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

[typezed]

In the renders there are reddish-orange panels in the George Brown building that reflect the colour of the heritage buildings that front it. In the renders it's a nice touch, so curious why that approach wasn't pursued. Perhaps in the design stage it was determined that the effect wouldn't be as subtle in reality, and would instead dilute the impact or clash with the heritage buildings.

Preserving and incorporating heritage buildings is an important feature of this time, of this cycle of city building. They're prominent here, acting as a gateway to the neighbourhood on Front. They shouldn't be ignored when assessing the colour choices in the new buildings.

Also judging from the renders, it looks like the public developers, Waterfront Toronto, may have been enamoured with green roofs. That approach is also of our time. Late stage Miller, when this project was in design stage, there was much passion for green roofs in public projects. The palette for the buildings may have been made neutral to highlight the greenery. A hint of this may be in that some colour - a light green - does appear on the roof units of a couple of the buildings. Perhaps 20 years from now people will realize that green roofs didn't meet the promise that inspired them, but they'll mark this time in development. It's impossible to know now what impact they'll make here through the seasons and from various vantages. It's an understandable choice to give focus to the colour of the heritage components and the greenery. We'll see whether it works or not.

As long as this project keeps its financial footing, there's a lot positive that can come from it.

 

[slicecom]

In the renders there are reddish-orange panels in the George Brown building that reflect the colour of the heritage buildings that front it. In the renders it's a nice touch, so curious why that approach wasn't pursued. Perhaps in the design stage it was determined that the effect wouldn't be as subtle in reality, and would instead dilute the impact or clash with the heritage buildings.

George Brown chose to get rid of the coloured panels. Not sure why, really disappointing. Search this thread for "orange" to get a better more in depth discussion on the orange panels.

 

[skorji]

I certainly agree. The West Don Lands development arguably gets a lot more "right" than it does "wrong". I'm quite a fan of what I have seen to date, especially Corktown Commons. That park is fantastic. The gateway-like design of the main street, with wide boulevards and significant tree planting, combined with the pedestrian scale of mid-rise development, and the strong framing of adjacent streets and open spaces, accomplishes quite a bit. I'm also quite pleased to see the integration of shorter blocks, and the grid-like pattern of streets. All in all, a big win for Toronto.

I'm hardly a fan of the seemingly monochrome manner in which this district is developing but I think the claim that the colour scheme alone is enough to make this "one of the biggest wasted opportunities in the city's history", and worthy of vitriolic backlash against the developer, is hugely overblown. There are dozens of (far more important) factors that go into determining whether or not a neighbourhood is successful and vibrant, and we aren't even close to being able to judge the vast majority of them when it comes to this district.

 

[skorji]

Agreed. Strictly an observation on my part, and something I think could easily be mitigated / improved with future phases of development with a little foresight.

I think it being called a disaster is overblown - but I do think the cries of monotony has a point, and black really is a colour that shouldn't be overused in architecture to the point where it defines an entire district. This isn't a critique of the design of the structures - it is strictly an observation of how the choice of material can have a profound psychological impact. If one wants a salient example - try walking beside the opera house at University and Richmond.

This coldness can easily be moderated by using the type of bricks like those in various aA projects at the Distillery.

AoD

 

[interchange42]

In the renders there are reddish-orange panels in the George Brown building that reflect the colour of the heritage buildings that front it. In the renders it's a nice touch, so curious why that approach wasn't pursued. Perhaps in the design stage it was determined that the effect wouldn't be as subtle in reality, and would instead dilute the impact or clash with the heritage buildings.

George Brown chose to get rid of the coloured panels. Not sure why, really disappointing. Search this thread for "orange" to get a better more in depth discussion on the orange panels.

The orange didn't fit George Brown's corporate branding plan, so they dropped it.

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[typezed]

If the colours of buildings are being chosen by executives and directors to match the logo, I'm thankful for grey.

Maybe by the time the next boom happens we'll have technology for windows to strip some wavelengths of light for conversion to energy, and for practical reasons outside of aesthetics all the new glass buildings will be a riot of colour (hopefully not all the one colour that works most efficiently). And people will be nostalgic for the days when designers had the freedom to play with subtle shifts of tone.

 

[DSC]

Cherry Street has reopened! Today you can walk and drive on Cherry Street from Mill Street to Lake Shore Blvd. The Metrolinx work continues at the bridge but traffic and pedestrians can get through (like Lower Sherbourne). Now to get the TTC to put the 72/172 bus back on its proper routing!

 

[NBGtect]

That's partly good news thanks! What about the section north of Mill to Eastern Ave?

 

[AndreaPalladio]

The dog will be well pleased by this news. We can cut up Cherry street if we don't want to loop around through the new park or up to Queen!

 

[DSC]

That's partly good news thanks! What about the section north of Mill to Eastern Ave?

Still closed, along with Old Eastern Avenue. This is apparently because the roads were slightly moved and there is red tape to be dealt with between developer, City and Province. It is clearly not a priority for them but it will be good to have all reopened SOON!

 

[egotrippin]

The orange didn't fit George Brown's corporate branding plan, so they dropped it.

42

This smacks of a complete lack of imagination on their part. In addition to two shades of orange present in their logo, there are seven other shades/colours, so I see no excuse for removing the colour. They pulled it off at their campus expansion on Adelaide without compromising their "corporate branding plan", so what's the real excuse here? Sounds like the same old canned B.S. we've come to expect from the corporate chair moisteners in charge of decisions they're not qualified to make.

 

[interchange42]

Cherry Street has reopened! Today you can walk and drive on Cherry Street from Mill Street to Lake Shore Blvd. The Metrolinx work continues at the bridge but traffic and pedestrians can get through (like Lower Sherbourne). Now to get the TTC to put the 72/172 bus back on its proper routing!

Here are shots from a couple of spots along Cherry.

First, Cherry looking north, then south, from Eastern.

Next, looking east along Mill, and then turning the corner and looking south.

Finally, the current extent of construction on the LRT; the turnaround, and any tail track for a future extension are not started.

42

 

[taal]

Is that red brick !? Great !

 

[ssiguy2]

As I stated earlier, I quite like the area.

There will be lots of greenery, the buildings have unique architecture, design, and form. The whole area is being built as pedestrian friendly environment and the buildings and entire development is built to a human scale unlike CityPlace which is just a collection of glass boxes. The sidewalks are wide, pleasant, and inviting and the entire area is built with sustainability in mind.
I will reserve judgement on transportation as this is Toronto and at this point a regular bus plodding down the road is considered a milestone. I know about the Cherry Street streetcar but 700 meters of streetcar is not something to be excited about. Hopefully the City will be proactive on the transit front but chances are it won't.

I like the entire area and it's ideals I was simply commenting on the lack of colour. The area maybe well thought out but it would be a shame if it was also depressing. Just the fact we are even having this conversation reflects the disappointment most of us feel about the grey overtone of the area. If the city's goal is to reintroduce it's citizens to it's Waterfront, grey isn't exactly the kind of welcome mat one looks forward to.

 

[TheKingEast]

The street details are very nice. it's just the sea of grey above the streets. Hopefully once this area is more lived in, the grey will be unnoticeable but I doubt it. It is a nice walk and I encourage everyone to check it out.