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

Today.
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Yegger said:
As a person who rents at the Madison, I find the lobby so well-designed that people (residents and visitors) end up wanting to hang out there. It's nice to have a lobby that is conducive to social interactions or even a place to hang out while waiting on your uber etc. Definitely from a buyer's standpoint, a lobby is an important consideration as you see it everytime you walk in the building. The lobby design at 1 bloor would irritate me every time lol
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I was at the meeting where it was said that a large lobby is expensive to maintain and not needed. Excuses will not get them anywhere. If you are into performing arts, you may know an expression "a theatre starts with its cloakroom." I believe that condo starts with a lobby, it is a first impression of the building, a place where you feel what it is like to be in the building. You may need to wait there for a delivery, taxi, or friend... In the original artistic rendering the lobby conveys a relaxed fantasylike atmosphere. This impression was also created in their sales office on Bloor. There was even an electronic pond, trees, everything was done to create a relaxing luxurious ambiance contrasting to the street. Why did their marketing team bother with that if it is not important? Now we have a small hectic lobby. And the building is not fully occupied yet, and there is crowding by the elevator. No, it is not pleasant. The lobby should be at the very least adequate to the number of residents. Ambiance and design aside, what will happen when people will be waiting for a non-working elevator? I would award to 1 Bloor St. a " Worst Condo Lobby" design award... just based on the respective sizes of the building and the lobby. These have to correlate at least. And psychological unpleasant effects of crowding are also well known. You also get physically pushed when people are trying to get into elevators facing each other (there are elevators on both sides of this narrow corridor) and people are getting out of these elevators at the same time. It is similar to the subway in the rush hours.

The narrow elevator corridor should have been compensated by an inviting design and larger size of the lobby. And if not larger size, this building deserves at least some kind of a "wow" element in the lobby, something that would surprise and take attention away from the size.
 
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It's just a poor design functionally and aesthetically. I wouldn't be surprised down the road if the board/owners end up renovating it, sort of like what happened with Thompson Hotel.

Still, you figure when you buy a condo the one thing you don't have to worry about them screwing up is the lobby.

As far as the wait times I find that there could be a bit of a wait for the elevators and the building is not fully occupied yet.
 
TheKingEast said:
It's just a poor design functionally and aesthetically. I wouldn't be surprised down the road if the board/owners end up renovating it, sort of like what happened with Thompson Hotel.

Still, you figure when you buy a condo the one thing you don't have to worry about them screwing up is the lobby.

As far as the wait times I find that there could be a bit of a wait for the elevators and the building is not fully occupied yet.
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The developer is simply greedy. They cut corners and did not bother with details since it was sold already. I feel that I did not get what was advertised. As for a renovation...it would be too expensive. The building is largely investor occupied and rents would not cover it. Then if you think of this year living in a construction zone and this is still ongoing in the forceable future, I would not rush into signing up for an extensive renovation any time soon. It would be simpler to move...
 
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A class action lawsuit against the developer might be an option depending on how far what was delivered diverges from what was promised and what caveats were used in the sales stage.
 
junctionist said:
A class action lawsuit against the developer might be an option depending on how far what was delivered diverges from what was promised and what caveats were used in the sales stage.
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They most likely had disclaimers, such as "artistic impressions only" etc, everyone has these, and it is not expected that reality would replicate the advertising. Yet, marketing cannot be deceptive. The concept that they were selling could be entiteled "Luxurious Urban Oasis", this was the impression created by the sales office and artistic renderings, (and prices). There is nothing in the building right now that conveys that concept. As soon as you walk in the lobby it feels like a crowded, noisy, and hectic subway station or a train station. The current lobby has some actual resemblance to the artistic rendering although substantially simplified. I feel deceived in this case, however, because the entire concept somehow disappeared and was replaced with an unpleasant opposite.

I would prefer that the Board would work with the builder to rectify this situation. May be Great Gulf's designers could improve something even at this stage. I am not sure if they would be willing to do that but it was also marketed as a very special address and important corner, and right now the lobby is conveying that it is just another ordinary condo at a convenient location. Nothing special about it. I think Great Gulf did not measure up and did not use the full potential of this building. Surely they made a lot of profit though considering "luxury prices" of the presale.
 
Yes, it's not inviting at all. I was shocked and disappointed when I first saw it and initially thought it was temporary and would be expanded once construction was finished. Compare this lobby to the beautiful, stylish and expansive one's in the new condos like the CASA's along Charles a block away.
 
