Toronto Market Wharf | 110.33m | 33s | Context Development | a—A

from today's Daily Commercial News:

Context Development plans to break ground on Market Wharf project in fall 2009

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Toronto’s Context Development is gearing up to break ground by fall 2009 on Market Wharf, a high-rise condo and retail project on lower Jarvis Street. Construction costs are estimated at between $90 and $100 million.

Designed by architect Peter Clewes of architectsAlliance, the project will comprise a 25-storey tower on top of an eight-storey podium. It will occupy a gateway site, now a parking lot, where Jarvis Street meets Lakeshore Boulevard.

The development also will fill a gap in the streetscape of the St. Lawrence neighbourhood, a district of mid-rise commercial and housing that has become a model for the planning of new urban communities across North America.

Lewis Poplak, director of planning/development manager at Context said the project is in the early stages of design development.

The 480-unit tower will rise from an “amoeba-shaped†amenities area.

Gently curving balconies will “flip†every second floor and give what Context describes as “a playful, billowing†effect.

The project has been designed to be “a good neighbour†whose scale and detailing engages its urban context, Context says. The podium’s massing, materials and “muscularity†draw on the historic warehouse style of buildings in the area.

The tower also relates to the contemporary nature of the residential high-rises along the waterfront.

At street level, the project showcases “an innovative and aesthetically pleasing†way to treat above-ground parking. A random play of wall openings, resembling the apartment windows, will screen the cars and visually break up the large mass of the podium.

The project also will provide “an enhanced pedestrian experience†to a stretch of Jarvis Street that at rush hour can seem like little more than an on-ramp to the Gardiner Expressway, Context says.

The project team includes structural engineering consultants Jablonsky Ast and Partners, electrical and mechanical engineering consultants MV Shore and landscape architect Scott Torrance Landscape Architect Inc.

A construction manager is expected to be retained, Poplak said.

Context Development was formed in 1997. Adaptive re-use of existing buildings and conversions of existing brownfield sites has been a key focus in addition to urban infill projects.
 
the side facade reminds me a little of this: The Wave in the Gold Coast, Australia

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I was hoping the tower would be like Aqua in Chicago (mind you, much shorter) but the vertical element of the tower completely ruins the horizontal wavey effect.
 
No it's not. The vertical, dark blue section on the tower throws off the "wave" theme.

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I swear that they have purposefully toyed with that render to downplay the size of the tower. When I imagine the base of the tower behind the podium, for me it meets ground somewhere south of the Gardiner. The complex, in reality, just is not long enough north-south to get the kind of - well, the opposite of foreshortening actually (aftshortening? yeah, aftshortening!) - that is shown here. That 32 storey tower should make much more of an impact in that pic.

Come on aA - fess up - you've aftshortenedâ„¢ the tower in this render to squelch NIMBY grumbling!

42
 
ya, that rendering is so uninspiring compared to that Aussie tower. Even with the wavy balconies its still essentially a slab configuration... blah.
 
Is it really even supposed to be a "wave" theme? Is that what they're trying to do? I'm not so sure that's the purpose really.

I think it looks very awesome, not sure why everyone is complaining.
 
I swear that they have purposefully toyed with that render to downplay the size of the tower. When I imagine the base of the tower behind the podium, for me it meets ground somewhere south of the Gardiner. The complex, in reality, just is not long enough north-south to get the kind of - well, the opposite of foreshortening actually (aftshortening? yeah, aftshortening!) - that is shown here. That 32 storey tower should make much more of an impact in that pic.

Come on aA - fess up - you've aftshortenedâ„¢ the tower in this render to squelch NIMBY grumbling!

42

They totally did. For the same reason, they keep calling it a 25-storey tower on a podium.

It's throwing the proportions off though and making the tower less attractive. And I'm usually a big fan of Context + aA.
 
Well, its certainly a little different than most of Clewes extruded boxes, but I have to confess that this building is just not hitting the right spot with me. His sudden obsession with making all balconies weave in and out just doesn't do it for me- if you are wondering where else he has done it, then look at "The Gooderham".

With regards to the rendering depicting a shorter tower than should actually be there- it is highly likely that aA has done this to curb fears of the towers height. It is a trick or well, a tactic used around the globe to sell the product to the city councils and resident groups - but I am sure I am preaching to the choir here.

p5
 
Clewes introduces new visual conceits in the design of his buildings, runs with them for a few projects, and then adopts others. The angled stilts on the Clear Spirit podium echo the angled vertical elements in the St. Michael's College towers and the angled Burano podium for instance. The ribbony balconies on Market Wharf are similar in spirit to the angled balconies on the recently-launched Parc ... and so on.

Meanwhile, back in Renderland, I think that if you count down the 20 or so balconies visible on the left side of the rendering of the tower, then the remaining 5 storeys hidden below them because of the perspective will join the podium building roughly where they ought to. The rendering looks plausible enough to me.

Also, I think the vertical glass section at the north end of the tower gives the ribbony balconies something to play off of and gives emphasis to their effect.
 
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Hmmm. They've definitely re-worked a few things. I think the base in pic #2 is definitely much more interesting but the tower does look like the height of each floor is about 6 feet rather than 8.

Urbanity, where did this second render come from?
 
The perspective in the earlier rendering is from about three storeys above ground level, which inevitably shows more of the tower. The second rendering is from pedestrian level, so the tower is less prominent - somewhat blocked from view - and appears smaller compared to the podium.
 

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