Toronto TeaHouse 501 Yonge Condominiums | 170.98m | 52s | Lanterra | a—A

One Bedford went from a bunch of businesses to a Bank of Montreal and a Shoppers. Vibrant to safe and boring. Let's hope we get something better at 501.
 
I am just waiting for his next post...

"Other than ALL of those... What Condo does a better job of street presence than Murano?"

LOL
 
The subway runs along the laneway to the east of the 501 yonge site and not under the site.
Building beside the subway tunnel is challenging - dealing with the TTC is the main problem. The principal technical challenge is to attenuate and isolate the vibrations (and a lesser extent the sound) emanating from the trains. Lanterra has done this before at 22 Wellesley and at One Bedford.
It is expensive and adds significantly to the costs of the development.

How a building meets the street is an issue apart from the tenancies or ultimate use of the space. The owners of the retail space want highest rents with best covenants - hence the usual boring. Ultimate space usage is not yet regulated and hopefully never will be - unless the regulation lovers get their way and tell us all what to do and when.

Confusing sanity and sanitary is a poor excuse.
Being sane does not mean having sterile thoughts.
 
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Traynor said:
The problem with one architect or one firm designing a long strip of retail along a street front is they are selfishly guarding their "design concept" and don't want everyday matters like, vendor's preferences or pedestrian's psychology to muddle up their perfect image of what they were going for.

Long strips of storefronts along a street should never look uniform though that is what almost all architects come up with. Their limited minds can only imagine the "whole" and it grates on their soul to have non-homogeneous storefronts repeating one after the other. I think many architects are actually obsessive compulsive types who align all their pencils on their desk perpendicular to the edge and anything out of place would cause them to go into apoplexy.

The truth is, when stores have all the same glass, signage, size, colour or what have you, psychologically the passer-by feels two things... First: "Seen one, you've seen them all." and interest is lost before they have walked halfway down the block... And second: More subliminally, the uniformity causes us to feel that all the retail is likely owned by the same people and no deals or anything interesting is to be had.

And we all walk on by, without stopping and soon the street is bleak and only the Dry-cleaners stays in business.

in reality, what gives a street "life" is randomness. Funky shaped store fronts. Different height signage. Random awnings. Storefronts that break the property line (some recessed slightly and some with cafe-style patio seating.) Roll-up garage door windows. Display areas with curved glass with mannequins in clothing.

Do architects NEVER go window shopping with their loved ones on a sunny afternoon? Are they trapped in their studios with fluorescent lighting and no windows all day? Do they even live in the real world?

Judging by their idea of Condo street presence, I think not.
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This critique just summed up exactly how I feel about the state of architecture. So good to know other people on this modernist-loving forum think this way. I know architects will claim that they've come a long way from Le Corbusier, but they still seem to design their buildings to be appreciated from several miles away while hovering in the sky. I mean, just look at the renderings of new condos. They're rarely set at any human vantage point and the street levels of the buildings are usually blurred out with translucent cars or hordes of render-people.
 
Me three. Summed up very well.
 
CityPlaceN1 said:
One Bedford went from a bunch of businesses to a Bank of Montreal and a Shoppers. Vibrant to safe and boring. Let's hope we get something better at 501.
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Well there was the Bedford Ballroom. Besides that, a Harvey's, a Swiss Chalet, a Mr. Submarine, a copy shop, a Country Style Donuts, and I think a convenience store. Not too much more vibrant or interesting than your average suburban strip mall. Am I missing something?
 
Silence&Motion said:
This critique just summed up exactly how I feel about the state of architecture. So good to know other people on this modernist-loving forum think this way. I know architects will claim that they've come a long way from Le Corbusier, but they still seem to design their buildings to be appreciated from several miles away while hovering in the sky. I mean, just look at the renderings of new condos. They're rarely set at any human vantage point and the street levels of the buildings are usually blurred out with translucent cars or hordes of render-people.
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I am also in agreement.

In regards to One Bedford, to his credit Kuwabara designed it to leave the door open for the possibility of multiple retailers with 4-5 entry points along Bloor.
 
Traynor said:
Do architects NEVER go window shopping with their loved ones on a sunny afternoon? Are they trapped in their studios with fluorescent lighting and no windows all day? Do they even live in the real world?
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It's a pithy comment. It's not just architects however, it's their clients, the developers. I think a good architect can be prodded, but a cheesy developer with no conscience, well, I think that is a different matter.

But while I'm at it, it was Arthur Erickson who said that an architect has to be part whore.
 
Well there was the Bedford Ballroom. Besides that, a Harvey's, a Swiss Chalet, a Mr. Submarine, a copy shop, a Country Style Donuts, and I think a convenience store. Not too much more vibrant or interesting than your average suburban strip mall. Am I missing something?
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A hell of a lot more vibrant than what's there today.
 
imperfect said:
The subway runs along the laneway to the east of the 501 yonge site and not under the site.
Building beside the subway tunnel is challenging - dealing with the TTC is the main problem. The principal technical challenge is to attenuate and isolate the vibrations (and a lesser extent the sound) emanating from the trains. Lanterra has done this before at 22 Wellesley and at One Bedford.
It is expensive and adds significantly to the costs of the development.
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The subway cuts through the site on a diagonal, hence the justification for above-grade parking.

1950:

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Mississauga Slim said:
Not too much more vibrant or interesting than your average suburban strip mall. Am I missing something?
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Suburban strip malls are the universal punching bag in every discussion of urban planning, but I wonder if people have spent much time at them lately. Those things are becoming pretty damned vibrant now that they've had a chance to ferment over the last 50 years. Ugly as hell, but vibrant. I'm starting to get the same feeling wandering around places like Lawrence and Pharmacy that I used to get back in the 90s when I was wandering around Yonge and Dundas. So many little holes in the wall to explore. Oh well. I guess it's considered "progress" that condos are wiping out all of the holes in the walls downtown. If we've run out of surface parking lots and we need to start knocking down buildings, let's at least try to design them properly.
 
Parkdalian said:
And people may bemoan a singular montonous design aesthetic as a killer of retail, but that's exactly how Paris is designed.
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There is nothing monotonous about the Marais or many other shopping areas in Paris. Even where the Haussmann aesthetic reigns the street-level retail facades vary enormously.
 
Tewder said:
There is nothing monotonous about the Marais or many other shopping areas in Paris. Even where the Haussmann aesthetic reigns the street-level retail facades vary enormously.
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Yes, I was going to say this as well. The same for London. Where the upper 7 floors, gable and roofs may all be alike and even the storefronts with similar "bones", where they are varied is what makes them unique: Flower carts out front, awnings, vegetable stands, cafe umbrellas, sandwich board advertising, sidewalks with planters and benches etc...

That's what brings the urban life to the street. Whereas flat storefronts with identical size, signage, colour or windows and barren sidewalks, kills street life. A la Murano.
 
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