Toronto One Bloor East | 257.24m | 76s | Great Gulf | Hariri Pontarini

[dt_toronto_geek]

Too bad so much focus on page after page of complaining about a design not shown yet..true. But remember Torontonians and Canadians in general do not like change nor anything too modern/too outstanding/too spectacular. A lot of people here still hang on to the architecture of the 70's...those concrete slabs you see throughout the city and/or boring non inspiring architecture/buildings. We like to tread lightly...safely...and yes..not in my backyard syndrome as Hume says constantly.
Knowing GGH's past and current projects (especially X) I think we may well be in for a very sharp building/project. Lets be positve before thinking negatively.

Respectfully, I can't say I agree with your assessment in the first paragraph, in fact, I think most who are engaged in what is happening around them in Toronto excitedly embrace interesting or daring architecture. If this board is any indication look at how projects like AGO, Spire, Trump, OCAD, Casa, projects in the Distillery District, X, RCM, TIFF plans for the waterfront and a host of other projects including some knockout mid-rises have been embraced and how mediocre projects have been trashed.
I do agree that GG gives me a good feeling about One Bloor East given their track record, I hope we're not disappointed.

 

[Traynor]

Well Despair, I DID write to the president of GG many months ago. I did not implore them to build taller but 'better'. Height is fun but not the end-all be-all of my requirements for good architecture.

I will spare you my original e-mail where I wax poetic, but here is his thoughtful response:

Thanks so much for your note. We are very excited to be the developers at Number One Bloor. At this point we are working to finalize our plans and hope to be in a position in the next couple of months to have something available. Although we will not likely go to the 80 storeys of the previous plan, it will be a design worthy of this prestigious corner. I will keep you informed of our progress, particularity given your keen interest in both architecture and our city of Toronto.

Regards,

Jerry Patava

Judging from your posts, you are most likely a staunch pragmatist, yet if it weren't for the visionaries, we would have thatched roof huts and grassland. So despite the fact you love to disparage imagination, step on dreams and mock those with vision, it is they who transcend the ordinary.

Furthermore, you will note that I did not take a passive stance in the process of developing this site. Sure, all I did was write an e-mail, but it was better than most on sites like this have done. I posit that if more people wrote e-mails then true change could be affected.

 

[alklay]

Canadians tend to love "modern/outstanding/spectacular" buildings. They simply are not given enough of them by developers and institutions. Heck, the OCAD building has become a new Toronto favourite. And the CN Tower is loved by all.

I have yet to see any evidence that "modern/outstanding/spectacular" buildings are less embraced here than in any other western nation. (and yes, there are complainers, but there are complainers everywhere).

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Good for you for doing that Traynor - so why keep on harping about this issue when you haven't seen a rendering?

Judging from your posts, you are most likely a staunch pragmatist, yet if it weren't for the visionaries, we would have thatched roof huts and grassland. So despite the fact you love to disparage imagination, step on dreams and mock those with vision, it is they who transcend the ordinary.

Furthermore, you will note that I did not take a passive stance in the process of developing this site. Sure, all I did was write an e-mail, but it was better than most on sites like this have done. I posit that if more people wrote e-mails then true change could be affected.

Just because I don't complain about everything 10x in each thread does mean I don't have a vision - in fact, what you have communicated so far is posting after posting of complaints - which is not the same as "vision". Demonstrate to me how you have been able to "transcend the ordinary" so far, if you may, since you are so intent on suggesting to the rest of us who dare to have a dose of pragmatism in order to ensure visions turn into realities and not empty rhetoric are somehow incapable of "transcending the ordinary"? Or those of us who think critically to identify roadblocks and shortcomings, which are abound, in order for visions to be achieved, are somehow less worthy?

And please, considering you don't know us in person, much less having been on UT for that long, I wouldn't be so quick to presume what we have and haven't done. Some of us has been going to public meetings on our own time and expressing our views in various endevaours in the city for years, oh let's just say since the start of UT or even before.

AoD

 

[Big Daddy]

I don't see this as 'complaining' so much as apprehension....
Yonge/Bloor however is a site that comes with expectations, as with Yonge/Dundas and as with the Waterfront and several other notable sites. This is where people want to see something stirring, something ambitious, and something of the monumental that ultimately will make a statement about us and about now, even if the statement itself is nothing other than an affirmation of ambition, optimism, innovation or creativity. In fact, find me another significant architectural landmark in the city that isn't a statement of one of those things... and where's the harm? As long as the bulk of what we build is of the kind of high quality, functional and sustainable type of design that makes our city liveable and makes our city 'work' what's wrong with an occassional flourish? As with the Arts or any other cultural expression good design is not always only about function and bottom-line, and thank God this is so, otherwise all of our civic and public buildings and spaces end up looking like the new Canada Pavilian at the Vancouver Olympics. This might please a small minority of the most practical amongst us but will hardly capture the imagination of the rest.

