Toronto Pan Am Village in the West Don Lands | ?m | ?s | DundeeKilmer | KPMB

[bmiller]

It looks a lot like 60's East German / Kremlin construction. Grey and boring. Maybe the idea is to lull the out of country athletes into a boring stupor, so our own will be able to best them and win all the gold.

 

[DSC]

Are the 'ponds' south of the ex-Canary Restaurant at Cherry and Front Street permanent or are they the start of excavation for foundations or ??? (BTW, it's good to see that they seem to have planted many of the street trees - the longer they have to grow the better they will look.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I believe they are temporary storm water ponds. That will be the temporary cafeteria for 2015 from my understanding, replaced with a condo afterwards.

 

[someMidTowner]

Saturday:

 

[TheKingEast]

Only in Toronto will you see an entire community built out of grey and black. Massive letdown. I don't even understand how this is allowed.

 

[cruzin4u]

Only in Toronto will you see an entire community built out of grey and black. Massive letdown. I don't even understand how this is allowed.

I completely agree with you. Looking at kram74's last photo is completely disturbing. Seriously, would just A LITTLE colour hurt? What is this fascination with all this grey and black - is there some kind of "fire sale" going on with that kind of product - where, if you buy in bulk, you get a great discount? Perhaps there is no money leftover to make something stunning, especially after paying the knuckleheads on the board of the games so much money.

 

[Torontovibe]

I've been warning you guys about this from day one. Not only are the buildings grey but so is every single detail of this district, from the light posts, to the benches, paving stones and just about everything else. It's easy to ignore if you are in the park but I think when people spend time surrounded by walls of grey, it becomes overwhelming. I'm sure we'll look back one day and say what the hell were these people thinking.

Whether people realize it or not, colour has an effect on them. For many people it can effect their mood and even their mental health, without the person realizing it.

 

[junctionist]

A lot of people might not have expected that the architecture would be an issue since the East Bayside is turning out beautifully, and Corktown Common is a great park. But it's true that the architecture is plain and monotonous.

 

[ssiguy2]

Many of the designs are quite nice and I like the fact that they are mid-rise but these colours are depressing. This is made even worse by the fact that Corktown has so many nice red brick buildings so these things stand out like a sore thumb.

When the were developing the entire Waterfront area was the colour of the buildings even brought up? The warmth of Corktown/Cabbagetown will be deteriorated by the sterility of these things. If this is the plan for all of Toronto's Waterfront then they have lost a golden opportunity. Is anyone complaining?

 

[interchange42]

The buildings built so far represent (as best as I can make out) just less than half of what will eventually be in the area. I don't think that every remaining building needs the be red brick, but there has certainly been enough gray now, and it's time to mix it up a bit once the next wave of development gets going.

42

 

[Benito]

I love the use of old Toronto yellow brick on many of our older buildings and would love to see its use here and in other developments.

 

[Tewder]

The place looks like a business park. Untamed modernism! It works much better when blended into older neighbourhoods/streetscapes.

 

[DSC]

The place looks like a business park. Untamed modernism! It works much better when blended into older neighbourhoods/streetscapes.

You really have to wait until it's finished before judging. It will have trees, art, people and stores. Whether this will be enough to make it feel like a 'neighbourhood' I do not know but I live in hope.

 

[Register123]

For me one of the ugliest things about these buildings are the hideous mechanical boxes clad in what looks like faded green aluminum 1980s backyard shed siding. Just awful. The only bit of colour in the area and it's this crappy faded green.

 

[egotrippin]

What's annoying is that preliminary renders showed a liberal use (for Toronto) of colour, be it through varied materials and accents. Yet despite that, the entire district has been put through a greyscale filter and built as monotonously as possible. Do red bricks cost that much more, or do the planners here think Torontonians and the world have an unrequited love for grey? It boggles my mind. I biked through the streets that were brick paved, and while I was happy to see brick paving I thought of how much more spectacular a red brick road would look.

In fact, if they'd done all the roads in red against the grey/black of the general district, the contrast could've created a really unique effect. Hell, I'm surprised they didn't manage to find grey trees to top it all off.