Toronto L-Tower | 204.82m | 58s | Cityzen | Daniel Libeskind

MetroMan said:
It sucks that the boot was kicked out (ha!) as it would have created great street presence in an area that needs it badly. All around that corner are buildings that don't open up to the street.

The Sony Centre is only busy on show nights, the patio on the NE corner is never bustling, the Hockey Hall of Fame has no entrance there and the historical building on the SE corner just looms over the sidewalk with no openings to the street. L Tower will do the same with its green wall hiding the condo entrance.

The tower will look gorgeous from afar but it brings little to street level.
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Yes, this tower does nothing to animate Yonge street. Yonge & Front is a pretty dismal corner for pedestrians. The only animation is the patio, on the north/east corner. It's quite busy in the summer.
 
MetroMan said:
It sucks that the boot was kicked out (ha!) as it would have created great street presence in an area that needs it badly. All around that corner are buildings that don't open up to the street.

The Sony Centre is only busy on show nights, the patio on the NE corner is never bustling, the Hockey Hall of Fame has no entrance there and the historical building on the SE corner just looms over the sidewalk with no openings to the street. L Tower will do the same with its green wall hiding the condo entrance.

The tower will look gorgeous from afar but it brings little to street level.
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I like this intersection, even if there could be improvements. Looking westward your eye takes in the CN Tower and the gently curved street/facade of the Dominion Public building and Union Station; eastward you look towards Berczy Park and St. Lawrence market; to the north you have an impressive vista up Yonge Street, and immediately around you are the Sony Centre and the Hockey Hall of Fame. I just don't see how anybody could find this intersection uninspiring. To me it is sort of a ground zero or crossroads for much of what downtown has to offer...

Said that, a livelier patio on the north/east corner would be great here, as well as improvements to the actual intersection in terms of streetscaping. I would actually love to see a London style traffic circle perhaps with an art piece/monument in the centre that references Yonge Street's impressive trajectory from this point. Dreaming in technicolour I know! Still, the public space proposed for the L Tower would seem to make more sense in terms of improving the intersection than would a podium, no matter how interesting it might be architecturally.
 
There is also the plan to 'do something' with the area immediately east of the Sony Centre and Scott Street. I am not sure what the status of this is but at one time there was to be a more pedestrian-friendly area created between Sony Centre and the St Lawrence Centre (both of which belong to the City.)
 
Tewder said:
To me it is sort of a ground zero or crossroads for much of what downtown has to offer...
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Not disagreeing that there isn't room for improvement, but I agree with this statement. Yonge & Front might not act as a continuation of St. Lawrence Market or the Downtown Core, but it does have a sense of being a "gateway". Whether that is for better or worse, I don't know.
 
pot_pie said:
This morning...



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Wondering about that pump. I have never seen one quite like this one. In fact it appears to be shiny brand spankin new. Anyone familiar with this particular one? What is it's floor height capability?
By the way. Great shots Pot Pie! Please keep them coming in the weeks to come.
 
from today
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Well that really frosts my preserves.
I'm going to have to work on this uploading thing a bit more.
 
androiduk said:
You almost had it. I think the problem was you accidentally cut off the full address of the page right at the end.
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Thanks a lot guys! A little more practice on my part and I should have some interesting pics to show you all once the tower starts peeking up from the stage podium.
 
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