Toronto One Bedford | ?m | 32s | Lanterra | KPMB

[whatever]

/\ Another informative post.

It seems to me that the more we ensconce our little campus in towers, the more we value the incredible space that it is. In much the same way that Bryant Park is that much more valuable because of its lofty environs, I feel that a castle-wall of towers around this little urban courtyard could do much for our understanding of the space itself. With the aA quadruplets and G+C runts on Bay, the CCBR and Pharmacy Building to the south, Mosaic (shudder) to the west and One Bedford and Museum Haus to the north, it seems all we need is a moat.

I agree with you about the effect of most of the surrounding towers. I love walking through the back campus of University College with the Yonge/Bloor skyline in the background, just as I like being in the front campus and seeing the Bay/College cluster. My issue with One Bedford does mostly pertain to the N/S axis lining up with University College, and it's for two reasons.

a) It's a single, isolated point tower, so has no context of its own. This is the sore-thumbiness I'm referring to.

b) I like seeing the clusters juxtaposed against the campus setting, but in the two cases I mentioned there's a visual break between the foreground and the background. From some perspectives you see the clusters rise out of the treetops, and from other perspectives you see the background high-rise cluster arising in various places from the midst of a foreground mid-rise cluster, with pleasing effect. With One Bedford (seen from the south, along King's College Road) it rises very starkly from the long, flat roofline of University College, making it look like a tacked on addition to the building. It's made even worse by the total disconnect between the forms, shapes and materials of the two buildings.

Now that it's there I recognize it's not going anywhere, so I think the best possible solution would be to improve the context of the point tower by allowing additional point towers nearby. Ideally they would be something other than a glass box, maybe something to create a visual compromise between University College and One Bedford (even darker glass on One Bedford would have helped, or if they had oriented the precast bands to the south)

 

[Ramako]

Does anyone have any photos of this compromised view corridor? I wonder if Museum House will also come into view to mitigate some of the effect.

 

[Silence&Motion]

Walking up King's College circle today made me decide that I hate this tower. It's architecturally banal. It's obnoxiously placed. It looks like a slack-jawed teenager who accidentally walked in on someone's wedding picture.

And just wait until they add the horizontal fin on the roof. Then it will be a slack-jawed teenager wearing a baseball cap. If they were going to be peaking over the shoulder of University College, the least they could do would be to add vertical rooftop elements to complement the spikes on UC, Hart House, and other U of T buildings.

I appreciate the "cozy" feel when you look east from King's College toward Bay Street. And One Bedford would be fine if it fit into an entire skyline running along Bloor. However, I fear there is very limited potential for developing that stretch any higher than it already is. From Bedford to Spadina, Bloor is filled with heritage architecture that shouldn't be demolished, and mid-rise buildings that won't be demolished any time soon.

 

[buildup]

A very unfortunate angle, I think One Bedford caught us all off guard. That said, we are discussing a distance of about 4 city blocks. It is almost certain any new tower will spoil some view within such a radius.

But your funny analogy makes up for all that.

 

[Silence&Motion]

What's really unfortunate is that one of the most iconic views in the entire city happened to be within that 4 block radius. This really puts a damper on all the great work they put into the entrance at College St. and Kings College Rd.

Thank God for photoshop. I assume the PR department at U of T will be making use of it to crop One Bedford out of any promotional shots.

 

[Ramako]

What's really unfortunate is that one of the most iconic views in the entire city happened to be within that 4 block radius. This really puts a damper on all the great work they put into the entrance at College St. and Kings College Rd.

Thank God for photoshop. I assume the PR department at U of T will be making use of it to crop One Bedford out of any promotional shots.

Most promotional shots of the college are from up close. I wonder how prominent One Bedford would be in that case.

 

[steveve]

wow!... this building is really visible from far away!

Anyone know how many floors are left?

 

[newuser2k9]

A very unfortunate angle, I think One Bedford caught us all off guard. That said, we are discussing a distance of about 4 city blocks. It is almost certain any new tower will spoil some view within such a radius.

But your funny analogy makes up for all that.

