Toronto Forma | 308m | 84s | Great Gulf | Gehry Partners

Big Daddy said:
I'm no bored-kid-in-the-back-seat,
Click to expand...

and then you contradict yourself in the rest of your post

but I am tired of reading your endless diatribe about.....nothing.

Does anyone gave any info on this project or do we have to continue reading this sort of back and forth about heritage vs city building vs starchitect etc etc etc.

Your not going to convince each other to change sides, all your doing is filling the server with useless clips of witless witticisms - trying to outword or outsmart each other day after day after day.

Can we put a code word in the main title bar so we will know when something actually about this project is posted?
Click to expand...

Well, it's holiday season. You can't expect much until the new year--and besides, Council's recent decision is absolutely apropos to motivating such back-and-forthing, however much it aggravates you.

And BTW it's easy to "outword or outsmart" somebody who falls prey to the your/you're grammatical mixup in the post where I'm being accused thusly.
 
I was, I suspected, unduly harsh on Keesmatt a while back saying she should tackle big subjects constructively rather than retreating behind platitudes like density, height etc on the subject of M/G. Specifically I said she should stop droning on about bike lanes. For the record I support them but the topic shouldn't consume 75% of our Chief Planner's brainpower. Welllllll - today the G&M published "14 Ways to Fix the GTA in 2014". Some very innovative ideas from thought leaders around the city. I had high hopes for our Chief Planner. Her sole idea was......more Bike Lanes.
 
You mean the hundred-or-so-word tidbit in the Globe TO section? Funny, I read something about getting the private sector to help alleviate congestion by helping to fund infrastructure because it the benefits are to be felt by everyone.
 
For the record, if I may arbitrarily fuel detractors, Keesmaat is where she is because her husband played football with Rob Ford;-)
 
Canadian Chocho said:
You mean the hundred-or-so-word tidbit in the Globe TO section? Funny, I read something about getting the private sector to help alleviate congestion by helping to fund infrastructure because it the benefits are to be felt by everyone.
Click to expand...

Weak! See her quote in its entirety below:

"Jennifer Keesmaat, Chief Planner, City of Toronto

I’d like to have the private sector champion bike lanes by sponsoring specific stretches.

We know the private sector is very concerned about congestion. This is an opportunity for them to probably have the most profound impact on congestion of any initiative in the next five years. They can contribute to the health of their employees and increase quality of life in the city, which is really important to being able to attract workers, in particular that 18- to 34-year-old cohort.

The size of our planning team that works on cycling is tiny. So let’s double or quadruple our efforts. How? We need money to do the planning and money to implement the infrastructure. It’s about expediting and rolling out on a massive scale the implementation of our new bike-policy framework. I think it would be pretty difficult for council to turn down cycling infrastructure paid for by the private sector, I really do.

<DESTROYED>
 
Last edited:
Big Daddy said:
I'm no bored-kid-in-the-back-seat, but I am tired of reading your endless diatribe about.....nothing.

Does anyone gave any info on this project or do we have to continue reading this sort of back and forth about heritage vs city building vs starchitect etc etc etc.

Your not going to convince each other to change sides, all your doing is filling the server with useless clips of witless witticisms - trying to outword or outsmart each other day after day after day.

Can we put a code word in the main title bar so we will know when something actually about this project is posted?
Click to expand...


Couldn't agree more. Canadian Chocho and adma need to get off their high horses.
 
sorry to interrupt your argument but can someone tell me when is the next meeting related to this project?
 
ushahid said:
sorry to interrupt your argument but can someone tell me when is the next meeting related to this project?
Click to expand...

The working group is required to hold at least one public meeting. The panel's final recommendations are due to council in March, so my guess is that we should get new information in about 60 days or so from the meeting.

Food for thought - The planning report lists a number of concerns ranging from density to heritage preservation. The planners recommend towers no taller than 60-storeys along with incorporating the facades of the historic building. If Mirvish went with the densities recommended in the planning report but built two towers instead of three, it would result in the preservation of a couple if the heritage buildings and probably a couple supertalls...

I suspect the planning depart will still reject because they fear height. Supertalls don't make a city. I find the debates on the other skyscraper forums about which city has the tallest proposed buildings akin to a pissing match, but this fear of it in a city like Toronto is equally as silly.

All this debate is healthy. You're doing the right thing, Toronto!
 
Last edited:
"fedplanner: I suspect the planning depart will still reject because they fear height. Supertalls don't make a city. I find the debates on the other skyscraper forums about which city has the tallest proposed buildings akin to a pissing match, but this fear of it in a city like Toronto is equally as silly."

I agree with you fedplanner. This toronto planner obsession with making it about height OR context frustrating. I could list 100 places in the city where existing context should dominate. There are also places where height can occur. You are right, Supertalls dont make a city just like 7'0" players dont make a basketball team. But if the 7'0" is talented and used effectively its a plus.

Also lets face it - we're aren't Prague, Venice, St Petersberg, or even Montreal. We need to play to our strengths and a magnificent inventory of 18th century strcututes ain't there. Hmm, Id be interested in 85, 75, 65 stories. it would eliminate some density (for the density-obsessed) but still be dramatic, and toss a bone to the tapering crowd.
 
buildup said:
Weak! See her quote in its entirety below:

"Jennifer Keesmaat, Chief Planner, City of Toronto

I’d like to have the private sector champion bike lanes by sponsoring specific stretches.

<DESTROYED>
Click to expand...

I'm still bemused by the TO Plan Dept asking Mirvish to install 1,745 more car parking spaces!
 
Found a couple interesting interviews in which Gehry discusses urban planning, which he really doesn't seem to like much.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/01/frank-gehry-city-building/900/

Q: I feel that’s a problem with a lot of architectural photography because I’m more interested in the city- and neighborhood-level.

Gehry: I am too. I went to city planning at Harvard.

Q: And you quickly abandoned it.

Gehry: There was no work in it. It was all about statistics and government agencies. There’s a lot of layers of bureaucracy that make it impossible to do creative work in cities. Add that to the economic blindness of the people that build stuff. They just want to get it up and sell it. There’s no sense of responsibility for time and to the community. Somebody’s got to reeducate those people that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if they follow it. What we need is a benevolent dictator. That’s who built some of the best cities. So a Robert Moses, somebody with a vision. You don’t find many of them
Click to expand...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...gehry-dont-call-me-a-starchitect-1842870.html

But other charges are a little harder to dismiss – or at least they rile him rather more. Shouldn't he make some more socially relevant buildings? Aren't his designs too extravagant? Times are tough, after all. This lights the touchpaper as effectively as the s-word. "We are architects ... We serve customers!" he barks. "I can't just decide myself what's being built. Someone decides what they want, then I work for them. Look, I went to city planning school at Harvard and I discovered that you never got to change a fucking thing or do anything. Urban planning is dead in the US."

So that's urban planning dealt with.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top