Benito
Senior Member
Today.
Toronto Manulife Centre Podium and Streetscape Renewal | 9.75m | 2s | Manulife Real Estate | MdeAS Architects
- Thread starter androiduk
- Start date
Benito
Senior Member
Today, things are very slow on Balmuto.
Benito
Senior Member
Eataly work on the 2nd floor progressing.
Blixtein
Active Member
This project is a paradox. On one hand it clearly improves the streetscape, yet on the other it ruins an impressive building.
bmiller
Active Member
It's a butt ugly reno at one of the city's major intersections.
jje1000
Senior Member
It's nicely detailed, but it's not architecturally inventive or contextural either.
Fast-casual architecture?
Fast-casual architecture?
isaidso
Senior Member
Garbage. I expect this sort of low brow laziness in a mall not the Mink Mile. True to form, looks like this will be yet another project Toronto builds 3-4 times before it gets it right. It's stuff like this that makes one realize that Toronto still has a ways to go before it measures up to other global cities it wants to compete with. That people here think this is satisfactory (or even nice) speaks volumes.
holographic plastic
Active Member
What's up with people constantly thinking Toronto has to compete with other cities? Reminds me of people that complain about Toronto being called "world class", when really the only people calling it that are those saying it is not "world class".
Amare
Senior Member
Toronto has to be it's own unique city. The problem is, that it so often tries to imitate other cities.
ProjectEnd
Superstar
isaidso
Senior Member
We're in a fierce global fight for the world's best talent. When deciding where to base oneself, how we stack up to other global cities looms large. What a city looks like isn't the only factor but it does matter. Toronto gets a lot right but this is one area where we rightfully get criticized. These things matter even if you don't personally care about it.
Besides, even if we didn't care about competing why should we be satisfied with sub par quality and design? This is the Mink Mile. It's supposed to be our showcase.. This just isn't good enough. Not even close.
condovo
Senior Member
^^^With +/- 125,000 people being added to the GTA each year, largely highly-educated and skilled, we're competing just fine.
Northern Light
Superstar
I note that I agree w/two seemingly competing view points above.
If some find @isaidso 's tone a tad harsh, I certainly agree w/his architectural critique here. It's worth adding, I detest brutalism and wasn't a particular fan of the underlying building as many are, here.
But this is patently sub-par in every sense. You don't have to like the original building to think so.
It doesn't exactly contrast the original, at least in a complimentary way, as much as looking like an ill-conceived, disjointed and mismeasured add-on.
I could deal w/mostly glass w/o that being much of a problem, but the absence of any proper framing, or alternatively going w/much larger plates and using some texture in the glass itself is annoyingly bland and pedestrian.
But I'm more irked by both the corner/Birks and by the new Bloor entrance, the former just feels completely wrong to me giving the positioning of both the intersection and the tower, and it's a real missed opportunity for a statement for Birks Flagship space in town, while the latter is understated in an equally banal way.
It's certainly not the end of the world; and the good news is, the street-level of this complex was atrocious before, so they didn't really do that much harm.........but it is a missed opportunity to do materially better here.
I still agree with @condovo though in as much as this City has so much going for it, in so many ways, we largely brush past these missed opportunities and remain very competitive on the global stage.
But like the new HR facade across the way, the passive acceptance of mediocrity does disappoint here.
Come to think of it, I'm marginally amused, HR is really missing some glazing, both to allow natural light into its upper levels and to showcase a nice interior as a showpiece to passersby on Bloor, it's using quality materials, just not as well as it should; while Manulife's got too much unfettered glazing, and not enough quality material and sense of proportion.
If some find @isaidso 's tone a tad harsh, I certainly agree w/his architectural critique here. It's worth adding, I detest brutalism and wasn't a particular fan of the underlying building as many are, here.
But this is patently sub-par in every sense. You don't have to like the original building to think so.
It doesn't exactly contrast the original, at least in a complimentary way, as much as looking like an ill-conceived, disjointed and mismeasured add-on.
I could deal w/mostly glass w/o that being much of a problem, but the absence of any proper framing, or alternatively going w/much larger plates and using some texture in the glass itself is annoyingly bland and pedestrian.
But I'm more irked by both the corner/Birks and by the new Bloor entrance, the former just feels completely wrong to me giving the positioning of both the intersection and the tower, and it's a real missed opportunity for a statement for Birks Flagship space in town, while the latter is understated in an equally banal way.
It's certainly not the end of the world; and the good news is, the street-level of this complex was atrocious before, so they didn't really do that much harm.........but it is a missed opportunity to do materially better here.
I still agree with @condovo though in as much as this City has so much going for it, in so many ways, we largely brush past these missed opportunities and remain very competitive on the global stage.
But like the new HR facade across the way, the passive acceptance of mediocrity does disappoint here.
Come to think of it, I'm marginally amused, HR is really missing some glazing, both to allow natural light into its upper levels and to showcase a nice interior as a showpiece to passersby on Bloor, it's using quality materials, just not as well as it should; while Manulife's got too much unfettered glazing, and not enough quality material and sense of proportion.
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TheKingEast
Senior Member
I agree. "Mink Mile" deserves a lot better than this.
Bayer
Senior Member
Manulife is only interested in further monetizing its asset, as it did long ago when it built Bretton's, which later became Indigo, thereby destroying the small park and its water features between the office and residential towers.