Firstly, to go along with this, I have to say I really like Gehry designed strutures. They feel free from most convention, are unique and will probably be a postive for Toronto. That being said, there are significant effects from a block with 240 floors of tower on it. Anyone who thinks we can just plop this stuff down and it will all work, is probably impulsive, (or very young), and hasn't done enough research on precendent, or how extreme density rarely helps cities achieve any higher degree of livability. Personally a city designed like Paris, with more midrises than highrises, would be better long term for us. Now all that being said, I like many do get excited about all the tall stuff going up. So its kind of like an internal debate. My sensible, more knowledgeable, patient, sustainable development, realist side, vs my excited, impulsive, immediate gratification side. When it comes down to it and I think before I feel, I realize the side of me that thinks about effects generally prevails. It has however been shown time and time again all over the world that when we redevelop older established areas, the newer towers tend to kill a lot of the street life, and create a sterile new area, that is then repeated all over the place, whilst losing MOST character that the older area it is replacing, used to achieve.
A good article, written by a better writer than myself, can be read here. I posted this in the casino thread, but its applicable to this conversation I think:
LINK