Toronto Mirvish Village (Honest Ed's Redevelopment) | 85.04m | 26s | Westbank | Henriquez Partners

MisterF said:
I don't believe that investors would be any more hesitant to buy units in a colourful building. The more colourful parts of the city are the most popular. Besides, this is a rental building.
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So is The Selby though. And it's red! :)
 
MisterF said:
I don't believe that investors would be any more hesitant to buy units in a colourful building. The more colourful parts of the city are the most popular. Besides, this is a rental building.
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Most people have conservative tastes. If builders knew buyers would pay more for orange buildings, every new development would be orange.
 
TheKingEast said:
Most people have conservative tastes. If builders knew buyers would pay more for orange buildings, every new development would be orange.
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The thing is, buyers would pay more for colours and quality. The problem is, the demand in this city is ridiculous to the point that there are many more buyers who are willing to buy crap just to either have a roof over their head, or rent it out to those who need a roof over their head. That combined with the fact the many buyers/renters dont look carefully at the materials being used when searching for their residence.

Developers know it, and they are exploiting it to the fullest. The best part is, the province allows developers to produce the blandest products possible since they are in bed with developers.

What we're seeing here with Westbank is one of the very few rare exceptions in this city.
 
TheKingEast said:
Most people have conservative tastes. If builders knew buyers would pay more for orange buildings, every new development would be orange.
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By that same logic, most people would avoid parks, clear days and sunsets, because the colours might cramp these conservative tastes.
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
By that same logic, most people would avoid parks, clear days and sunsets, because the colours might cramp these conservative tastes.
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Many Canadians depend on real estate as an investment, not as much as a home (like Europe). IMO, this is why we don't see much colour. "I'd love an orange kitchen, but we'll have trouble selling it in 2 years when we want to cash in. Lets go with the white cabinets."
 
WeirdFishes said:
Many Canadians depend on real estate as an investment, not as much as a home (like Europe). IMO, this is why we don't see much colour. "I'd love an orange kitchen, but we'll have trouble selling it in 2 years when we want to cash in. Lets go with the white cabinets."
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While plausible (depending on individual buyers), I suspect the more colourless stuff is easier and cheaper to produce. So it's likely more a supply than a demand issue.

...nor does that really stop an orange building from having white kitchen cabinets.
 
 
i haven't been following this project at all and wow do i have to say it's shaping up nicely! The streetwall and materials are great and the way the new build ties in with existing buildings is well done. Such a breath of fresh air to see the Well and this create / build on successful neighbourhoods.
 
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Would be nice if they eventually installed seating on both banks: wrapping around from 3rd base to home plate to 1st base. Add some food trucks and it would be a great little neighbourhood ballpark.
 
The redesign of Bloor is a big improvement over what existed before (4 lanes of car traffic), but it will need to be redone a 2nd time. There's simply not enough room for on street parking. There's a subway running along Bloor so this is the least car dependent stretch of road in the city. If we're serious about pedestrianizing, downtown streets like this need the following:

- 2 lanes of traffic and no sections where an extra left hand turn lane appears (if driver's don't like it they can walk/bike//take TTC)
- no on street parking whatsoever
- 2 lanes of 100% separated bike lanes.
- 1 fewer car lane means one can have wider sidewalks on both sides
- better landscaping
- same pavers used on sidewalk and car lane
- on some streets no step down from sidewalk to road

We seem to be in an awkward period where we want to leave that car-centric world behind us but haven't fully committed to a pedestrian-centric world. We're trying to do both. On wide arterial roads that's possible but on busy narrow streets like this, we need to build and design for people first. If there's room left over for a car, fine. If there's not, you simply don't accommodate it. Businesses argue that they'll lose business if you get rid of on street parking but they're looking at it backwards. Foot traffic would be much higher if it was a nicer place for pedestrians. They're losing business because of the on street parking.
 
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