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

[cdr108]

That's not true. I walk south on Yonge Street after 6pm every day and there are always people on the street at 9pm. The Shoppers on the Yonge/King corner closes at 9pm and always has people in it when I'm there at that time. There is almost always a crowd of people waiting for the King Street car, even in the evening, so I don't know what you've seen but I certainly don't see empty streets.

omg ..... not literally completely dead, but if you're ever been in the area from 8AM - 6PM, you notice a DRAMATIC difference.
and i'm referring to the stretch of yonge from dundas and richmond.
yonge/king SDM services much of SLM and what remains of the financial district after 6PM.
as you stated, it closes at 9PM. if there was sufficient business and traffic, it would close at midnight like most SDMs that aren't inside malls that maybe restricted by lease agreements.
of course there are crowds of ppl waiting for the King streetcar ... your choices for west-east commuting are queen or king.

 

[CN Tower]

It's a very interesting location to live! It's at the very heart of the national metropolis and near great shopping, theatres, churches and cathedrals, cultural institutions, Dundas Square, the Financial District, and Union Station. It's a quintessentially Toronto location. A Yonge Street address will always mean you own something substantial.

Junction, friend, that sounds like a Wikipedia entry or something someone who has never walked this baren stretch would utter in a press release. Come on man, admit it. It's a ghost town over there when the shops close.

 

[gristle]

Depending on what night of the week it is, it can be pretty quiet from just south of Dundas Square right down to Front Street (and beyond). That doesn't indicate that this particular stretch of Yonge is a failure, but that the larger number of office buildings in the area, as well as the stores along that stretch, have closed for the day. Absolutely dead? No. Hopping with activity at night. Also no.

 

[Thanos]

Junction, friend, that sounds like a Wikipedia entry or something someone who has never walked this baren stretch would utter in a press release. Come on man, admit it. It's a ghost town over there when the shops close.

I think it's safe to say you've never walked along this area past 6pm.

 

[thecharioteer]

Work on the sales centre continues:

Glass has now replaced plywood in the stairwell window:

 

[alklay]

Many thanks for the great photos. We wouldn't otherwise see the restoration, but for your posts.

 

[ratoronto]

very neat, thanks for posting!

Very excited about this building.

 

[Condoj]

Thanks for the pics!

Looking forward to this building as well

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Work on the sales centre continues:

Amazing photos charioteer, I can't stop examining every detail in every shot that you post!
Note the amount of space in thecharioteer's photo above, between the back of 197 Yonge & The Elgin & Wintergarden theatre's exits & fire escapes. It's going to be a tight fit.

 

[junctionist]

The restoration is inspiring, but it's too bad that the public won't have access to the building when it's done. Perhaps they can at least open it up for Doors Open events in the future.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

The restoration is inspiring, but it's too bad that the public won't have access to the building when it's done. Perhaps they can at least open it up for Doors Open events in the future.

It seems to be a growing trend, but at least the building's future is secured. Now if only the owner of 205 Yonge could find a solid tenant to get that open again and we could all enjoy the interior of that building. I still think that it would make a rockin' Apple store location.

 

[junctionist]

Junction, friend, that sounds like a Wikipedia entry or something someone who has never walked this baren stretch would utter in a press release. Come on man, admit it. It's a ghost town over there when the shops close.

Dundas Square is often lively with events, there are cultural venues with evening shows, and this area is one of the few whose stores can open their doors on any holiday. I've walked that stretch at 2:30 AM and there were still people walking around. It's not consistently lively, but it's far from dead. So I stand by my comments, including the cachet of a Yonge Street address.

 

[Urban Shocker]

For Urban Shocker, a detail of the tesserae:

Are we really stuck with this dreary mosaic floor ? We've done better, we can still do better. There used to be a magnificent, lively, mosaic floor at Versace ( 83 Bloor West ), there's a small gem of a mosaic above the Concourse Building, and Luis Jacob's brand new mosaic panels in the Dufferin Street bridge north of Queen are a delight.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Dundas Square is often lively with events, there are cultural venues with evening shows, and this area is one of the few whose stores can open their doors on any holiday. I've walked that stretch at 2:30 AM and there were still people walking around. It's not consistently lively, but it's far from dead. So I stand by my comments, including the cachet of a Yonge Street address.

I agree with your comments junctionist.
It is true however that the area isn't nearly as lively as it was in the 70's, 80's and even a bit into the 90's as I knew it (and decades before that). The dozens of bars/night clubs and cinemas that dotted Yonge Street from Queen to Bloor kept the restaurants open later, which kept the bookstores, adult shops and record stores open later which kept Yonge St. busy until at least 1 or 2am. For decades it was bumper to bumper with cars cruising up and down Yonge Street on weekends and the sidewalks were packed from Bloor to Queen. Except for AMC at Dundas St. it's all gone now so the street does tend to quiet down somewhat after 10 or 11pm, especially compared to how it used to be. Our culture today is also drastically different than in decades past.
Bottom line, I'd love to live at Massey Tower. For me it's a dream location and building.

 

[thecharioteer]

Are we really stuck with this dreary mosaic floor ? We've done better, we can still do better. There used to be a magnificent, lively, mosaic floor at Versace ( 83 Bloor West ), there's a small gem of a mosaic above the Concourse Building, and Luis Jacob's brand new mosaic panels in the Dufferin Street bridge north of Queen are a delight.

Dreary, US? Using ochre, russet and chartreuse? Though both the Concourse Building and the Jacob panels are lovely (can't comment on the Versace floor; I didn't shop there in the 80's), their eras and contexts are entirely different from that of the 1905 Canadian Bank of Commerce Building. Now, a more apples-to-apples comparison between late Neo-Classic mosaics could be with those created by McKim Mead & White in the Boston Public Library (which are quite stunning) and those by Darling & Pearson here in Toronto (not that I want to re-hash the "Central Park vs. High Park" argument from the University Avenue thread). Even by those standards, the Commerce mosaics are nothing to be ashamed of, remembering as well it was a branch bank, not a head office, nor a major cultural institution.