Toronto Sidewalk Toronto at Quayside | ?m | ?s | Sidewalk | Snøhetta

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WislaHD said:
The nationality of the company isn't relevant when they have a local presence, branch office and hire local employees. Brookfield has a large presence in New York City. Sidewalk is essentially all New York based, with little presence in Toronto besides an army of lobbyists. This could change in the future, but their unfamiliarity with the site beyond google streetview has been made evident several times. (Hell, early renderings got the location of the CN Tower wrong)

That might be all good and well if Quayside is treated as an experimental playground. But, Quayside is also supposed to be a neighbourhood one day, with people living and working in it, and the rest of us Torontonians are supposed to also benefit from the future municipal revenues generated on the site. An understanding how this site connects and relates to the rest of the city is important.
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Curious, are you one of the minds behind CityPlace? Asking for a friend.....
 
TheSix said:
Curious, are you one of the minds behind CityPlace? Asking for a friend.....
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I was wondering if I should have brought up the $hittyplace example in my last post actually.

That was done by the Vancouver firm Concord Adex, whom prior to their involvement in the Railway lands, had little presence in Toronto and were "foreign" to this City. Underlying again the importance of a local presence and that this isn't a corporate nationality thing.
 
WislaHD said:
The nationality of the company isn't relevant when they have a local presence, branch office and hire local employees. Brookfield has a large presence in New York City. Sidewalk is essentially all New York based, with little presence in Toronto besides an army of lobbyists. This could change in the future, but their unfamiliarity with the site beyond google streetview has been made evident several times. (Hell, early renderings got the location of the CN Tower wrong)

That might be all good and well if Quayside is treated as an experimental playground. But, Quayside is also supposed to be a neighbourhood one day, with people living and working in it, and the rest of us Torontonians are supposed to also benefit from the future municipal revenues generated on the site. An understanding how this site connects and relates to the rest of the city is important.
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That’s quite reasonable.
 
WislaHD said:
I was wondering if I should have brought up the $hittyplace example in my last post actually.

That was done by the Vancouver firm Concord Adex, whom prior to their involvement in the Railway lands, had little presence in Toronto and were "foreign" to this City. Underlying again the importance of a local presence and that this isn't a corporate nationality thing.
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You're walking a very fine line... I assume you also have an issue with 3XN's first few proposals in Toronto, or Concert's dip into Toronto? Or BIG? I'd rather we take a bold risk and fail, then never take a risk at all. That is what makes a city great. Learning from successes and failures instead of never trying.

The difference between us is I want greatness for Toronto and welcome outside minds with different and bold visions. You simply want average. Middle of the road, and just solid. And someone who isn't foreign. And I'm not the only one here who pointed this out.
 
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WeirdFishes said:
The difference between us is I want greatness for Toronto and welcome outside minds with different and bold visions. You simply want average. Middle of the road, and just solid. And someone who isn't foreign. And I'm not the only one here who pointed this out.
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Seems a little much, rendering judgement on WislaHD's wishes for the city and branding them as "average." Ease up, willya! We all have a stake in what's being proposed for Toronto's waterfront... no need for the posturing and wanton character assassination.
 
WeirdFishes said:
You're walking a very fine line... I assume you also have an issue with 3XN's first few proposals in Toronto, or Concert's dip into Toronto? Or BIG? I'd rather we take a bold risk and fail, then never take a risk at all. That is what makes a city great. Learning from successes and failures instead of never trying.
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Actually, all those foreign architects typically partner with a local architect as their "architect of record" on those projects.

"Foreign architecture firms are often engaged to create the building design. In doing so, they step outside their locality or field of expertise. International design competitions for example can yield submissions from architects all over the world. In these cases, a local architect is retained to provide a more knowledgable, practical, and comprehensive look at the project site. The local architect then becomes the architect of record, while the outside firm becomes the primary architectural team. "

The difference between us is I want greatness for Toronto and welcome outside minds with different and bold visions. You simply want average. Middle of the road, and just solid. And someone who isn't foreign. And I'm not the only one here who pointed this out.
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Yes, multiple people including yourself seem to be grasping at straws at a single word I used haphazardly in part of a larger post with multiple points. I did not even use the word "foreign" in the xenophobic manner that has been ascribed; it was more so directed at the difficulties of holding other international (transnational?) disruptors accountable, as demonstrated with our city's difficulties with Uber and AirBnB. I'm the child of immigrants myself, just for the record, hold multiple passports, and have lived outside of Canada for extended periods of time. I'm frankly, not going to entertain that strawman any further.

