Toronto Liberty Market Tower | 99.97m | 28s | Lifetime | Wallman Architects

The massing is totally fine -- nice, even -- the problem is the cladding, which looks incredibly cheap and impermanent; easily the worst panelized brick and among the worst aluminum paneling I can think of.
 
Towered said:
Poor LV, what could have been...with actual proper planning at city hall.
Click to expand...

You know, they didn't need to save all the old buildings from Massey-Harris or Inglis.

But just 4-5 more than what they did; combined with some attention to detail in terms of contrasting architecture; I'm thinking like the Distillery District, where most of the new doesn't emulate the old; instead most of the old was saved, but for a couple of lesser buildings, and then the new infill added some variety to the space.

Look at this building:

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From the Toronto archives, via BlogTo (this is the s/e corner of King + Strachan)

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This is what King West looked like in the 1980s

The King West of the 1980s was a different place than it is today. One of those areas that's undergone an almost complete transformation, prior to ...
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**

You can just see the front of the Inglis Plant on Strachan here:

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Likewise from the archives via BlogTo

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This is what Liberty Village looked like before the condos

For all the development that's shaped Liberty Village over the last 15 years or so, the area's industrial past retains something of a ghostly prese...
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Hindsight is a bitch of a thing. At the time (later 80s, early 90s), no one had heard of 'brick and beam' or 'character office' and new builds with acoustical drop ceilings, florescent lighting and cubicles were the way of the future. It's always easy to look back and regret, but we can do things differently now in saving the buildings we may not currently think are worth it: mid-century office, brutalist stuff, and even po-mo could and probably would have a future time in the sun. Unfortunately it's difficult to draw humanity's attention from the 'shiny new bauble'...
 
Interesting sign of the times; and a good indication that a change concerning parking minimums will be forthcoming:

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Put simply they can't sell the parking spaces.

Considering the state of construction, I'm not sure what repurposing is feasible other than commercial parking. (which is what I take it is proposed)
 
exactly what is happening - more commercial parking, which from my understanding is badly needed in LV right now. (well, parking is never "needed" per se, it's just that existing commercial parking facilities tend to be above maximum occupancy)
 
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