Toronto Nobu Residences Toronto | 156.66m | 45s | Madison Group | Teeple Architects

This set of towers looks really great in the renderings, however I am still saddened that 1. There is no connecting bridge up top, and 2. they are the exact same height as the rest of the towers in this nbhd. Should there not be some points awarded for design that stands out in a good way? I realize the subjectivity but it would be a shame to not let our best towers show, in a city almost devoid of unconventional design.

I saw the connection forming an O as a gimmick and one that made the massing oppressive and wall like. It's too short of a span with too many floors to call it a bridged component. I like the patterned facade and the overall look of the towers but, I totally agree this is a long way from deserving any accolades for architectural excellence. The finer details are poorly handled from the bulky tower massings, the weak offsets, and the oppressive glass podium wall with some heritage facades tacked on to it.
 
ROM Crystal, Gehry AGO addition, Alsop OCAD box/stilts, QRC West, Foster Leslie Dan Pharmacy building, Daniels Faculty addition, Royal Bank Plaza, Bergeron Centre, 7 St. Thomas, Calatrava Brookfield Place galleria, 60 Richmond, Aga Khan Museum, Ryerson SLC, and I suppose the CN Tower, City Hall, Skydome, Casa Loma, Robarts, Village Green, and Gooderham building, while we're at it...

True, those are unconventional. I guess devoid is a strong term, I should have said lacking. I was thinking specifically in comparison to the forest of drab and plain, if not downright poorly designed towers that have gone up since the years of early Cityplace. Compare to say Oslo, Copenhagen, Chicago. All of those cities (and again this is subjective) have a much greater ratio of unconventional to conventional structures from my experience, esp. in their modern inventory.

Disclaimer: Before anyone mentions it, I am going to get in front of "the Dubai question". I am not looking for Dubai in the above. I don't want monolithic towers that scream "look at me", just something more fascinating than our current batch.
 
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I saw the connection forming an O as a gimmick and one that made the massing oppressive and wall like. It's too short of a span with too many floors to call it a bridged component. I like the patterned facade and the overall look of the towers but, I totally agree this is a long way from deserving any accolades for architectural excellence. The finer details are poorly handled from the bulky tower massings, the weak offsets, and the oppressive glass podium wall with some heritage facades tacked on to it.

I was actually thinking based on the design of the walls in the renderings, this build looks architecturally, (if not significant,) at least more interesting than most towers in the area. That's why I was hoping it would actually stand out a bit more. The podium I agree is a bit of a jumble and doesn't fit the rest of the tower. In my head I don't even see the podium unless I view the renderings on the property page in UT.
 
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Add this to your signature ADRM .... like a warm wind on a chilly day. Thanks.

ROM Crystal, Gehry AGO addition, Alsop OCAD box/stilts, QRC West, Foster Leslie Dan Pharmacy building, Daniels Faculty addition, Royal Bank Plaza, Bergeron Centre, 7 St. Thomas, Calatrava Brookfield Place galleria, 60 Richmond, Aga Khan Museum, Ryerson SLC, and I suppose the CN Tower, City Hall, Skydome, Casa Loma, Robarts, Village Green, and Gooderham building, while we're at it...
 
A lot of the buildings listed in his post are fairly conventional in terms of their structure and expression. But all of them certainly more unique than Nobu which is a very middle-of-the-road proposal with no innovation in terms of architecture, structure, materiality, etc.

Unless you think putting a gold film interlayer into a glazing product makes a project "innovative".
 
A lot of the buildings listed in his post are fairly conventional in terms of their structure and expression. But all of them certainly more unique than Nobu which is a very middle-of-the-road proposal with no innovation in terms of architecture, structure, materiality, etc.

Unless you think putting a gold film interlayer into a glazing product makes a project "innovative".

I'm not personally a big fan of gold, and to be honest didn't even know that was to be part of this building's design. I think one gold coloured building is enough for any city.

I was thinking more about whatever one might call those oscillating (is that the right word?) shapes of the facade from floor to floor. I think that's quite unique, interesting to the eye, and something I don't believe there are examples of in Toronto. (Am I wrong?)
 
I do not think that this is that unconventional by any means. I do appreciate the black and gold immensely. Colour is important. I’m glad it will add some variation.
 
From the front page story:

"The biggest revision is that the plan to create twin 49-storey towers has changed to twin 45-storey towers. While the towers' 156-metre height remains, the floor count has been reduced to allow for increased heights for several floors throughout the complex, including the towers’ upper floors where Nobu’s penthouse units will be located."

This raises a concern of random height differences throughout the towers that would take away from the otherwise pleasant appearance.
 
I found this nice video from Madison Youtube account.
It's another promotional video for their building.
I extracted 2 images from the video too.



nobu.jpg


nobu1.jpg
 

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I'm not personally a big fan of gold, and to be honest didn't even know that was to be part of this building's design. I think one gold coloured building is enough for any city.

I was thinking more about whatever one might call those oscillating (is that the right word?) shapes of the facade from floor to floor. I think that's quite unique, interesting to the eye, and something I don't believe there are examples of in Toronto. (Am I wrong?)

I love that it will be black / gold or black / bronze! Even setting aside personal preference, it could be brown and puke green and I'd just be over the moon that it wasn't blue, green glass, or grey spandrel.
 
full circle

bronze whine to green whine to grey whine ... back to bronze whine?
 

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