in a public area? Is it possible to park the bikes in our underground parking spot? Is there going to be some kind of locked room?
 
maestro said:
Liberty Village fails on architecture which is outside of the planning staff's jurisdiction.
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Which is just about the least important consideration for the general population. Affordability and location for example are two aspects that are far more important. But its quite apparent that architecture is the most important consideration for UT members in general.
And what proof is there for that statement? The proof is in how well they've sold.
 
Just because something sells, it doesn't mean it's well designed, attractive or well built. It only means that someone thinks they can make a profit from it. Investors will buy any ugly piece of crap architecture, as long as they think they can make a buck.
 
26 December 2012: Welcome to prison...or what I'm calling Cyberia. (Siberia...get it?)

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That is going to be one horrible place to walk around. Retail would have at least made it seem less oppressive but sadly, there will be no restaurants, no coffee shops, no patios and no retail to enliven this dull box. What terrible city planning. Why even have a city planning department if this is the sad result? Just scrap it and save the city millions wasted on high priced planners, who appear to be useless. It's developers who really plan this city anyway, we all know that.
 
The units are live/work, no? I'm not as convinced as so many on the forum that there would be instantly restaurants and coffee shops if ground floor CRUs were planned and/or a dentist and a cosmetic office if a floor or two of commercial was provided above it. They would have been built if lining up a buyer was that easy. Nothing's worse than empty storefronts and this city is currently littered with them. There's more potential with live/work anyways. The same REITs buy up 95% of the retail in condos which is a reason we see the same chains over and over again.
 
Torontovibe said:
Why even have a city planning department if this is the sad result? Just scrap it and save the city millions wasted on high priced planners, who appear to be useless. It's developers who really plan this city anyway, we all know that.
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Baseless hyperbole. Sure, mistakes have been made, but if you compare Toronto with a city that actually has had the type of planning you're advocating, I don't think Houston would make you happy.

maestro said:
Nothing's worse than empty storefronts and this city is currently littered with them.
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Really? There are empty storefronts everywhere?

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interchange42 said:
Really? There are empty storefronts everywhere?

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Yes, I've never seen so many on the strips I frequent. Usually, vacancy is around 2% or 3%. Now, my impression leads me to believe it could be as high as 10%.

Again, I don't find the planning in Liberty Village all that bad. A. This part didn't have much to offer in the beginning. What was worth saving ended up being re-used. B. It's the execution from architecture to landscaping that has failed this neighbourhood and that has nothing to do with the city's planners.
 
The curious part to me is; We seem to love old character neighborhoods close to the core full of old Victorian houses; None of which have any retail whatsoever, but this is OK ?

Like Masetro I'm not convinced there needs to be retail everywhere, but I say this from the demand side, I doubt there would be demand for all that retail !

If you put retail in every condo project, we'll essentially create a lot of scattered retail throughout the city, low density, this nearly always implies non-interesting retail; The retail most seem to like are in retail heavy areas.
 
maestro said:
Yes, I've never seen so many on the strips I frequent. Usually, vacancy is around 2% or 3%. Now, my impression leads me to believe it could be as high as 10%.

Again, I don't find the planning in Liberty Village all that bad. A. This part didn't have much to offer in the beginning. What was worth saving ended up being re-used. B. It's the execution from architecture to landscaping that has failed this neighbourhood and that has nothing to do with the city's planners.
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In terms of a lot of vacancy where are you referring too exactly ? Though I've noticed a lot of that around Yonge and Eglinton (north up to Lawrence), wouldn't say 10% but more then usual. The Yonge strip south of Bloor seems to have a lot as well, Church street as well.
 
King East seems to be doing really well, like usual.

You're right though, I've noticed that's not the case on Queen though. Would you say that's a new trend though ? There's always been a lot of space available from around Queen and Yonge all the way out to Woodbine (i.e. before the Beach).
 
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