I agree. It is very, very bad. The only plus side is that high-rise development on Bloor W. of Avenue has to start somewhere, so once the whole street is built up it won't look out of place.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Unfortunately, we lost the view up Bay Street from the lake when ROCP was built behind the campanile of Old City Hall. But heritage views - up University Avenue to the Provincial Legislature and across Nathan Phillips Square to City Hall - are worth saving, since civic buildings like these have symbolic meaning that puts them in a class of their own that ought not to be compromised by condo and hotel towers. We rightfully won the battle against the proposed ROM condo - which would have invaded the grounds of the Forbidden City like a barbarian. But One Bedford isn't within the Forbidden City, and this college building - beloved though it is - isn't a seat of government. I think there has to be a point at which we accept that the ring of buildings that increasingly surrounds the Forbidden City actually reinforces its status as something unique. I think One Bedford is part of that process.

 

[whatever]

And one day, once that wall of urbanity is cohesive enough to have a context of its own, One Bedford will be an admired aspect of that. Until then, it's an obnoxious intrusion.

And I actually believe that RoCP is less intrusive on the campanile than One Bedford is on University College. At least RoCP is somewhat centered on the campanile, so that on a quick glance it reads as a background to Old City Hall rather than a cancerous growth

 

[Traynor]

...But heritage views - up University Avenue to the Provincial Legislature and across Nathan Phillips Square to City Hall - are worth saving, since civic buildings like these have symbolic meaning that puts them in a class of their own that ought not to be compromised by condo and hotel towers...

I humbly disagree. Toronto is the capital of Ontario and Canada's largest city. When people see photographs of our seats of government, I want them to know this fact. I want it to be glaringly obvious that we are a massive metropolis.

The view of the Main Legislative building from College Street could be Regina or Flin Flon Manitoba for that matter. The view of City Hall from the south side of Queen Street could be in some Norwegian city.

I would prefer if there were a wall of skyscrapers behind these buildings to remind the world of Toronto's development.

Additionally (just as an example), the beauty and wonder of Central Park in New York is magnified by the walls of skyscrapers that surround it. It's what makes the park even more special. I propose that with proper development the same could be said of Kings College Circle, U of T in General, Nathan Phillip's and Queen's Park.

 

[adma]

Additionally (just as an example), the beauty and wonder of Central Park in New York is magnified by the walls of skyscrapers that surround it. It's what makes the park even more special. I propose that with proper development the same could be said of Kings College Circle, U of T in General, Nathan Phillip's and Queen's Park.

Yeah sure, but such "proper development" would involve unnecessary heritage demolitions in a lot of those cases...

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

I noticed this several weeks ago when I was at the Nicotine Clinic on College Street. I walked up afterward to observe it and decided I wasn't bothered by it. When I look at the photo above it seems to me that One Bedford is more intrusive than it really is as the picture focuses on the intrusion. When I viewed Kings College Circle as a whole I thought it was not as intrusive as highrises beyond many U of T buildings sit off into the distance depending on where your standing. The view corridors behind many historic buildings here were lost decades ago.

 

[junctionist]

First of all, University College is just as significant as our government buildings. It is the symbolic landmark of our most prominent academic institution. Academia carries on the humanist traditions which have developed our core ideals of government. Its buildings deserve utmost respect. Given the built form of Bloor, it just doesn't look like this tower will be joined by a large cluster of towers creating a unified urban background with the likes of the Gooderham House at St. George and Bloor the U of T midrise buildings, and also a park.

This caught me by surprise given the lack of complaints about this, but it has surely inspired the movement to protect the Queen's Park corridor from awkward intrusions. We should also have an inventory of view corridors.

 

[buildup]

In my view this is about maintaining some sense of history and permanence. We love new developments, but it is important to have certain parts of a city that are enduring, where site-lines are much as they were in earlier times. There are many views in & around of UoT that are roughly unchanged since WW1.

But i also agree with Shocker, its the enclosing effect of the residential towers ringing Central Park that define the Park. Otherwise its just a patch of grass with cosmetic enhancements a la Olmstead.