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

I have no problem with using black bricks in the current round of buildings - with the proviso that the remaining buildings in WDL avoid that material entirely. Otherwise we'd be getting our own Gothic Quarter.

AoD
 
AndreaPalladio said:
Then turn either right or left and look at the green. A slightly broader perspective could do you a world of good.
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I was on my way to somewhere else so I didn't have time to look around much. But overall I'm not too optimistic judging by some of the photos that others have posted. I like the green however it only lasts for half a year.
 
I agree that the monotony of colour pallets and architectural styles in this town is bordering on ridiculous. It is less of an issue where we see the occasional infill development, but something else entirely when building out entire districts like this.
 
It's something I have thought a bit about - to be fair, is it just an artifact of the current age? I mean, vast chunks of the city is built of red brick as the go to material and we don't seem to react as negatively to it - in fact, we value the historicity of that monotony.

AoD
 
Very true - this is symptomatic of design / development practices of the current time and place. In that sense, it isn't unlike any other building cycle. My main concern is that this particular building cycle has been disproportionate in duration and scale to most previous cycles in Toronto, therefore exacerbating the issues associated with the perception of monotony. It would be less likely in previous building cycles, for instance, to witness the development of an entire mid-rise neighbourhood the scale of the West Don Lands. In particular instances like this, I just think special attention should be given to ensuring a certain degree of variety, as this stock of buildings will stand for quite some time with very limited opportunities for infill over the course of the life of the buildings, as the district will essentially be built-out in a short period of time.
 
Aren't there Ontario universities with concentrations of Brutalist buildings due to the time they were built and expanded? We might take a different approach now, but they're of their time.

The building pictured above suffers from being isolated. In this picture it looks like it's in a field fronting a parking lot like some suburban office building. That might not be a fair perspective on it, or it's isolated because it's an early stage in the development. Looks to me like it would fit fine in a streetscape of similar scaled buildings. And they'd benefit from some design coherence. Doesn't mean they can't have colour, but it's just a choice. There is variety nearby with parkland and some heritage buildings.
 
It was more a general thought rather than a comment specifically pertaining to that photo. I'm familiar with the site, and I'm speaking to the fact that all buildings built to date on these lands are dark grey and heavily glazed :) You're quite right - The park does add a lot of depth.
 
Yes, architectural designs, like all fashions, come and go but that doesn't mean variety can't be part of those styles. St.James is a product of it's time as was Regent Park but if those styles come back does that mean you want another one?

It's pretty depressing and the time to talk is now before the development is done and the developers pack their bags and leave a sea of monotony and broken dreams in their wake. Someone should be contacting the media {like that Toronto Star urban affairs guy} to get the attention this deserves before the area is completed and Toronto's Waterfront goes down as one of the biggest wasted opportunities in the city's history. By doing this it will also make it clear that the citizens will not tolerate this in any of the forthcoming developments in the future like The Portlands.
 
ssiguy2 said:
Yes, architectural designs, like all fashions, come and go but that doesn't mean variety can't be part of those styles. St.James is a product of it's time as was Regent Park but if those styles come back does that mean you want another one?

It's pretty depressing and the time to talk is now before the development is done and the developers pack their bags and leave a sea of monotony and broken dreams in their wake. Someone should be contacting the media {like that Toronto Star urban affairs guy} to get the attention this deserves before the area is completed and Toronto's Waterfront goes down as one of the biggest wasted opportunities in the city's history. By doing this it will also make it clear that the citizens will not tolerate this in any of the forthcoming developments in the future like The Portlands.
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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.
 
Ramako said:
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.
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Agreed, there's a lot of things that are right about this neighbourhood, like the scale of the buildings, the amount of public space, the streetcar line down the middle of it to name a few. In fact the lack of colour is one of the only criticisms against it. I'd say they're doing far more right than wrong.
 
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
 
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