Let’s face it, the endless grumblings over a design that hasn't yet been revealed are less gratuitous than one may think, a sign of the frustration we feel that projects at prominent sites are not fulfilling the expectations of these opportunities, but wasting them as we read here time and again: When we look for tall we never get spectacularly tall; When we look for innovation we get little more than a twist on a box; When we look for quality materials we get boring glass, green or otherwise; When we look to our urban realm we get leaning hydro poles, broken sidewalks and weeds; When we look for a modern sustainable city we get a broken and compromised transit infrastructure. The image of the city that is being built in this generation is in many ways lagging behind the optimistic and ambitious image this generation of people in Toronto have of themselves and it is this disconnect that leads us to feel apprehensive about the pending design of One Bloor.

Very, very well put - you have captured the true essence of all the grumblings:

- This is a very important location (if the main intersection in Mississauga could command an international design competition – surely Yonge and Bloor would almost demand one)
- Its disturbing that GG could purchase this site in late July and have a “design†with working drawings ready before the year was out – how much thought went into whatever design they threw together?
- We are tired of the endless "just OK" buildings that are constantly fed to us – (I’m sorry but the “X†is just not inspiring nor innovative – Mies van der Rohe was building flat square boxes 40 year ago – IBM Plaza in Chicago – TD Centre in Toronto – Seagram Bldg in New York - Westmount Square in Montreal etc.)

We need / desire something fresh and exciting here – something that will make a positive statement about the future of Toronto – not just another apartment building.

 

[Redroom Studios]

agree with both the quote and post above! I'm worried for you though Big Daddy - there might be quite a backlash from the usual suspects. Keep your hard hat within reach...

 

[auratic]

I was being facetious. I was waxing poetic in order to hit you with the humourous denouement: "We will get a boob." (The only part of my post you omitted.)

I'm sorry my humour was lost on you.

Oh sorry, my mistake. The language does bear a striking resemblance to other postings of yours full of somewhat overcooked clarion calls to ‘men of vision’ and ‘men who must lead’ and the like. I assume you’re including yourself in that category….

 

[yyzer]

mmm, this thread has gone silly...............I suggest we just wait a few weeks and see what happens.......

 

[casaguy]

From Casaguy's new place...

 

[yyzer]

Nice view Casaguy!!!

 

[Edward Skira]

I guess we're going to have to keep you happy going forward! Got to make sure we get regular One Bloor construction shots from you. Amazing vantage point.

 

[toto]

Nice view of everything except the back 5 floors of the Uptown.

 

[Tewder]

Yes, and are there any suggestion so far that this project won't be transforming the city in an ambitious and spectacular way ike X, etc, etc)?

... well yes, which was sort of the reason for my post, please reread. Also, Is 'X' really transformative or spectacular in any momumental sense? I would say no, even if I do like it.

And just how did the Bazis proposal (or heck, even the Kolter one) do so, in spite of the clearly inferior architectural qualities? I didn't hear anyone wax poetic about the lackings of those two, even though their inferiority it is clear to trained eyes.

Oh I wouldn't defend the Bazis proposal either! To do so would merely be resigning oneself to the lesser of two lacklustre options, sort of like preferring the Rogers makeover to the original Olympic Spirit which any way you look at it is simply lipstick on a pig... especially given the opportunity and the expectations of the context.

Are this "we" going to get involved in the private business and dictate to them the expectations on them, beyond what is legitimately within the capacity of the local planning authority, that they were to build higher than what makes business sense? Are this "we" going to pay the increased taxes required to fund these ventures, empower the authories to intrude on domains it never have jurisdiction over?

AoD

We wont get better unless we demand it, whatever the context or specifics.... and yes in fact it is 'us' or the consumer or the public or the taxpayer that does get to dictate its expectations, through its spending power, through its collective voice and through its vote which are very influential platforms indeed. This attitude of defeated resignation that 'any old shite will do and we should be grateful for it' is exactly what is at fault here.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Oh I wouldn't defend the Bazis proposal either! To do so would merely be resigning oneself to the lesser of two lacklustre options, sort of like preferring the Rogers makeover to the original Olympic Spirit which any way you look at it is simply lipstick on a pig... especially given the opportunity and the expectations of the context.

That's funny - you are accusing one project of being lacklustre in spite of knowing absolutely nothing about it other than height and the architect involved. Please enlighten me how you come to such conclusions?

We wont get better unless we demand it, whatever the context or specifics.... and yes in fact it is 'us' or the consumer or the public or the taxpayer that does get to dictate its expectations, through its spending power, through its collective voice and through its vote which are very influential platforms indeed. This attitude of defeated resignation that 'any old shite will do and we should be grateful for it' is exactly what is at fault here.

Why you are faulting some consumers of chosing utility for themselves other than for you? I hate to bring you into the discussion, but just how has your current place of residence serves what you have just said, for example? I am genuinely interested in how your reconcile what you demand of others to what you have chosen to give back to "the public".

AoD

 

[Solaris]

From Casaguy's new place...

nice view casaguy ... hope you're enjoying your Casa condo (quality is satisfactory I hope?)