As for a desire towards mediocrity, I am not sure about that. I am very excited about what is going to happen at East Harbour, on The Well, or the Kraft Bakery site at Humber Bay Shores (which will be master planned by the gasp foreign, Allies and Morrison). I'm however, not impressed with Sidewalk's vision for Quayside, because having actually read their visioning report cover-to-cover when it was first released, I found it to be greatly lacking in substance. Sidewalk Toronto has not done much since 2017 to have my opinion changed, other than spending a ton of money on lobbyists and PR in Toronto, and releasing a bunch of pretty Danish renderings.

Meanwhile, more details about what Sidewalk wants (to utilize land value capture tools) and desires (jurisdiction over the greater Portlands) have come out, that were most definitely not a part of the Quayside RFP. At the same time, details about how Waterfront Toronto has conducted themselves in regards to the Quayside RFP process have also come to light adding more questions. Several weeks ago, I asked the simple question. Would we be okay with Sidewalk Toronto's behaviour and actions if they were a child company of Mattamy Homes instead of Google? I have a feeling that if Sidewalk's proponents in this thread were honest to themselves, they would admit that they would not be.

What I desire most is for Toronto to not end up receiving the raw end of a deal, and for the public interest to be maintained present and future. None of this is to be taken as an endorsement of abject mediocrity such as the Brampton office park that Menkes is passing off as the Waterfront "Innovation" Centre down the street.
 
Sidewalk Labs unveils Building Raincoat prototype for smart city in Toronto

Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2019/03/11/building-raincoat-prototype-sidewalk-labs-toronto-smart-city/

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A "raincoat" designed to protect pavements during harsh weather is among a series of design prototypes that Alphabet company Sidewalk Labs has revealed for its new city in Toronto.
An awning, hexagonal pavers, and interactive works that use lighting and projection mapping are among the ideas developed for Sidewalk Toronto – the city that Alphabet subsidiary Sidewalk Labs is developing with partner Waterfront Toronto.
Revealed at an event earlier this month, the new prototypes are intended to respond to the harsh weather endured in the city's winter months.
"It's cold," said Sidewalk Labs in a project description. "The weather plays a big role in determining how much time we spend outdoors."
Among the designs is the Building Raincoat that Toronto architects Partisans has designed with British environmental engineering company RWDI and Italian firm Maffeis Engineering for structural design.
With much of the Sidewalk Toronto development intended to be wooden construction as part of its environmental and sustainable strategy – these adjustable and protective structure are intended to protection to the buildings, as well as pavements.
"The raincoat was just one of a series of design innovations we'd been exploring to make sidewalks and other public spaces more comfortable, with the goal of drawing people outdoors year-round," said Sidewalk Labs.
The Building Raincoat is made from ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) and is the first project in Ontario to use this emerging building material. Another recent design to use ETFE is ITT's Kaplan Institute building in Illinois by John Ronan.
The awning is based on a series of peaks that extend outward from Sidewalk Labs' Toronto office, called 307.
Sidewalk cast a series of light designs across the coverings to celebrate the presentation, which took place on 2 March 2019 at the Winter Warmer event.
Projections included artworks made at an earlier drawing session with Jason Logan of the Toronto Ink Company. Pieces were altered by British mixed-media artist Ilze Briede [Kavi] and projected onto it.
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Do we not already live under permanent surveillance by GOOG, FB, AMZN, V, MA, our banks and our mobile providers? Not to forget Roomba, which was apparently mapping peoples’ homes and sending the data to HQ.
 
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Here's hoping there's a large, dedicated pedestrian zone in this area.

Give me a La Rambla!

/wishfulthinking
 
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