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

Silence&Motion said:
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.
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This is a great point that I don't want to see buried. I work at Warden and Birchmount, and honestly, there's more culture and better food in this part of the city than most of Yonge street lays host to. Lawrence to Ellesmere, between Kennedy and Pharmacy is a host to a lot of great places just waiting to be discovered (including some of the best middle eastern food, and one of the city's best bakeries).

Unfortunately though, the issue lies with its urbanity. Freeways for streets, overly car-centric layouts (I own a car, yet I still think it's offensive), and surface parking as far as the eye can see. Sadly it's all quite hideous.
 
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John Franco said:
ive seen this before its a good site. the administrator is a resident of the nextdoor building.
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He is, I had several back and forth's with him when news of this project broke and offered as much advice & resources that I could think of because he's never engaged in anything like this before. That illustration showing the effect of the podium needs to be shifted past the sidewalk, but the effect would the same. This is one fellow putting all this together and I'm presuming he's not a master of a graphics program so give him a little leniency here :)
 
egotrippin said:
This is a great point that I don't want to see buried. I work at Warden and Birchmount, and honestly, there's more culture and better food in this part of the city than most of Yonge street lays host to. Lawrence to Ellesmere, between Kennedy and Pharmacy is a host to a lot of great places just waiting to be discovered (including some of the best middle eastern food, and one of the city's best bakeries).

Unfortunately though, the issue lies with its urbanity. Freeways for streets, overly car-centric layouts (I own a car, yet I still think it's offensive), and surface parking as far as the eye can see. Sadly it's all quite hideous.
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This isn't a new thing at all ... Lawrence along the stretch you describe has always had a high concentration of middle eastern food - probably the best middle eastern grocery store in the GTA is located there as well.

This really says nothing about downtown or the suburbs ... if someone is only starting to discover these areas that's pretty unfortunate, but they've always existed.
 
taal said:
This isn't a new thing at all ... Lawrence along the stretch you describe has always had a high concentration of middle eastern food - probably the best middle eastern grocery store in the GTA is located there as well.

This really says nothing about downtown or the suburbs ... if someone is only starting to discover these areas that's pretty unfortunate, but they've always existed.
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They really haven't "always existed". Ethnic enclaves in general have been shifting out of the downtown and into the suburbs. Immigrants appropriate areas of the city that are seen by others as undesirable (i.e. the inner suburbs). Meanwhile, real estate developers take over areas that are seen as desirable (often old downtown ethnic enclaves), typically demolishing most of what made it desirable in the first place and replacing it the same monotonous condos full of the same monotonous sandwich stores, dry cleaners, and dental offices.

This is obviously a generalization, but it explains how developments like 501 Yonge and neighbourhoods like Lawrence East are related to the same basic process.
 
Bruvyman:

From what I can see, the volume ate too deeply into sidewalk, but at the same time it probably underestimated the height of the podium.

AoD
 
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dt_toronto_geek said:
He is, I had several back and forth's with him when news of this project broke and offered as much advice & resources that I could think of because he's never engaged in anything like this before. That illustration showing the effect of the podium needs to be shifted past the sidewalk, but the effect would the same. This is one fellow putting all this together and I'm presuming he's not a master of a graphics program so give him a little leniency here :)
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i second that. its a great effort if not technically perfect.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Bruvyman:

From what I can see, the volume ate too deeply into sidewalk, but at the same time it probably underestimated the height of the podium.

AoD
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You might be right, though they probably overestimated the colour of the podium. Ok, ok, I'm being a bit facetious here, but a giant, featureless purple object is probably more imposing than what the reality will be. And yes, I understand it is an illustration meant only to show the massing and effect on Yonge, but toning down the colour would probably make it a little easier on the eyes and easier for the public to envision what is proposed for here.

Having said all of that, I sympathize with what this group is saying. The design as presented so far will certainly change the character of this stretch of Yonge, and probably not for the better. Yes, it is an ugly strip mall now, but at least it is a somewhat pedestrian-friendly stretch of sidewalk. I will reserve judgement though until we have seen actual renderings of what is proposed. After all, isn't it still rumoured that the line drawing that we have seen is nothing like what will actually be proposed?
 
Bruvyman said:
Ok, ok, I'm being a bit facetious here, but a giant, featureless purple object is probably more imposing than what the reality will be.
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Yes, and developers' renderings make buildings look smaller and more interesting than the actual physical design... what's your point?

I can understand why people are so nervous already, and I'm glad to see that people in the neighbourhood care about (even!) vulnerable old Yonge Street. So I do understand people's quick knee-jerk reaction even though we haven't seen one actual rendering yet. On the other hand, it'll be easier to come to a consensus on the actual design when it's actually been presented.
 
SP!RE said:
Yes, and developers' renderings make buildings look smaller and more interesting than the actual physical design... what's your point?

I can understand why people are so nervous already, and I'm glad to see that people in the neighbourhood care about (even!) vulnerable old Yonge Street. So I do understand people's quick knee-jerk reaction even though we haven't seen one actual rendering yet. On the other hand, it'll be easier to come to a consensus on the actual design when it's actually been presented.
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My point was that when someone with an agenda submits information (such as the illustration on the website in question) to further their argument, that they are are best served by making it as accurate as possible as to not lose credibility with those they are trying to attract to their cause. We all know that the building will not be a shapeless bright violet colour, but the website made it that way as an intentional distortion with the hope of furthering his/her cause (or so I assume). To colour the building white, beige, grey, or some other realistic colour would not make it seem quite so ominous and out of place. Its not a big deal, or a huge issue as it is common practice, but my point was that this tactic can be counterproductive as it says (at least to me) that "we didn't have really strong enough case to fight this proposal so we made it look REALLY bad to get people on our side".

And you're right about developers doing the opposite with their renderings. The first one to come to mind is the original proposal for Picasso who's rendering was made to look much shorter than it would have been. They do it too, but we know what they say about two wrongs....

Once again, to be clear, I'm on the side of the people organizing against this proposal as I think it would be terrible for Yonge street if approved and built using the current elevation drawings we have seen.
 
If anyone has the time or inclination to improve that photo, send it along to Robert, I'm sure he'd appreciate a more accurate representation. His email addy is under contact info. on the website.
 
I'm actually thinking of making a Sketchup model using the elevations posted at the site that we've seen. I could probably do one up in about 20 minutes if someone gave me some rough dimensions to work with.
 
 
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I will definitely do some work on that. The only issue is that I don't have Kerkythea at the moment (rendering software) because I just got a new computer and I'm having trouble downloading it on here. But I will get to work ASAP.

PS: CanadianNational, can you check your inbox? I sent you a PM about the model. :)
 
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Meanwhile, check out Aa's exciting new lineup:

aanewlineup.jpg
 
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