Toronto Manulife Centre Podium and Streetscape Renewal | 9.75m | 2s | Manulife Real Estate | MdeAS Architects

milanista said:
New Bloor St facing BMO branch opening on Dec 3, internally located one closing.

Some of the the grass seen in the photos above has already been planted on the roof of the addition
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zang said:
It’s just bland and uninspired. As someone else mentioned, it’s no wonder the renders only showed it at night. My guess is that this ended up being a design-by-committee as MdeAS were forced to make concession after concession. That said, nothing that MdeAS has done has really impressed me, so…
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FCP reclad is strong, IMO.
 
zang said:
A decent job, for sure. But it certainly didn't make me say "wow!"
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Of course. The original cladding was marble from the world's most famous marble quarry in Carrara, Italy. The ancient Romans used the same stone for their buildings. Replacing that cladding with glass wasn't going to make anyone say "wow".
 
junctionist said:
Of course. The original cladding was marble from the world's most famous marble quarry in Carrara, Italy. The ancient Romans used the same stone for their buildings. Replacing that cladding with glass wasn't going to make anyone say "wow".
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The Grande Arche de la Défense in Paris was also clad in that marble, 15 years later, but it had to be replaced for similar reasons - in that case, with Vermont granite.
 
I passed by this today and while it’s clearly an architectural travesty with respect to the original building, somehow I felt that it may actually improve the street. That little plaza was a windswept dead zone in practice and bringing the storefronts closer to the street improves the scale and potentially the feel and animation of the street.
 
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