TheSix said:
No one wants lobbies anymore? I wonder where this research came from....

I would love to see a cost analysis comparing a lobby that is 10' wider to the building's other amenities, like the hot tubs, indoor pool, multiple outdoor pools, steam rooms, saunas, and the list goes on.... I cannot imagine the lobby was the key factor in keeping the building's condo fees down (for 1000+ residents sharing the space daily). It was so expensive that they had to make it as uncomfortable as possible? Considering the price-point and location, this was clearly a very bad call. In my opinion, a lobby can make or break a building as it's your first impression. This would be a deal breaker for me.
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If they got rid of that funky wall décor on both sides of the elevator lobby, you could gain at least 8" more width. Not huge but everything helps.
 
alenka said:
They most likely had disclaimers, such as "artistic impressions only" etc, everyone has these, and it is not expected that reality would replicate the advertising. Yet, marketing cannot be deceptive. The concept that they were selling could be entiteled "Luxurious Urban Oasis", this was the impression created by the sales office and artistic renderings, (and prices). There is nothing in the building right now that conveys that concept. As soon as you walk in the lobby it feels like a crowded, noisy, and hectic subway station or a train station. The current lobby has some actual resemblance to the artistic rendering although substantially simplified. I feel deceived in this case, however, because the entire concept somehow disappeared and was replaced with an unpleasant opposite.

I would prefer that the Board would work with the builder to rectify this situation. May be Great Gulf's designers could improve something even at this stage. I am not sure if they would be willing to do that but it was also marketed as a very special address and important corner, and right now the lobby is conveying that it is just another ordinary condo at a convenient location. Nothing special about it. I think Great Gulf did not measure up and did not use the full potential of this building. Surely they made a lot of profit though considering "luxury prices" of the presale.
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At some point, "artistic impression only" fails to get you off the hook. It's one thing for the aesthetic qualities of a rendering to vary from the actual finishes. It's quite another to advertise common spaces that don't exist in the final product.
 
junctionist said:
At some point, "artistic impression only" fails to get you off the hook. It's one thing for the aesthetic qualities of a rendering to vary from the actual finishes. It's quite another to advertise common spaces that don't exist in the final product.
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Ok, so what advertised common space doesn't exist? Various ground floor plans have existed in the public record for years, they show the precise dimensions of what was delivered. Just because *some* purchasers were not diligent enough to find them doesn't mean they are justified in a class action lawsuit. That idea is comical at best.
 
Nastapoka said:
Ok, so what advertised common space doesn't exist? Various ground floor plans have existed in the public record for years, they show the precise dimensions of what was delivered. Just because *some* purchasers were not diligent enough to find them doesn't mean they are justified in a class action lawsuit. That idea is comical at best.
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I'm just a member of the public with no interest in the project. I'm merely discussing the topic with people with actual knowledge of the project. All I know is that if I were told by someone representing the builder like a sales rep that there would be a spacious lobby and I didn't get that, I'd want to recover that value that I didn't receive. However, the damages I could recover might be too small to proceed with a lawsuit on my own. On the other hand, a class of 600 owners would provide a much more viable vehicle for litigation. The Class Proceedings Act comes in handy in situations like this hypothetical situation.
 
junctionist said:
I'm just a member of the public with no interest in the project. I'm merely discussing the topic with people with actual knowledge of the project. All I know is that if I were told by someone representing the builder like a sales rep that there would be a spacious lobby and I didn't get that, I'd want to recover that value that I didn't receive. However, the damages I could recover might be too small to proceed with a lawsuit on my own. On the other hand, a class of 600 owners would provide a much more viable vehicle for litigation. The Class Proceedings Act comes in handy in situations like this hypothetical situation.
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The building meeting illuminated tons of deficiencies, the revolving door is going to be changed into a vestibule because they failed to account for the impact of stack effect on the elevators, the elevators themselves have been prone to failure, and the balconies still have some glass missing in-between units and on the balconies themselves. Owners also complained of air being pushed into their units moving their welcome mats and paintings.

The fire alarms were also awful but I admit that they've gotten better.

All of that coupled with the poorly designed lobby could be included in a class-action suit, and if I were an owner would be something I would be considering. In fairness to GG, these were things they brought up at the meeting (probably because there were multiple complaints.)
 
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TheKingEast said:
As for this lobby, I hate it. It is a terrible design and the furniture (they spent 10s of thousands on it according to GG) is bad. I pretty much like everything else about the building but lobby is a big sticking point with me.
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FYI, those chairs cost $50,000 each according to GG.
 
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