Toronto Spire Condos | 144.77m | 45s | Context Development | a—A

From what I've experienced, the towers that aA designs are, for the most part, inhabited by a lively, young, get-up-and-go crowd who are through the doors and into the elevators in a flash. This building, which opens to the street in a forthright and uncluttered manner, surely reflects those values rather well - as do others in the series that aA has built. God forbid that the young people of today should have to make a stately progress through a series of ornately decorated chambers slathered in elaborately crafted de luxe finishes more suited to a senior's home for their grandparents.

If a few passing matrons are flustered by a glimpse of uncovered cinderblock ankle, so what?
 
Though I wouldn't be surprised if that section *is* walled off someday for "safety reasons" or something, rightly or wrongly...
 
This building, which opens to the street in a forthright and uncluttered manner, surely reflects those values rather well - as do others in the series that aA has built.
Click to expand...

Forthright and uncluttered doesn't have to mean cheap and flimsy. Modern can be done well, and crap modern shouldn't be defended just because it's modern.
 
In the TD Centre (and many of his other office buildings) Meis wisely chose a beautiful marble for those areas not already done in wood and steel. Of course, it is probably not noticed by all those workers who are through the doors and into the elevators in a flash (although the rest of us really appreciate it). ;)
 
Though if "marble" was on someone's irrational list of forbidden materials alongside, say, cinderblock they'd have a reason to shun the building.
 
They were installing grilles over the air intakes? vents? between the ground and 2nd floors this morning. The holes in the grilles are circular. I expect an immediate riot by those who oppose polka dots on asthetic or moral grounds.
 
Perhaps alklay is preparing the building for noxious gas to be pumped through the air intakes, so as to temporarily sedate the residents while he and ganja re-clad it at vast personal expense in steel I beams and travertine marble?
 
We should remember: Spire was the first totally glass Clewe's design to be built in Toronto; thus in many ways it was a prototype. Murano--if I recall correctly--was the second development to use Clewe's take on all-glass modernism, followed by 22 Condominiums, etc. So Spire inspired and we have a few years yet to see what Murano will look like. Spire is fine by me--we're talking about huge multi million dollar buildings here, not finely crafted Rolls Royces; there's only so much a developer can control and as an ex-construction worker myself--I know that while many trades take pride in their work, there's always gonna be a few at the bottom of the pay scale doing the grunt work and thus doing a craptacular job. Add in the fact Context really bit off more than they could chew with Spire--and ultimately resulted in the company splitting apart.

I could rip apart your old Riverdale Victorian and show the corners cut to save a few bills, the cheap paint slapped on etc....

We all know Toronto is the city of cheap 'n greedy developers--so we should be lucky to have the inSPIREation to give Clewes more work.
 
Is there a developer anywhere who is not cheap and greedy? That's the purpose of development - build as inexpensively as possible and sell for as much as possible. Real estate developers are not charities.
 
i like that, some one who is a realist.
 
urbandreamer said:
We should remember: Spire was the first totally glass Clewe's design to be built in Toronto; thus in many ways it was a prototype. Murano--if I recall correctly--was the second development to use Clewe's take on all-glass modernism, followed by 22 Condominiums, etc. So Spire inspired and we have a few years yet to see what Murano will look like. Spire is fine by me--we're talking about huge multi million dollar buildings here, not finely crafted Rolls Royces; there's only so much a developer can control and as an ex-construction worker myself--I know that while many trades take pride in their work, there's always gonna be a few at the bottom of the pay scale doing the grunt work and thus doing a craptacular job. Add in the fact Context really bit off more than they could chew with Spire--and ultimately resulted in the company splitting apart.

I could rip apart your old Riverdale Victorian and show the corners cut to save a few bills, the cheap paint slapped on etc....

We all know Toronto is the city of cheap 'n greedy developers--so we should be lucky to have the inSPIREation to give Clewes more work.
Click to expand...

Context hasn't split apart. I just received the latest e-newsletter from them and they are the developers behind the project going up behind the St. Lawrence Market.
 
Soon to be followed by the neo-Realists - developers who aren't really cheap and greedy but pretend to be, lest they lose face with other developers. Some of them make large but anonymous charitable donations.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top