Toronto Massey Tower Condos | 206.95m | 60s | MOD Developments | Hariri Pontarini

What quantifies as interesting? In broad terms the same can be said for just about any project. Also, there's always going to be someone with insider information on any project which has yet to be released to the public. What would really be nice is if the eponymous 'anonymous source' made an appearance a little more often...

i.e. Leftcoaster on SSP revealing the heights for 156 Front and that the designs would be 2 quadrangles, this nearly 2 months before the public release.
 
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I'd like to see them enclose the heritage buildings, under glass or something by Calatrava and then build 70 + floors above that. In other words, something completely out of the ordinary and unique for Toronto. It would become an epic landmark. Wishful thinking.
 
urbandreamer said:
^Um, the site already is an "epic landmark" that is "completely out of the ordinary and unique for Toronto." I just wish they'd have a museum here, not a condo tower.
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I agree... or maybe still a jewell-box of a theatre in a modernist shell that embraces the two heritage structures, and with a modernist tower of 'reasonable' height rising above?

At the end of the day I find it incredibly short-sighted that these outstanding buildings end up as overwrought condo lobbies!
 
Tewder said:
At the end of the day I find it incredibly short-sighted that these outstanding buildings end up as overwrought condo lobbies!
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Plain and simple, at the end of the day these fabulous buildings are owned by the private sector and not the public...i guess that gives them the right to do what they want with them, that is as long as they keep them intact.
 
Automation Gallery said:
Plain and simple, at the end of the day these fabulous buildings are owned by the private sector and not the public...i guess that gives them the right to do what they want with them, that is as long as they keep them intact.
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Actually a state almost invariably retains ultimate ownership of its territory, including its land and any structures on it.

Google the term "allodial title" for a more detailed explanation.
 
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Tewder said:
I agree... or maybe still a jewell-box of a theatre in a modernist shell that embraces the two heritage structures, and with a modernist tower of 'reasonable' height rising above?

At the end of the day I find it incredibly short-sighted that these outstanding buildings end up as overwrought condo lobbies!
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I don't know, they could be done well. Look at 1KW, that used to be a bank building and it looks great as it is right now.
 
Automation Gallery said:
Plain and simple, at the end of the day these fabulous buildings are owned by the private sector and not the public...i guess that gives them the right to do what they want with them, that is as long as they keep them intact.
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... which is why I call it 'short-sighted' and not patently wrong. However, as to AoD's point there certainly are zoning issues to be addressed in terms of site usage and so on. Besides, a condo/mixed-use tower may still be desireable and appropriate if there is a better use for any ground level/podium level/heritage component ... but then again that would take 'vision'.
 
I agree... or maybe still a jewell-box of a theatre in a modernist shell that embraces the two heritage structures, and with a modernist tower of 'reasonable' height rising above?
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I like the theatre idea. I could see something more along the lines of a small art gallery. Not the kind of thing you'd expect on Yonge, but it could work.

Personally, I think the site is highly inappropriate for a tower, condo or otherwise. I think something quite low-rise and thoroughly deferential to the two existing historical structures is the way to go.
 
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