toto
Active Member
I would prefer a building that adds character to the neighbourhood, over a taller glass box. I think Trump would have looked good here. At least it would have been more visible here, than its current location.
One Bloor East | 257.24m | 76s | Great Gulf | Hariri Pontarini
- Thread starter iSlutsky
- Start date
I would prefer a building that adds character to the neighbourhood, over a taller glass box. I think Trump would have looked good here. At least it would have been more visible here, than its current location.
TonyV
Senior Member
Well I won't look for your rubuttal elsewhere, and I won't go into OT either. I'll merely mention that aA has designed Ice and Market Wharf, and have given us that gorgeous angle at Parliament and (?) sts. in Distillery District --- they're not always about straight-up glass boxes. I hope to see glass, with a new twist, at Y&B. They really can think outside the box.
marcus_a_j
Senior Member
This location needs a formidable podium that will animate the intersection and add life. It's unfortunate the hotel component is not happening. I would like to see a flagship store occupy the entire retail area (or at least 80% with a second retail space) instead of it being chopped up into many spaces. For comparison, Aura will have 180,000 sf of retail.
Within the Y-B area, off the top of my head aA has done 18 Yorkville, Casa, U, and X. How do these not vary in design? I would expect something different by aA at 1BE as well (if they were designing it).
Within the Y-B area, off the top of my head aA has done 18 Yorkville, Casa, U, and X. How do these not vary in design? I would expect something different by aA at 1BE as well (if they were designing it).
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Urban Shocker
Doyenne
aA takes a basic form - the wraparound, anorexic point tower - and varies the skin. Their towers punctuate our skyline and are recognizable enough - though KPMB's Maple Leaf Square twins are of the ilk. Ice will be another variation on the theme, and another non-rectilinear tower they've designed is Waalpanorama - for the lucky Dutch. With Clewes, perhaps there's the inspiration of Peter Dickinson's sleek CIBC tower in Montreal to thank for all of this.
Bob
New Member
Why is every one assuming that it aA? You should not jump to conclusions.
SP!RE
°°°°°°
It's Hariri Pontarini. How has that already been overlooked so many times?!
Mike in TO
Senior Member
This may not be the popular sentiment for the skyscraper geeks around here - but the first five floors and the interface with the pedestrian realm is far more important in terms of urban characteristics and value for Torontonians then if the tower is 800, 900 or 1,000 feet tall.
Torontovibe
Senior Member
100,000sf seems kinda small for the corner of Yonge & Bloor. That intersection needs some serious retail with a great design. A small retail podium would be a huge mistake.
maestro
Senior Member
70,000 or 100,000 is a fair bit of retail but , I'm not big on an internal mall setup here either. The average condo development with grade retail has between 1000 to 5000 square feet.
alklay
Senior Member
This is popular with me!
ganjavih
Senior Member
Me too.
hkric88
Active Member
Can't we have both? Is it so much to ask?
wonderboy416
Active Member
I agree, how it meets the street is going to be the most important factor.
Even a 750-footer is going to make a huge impact in this location. I'm normally a huge fan of height, but it's not going to take much to stick out well above the surrounding towers, I'd almost rather they not be dwarfed as it will make the area seem smaller from a distance (just look at what the CN Tower does to our CBD).
A huge retail component would be great, would love to see a Maison Simons here, then I wouldn't have to visit Montreal every summer
Parkdalian
Active Member
Back on topic a little: I passed by the site today and the little digger was tootling around the site, preparing the ground for the sales office.
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waterloowarrior
Senior Member
1 Bloor East will rise again, this time to 67 storeys
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...again-this-time-to-67-storeys/article1454137/
Great Gulf Group plans to start selling condos in the spring in the tower that will rise from ashes of former owner's failed deal
Kelly Grant
Toronto — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published on Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2010 12:19AM EST
A curvy 65-storey condominium could be coming to 1 Bloor East, site of a much-hyped hotel-condo project that fell apart when a Kazakhstan-based developer lost financing.
The new plan envisions a tower with 687 units atop a two-storey, 104,000-square-foot retail podium, according to a site plan application submitted to the city's planning department Friday. It also includes four floors of amenities for residents – possibly including a spa – on top of the stores.
The luxury hotel envisioned by the site's former owner, Bazis International Inc., is no longer part of the plan.
Toronto firm Hariri Pontarini is designing the proposed tower at the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor streets, but the architects have yet to formally unveil drawings.
Great Gulf Group, which bought the site last summer, aims to start pre-selling condos at 1 Bloor East in the spring.
“We'll be going to sale within the next 60 days,” said Bruce Freeman, vice-president of the development company.
The fate of the vacant lot at one of the city's most-important intersections was uncertain after Bazis International's partner in the land deal, Lehman Brothers, went bankrupt.
Bazis sold the property to Great Gulf to keep it out of receivership.
Buyers and real-estate agents camped out for days in 2007 when the original condo was meant to rise to 80 storeys, which at the time would have made it Canada's tallest residential building. Prices ranged from $400,000 to $1-million. Bazis returned deposits to those buyers last fall.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...again-this-time-to-67-storeys/article1454137/
Great Gulf Group plans to start selling condos in the spring in the tower that will rise from ashes of former owner's failed deal
Kelly Grant
Toronto — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published on Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2010 12:19AM EST
A curvy 65-storey condominium could be coming to 1 Bloor East, site of a much-hyped hotel-condo project that fell apart when a Kazakhstan-based developer lost financing.
The new plan envisions a tower with 687 units atop a two-storey, 104,000-square-foot retail podium, according to a site plan application submitted to the city's planning department Friday. It also includes four floors of amenities for residents – possibly including a spa – on top of the stores.
The luxury hotel envisioned by the site's former owner, Bazis International Inc., is no longer part of the plan.
Toronto firm Hariri Pontarini is designing the proposed tower at the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor streets, but the architects have yet to formally unveil drawings.
Great Gulf Group, which bought the site last summer, aims to start pre-selling condos at 1 Bloor East in the spring.
“We'll be going to sale within the next 60 days,” said Bruce Freeman, vice-president of the development company.
The fate of the vacant lot at one of the city's most-important intersections was uncertain after Bazis International's partner in the land deal, Lehman Brothers, went bankrupt.
Bazis sold the property to Great Gulf to keep it out of receivership.
Buyers and real-estate agents camped out for days in 2007 when the original condo was meant to rise to 80 storeys, which at the time would have made it Canada's tallest residential building. Prices ranged from $400,000 to $1-million. Bazis returned deposits to those buyers last fall.
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