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

I'm kinda curious what the marketing hacks who came up with "Asian inspired" are actually referring to with this project--I mean, they've only narrowed it down to 2/3 of the world's population. Why not just call it universe inspired--that way nobody is left out, not even any potential space ant investors.
 
ditto Irishmonk .... other than the project name referencing 'tea', I don't get what is so Asian (if anything) about this project's design
 
Solaris said:
ditto Irishmonk .... other than the project name referencing 'tea', I don't get what is so Asian (if anything) about this project's design
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On the bright side, when developers at the forementioned continent uses Miami, Inverness or (French) Rivera for development names, you can rest assured there is nothing remotely relevant about such locales in the design either. The universality of irrelevant marketing rings true wherever you go.

AoD
 
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The shorter tower looks pretty good, they've actually carried the brick throughout its entire height so it actually relates to the podium. The taller tower sucks though. Why couldn't it follow the theme of the shorter one, it honestly looks like it could belong to any other project. I like aA, but they need to move on from this design. Spire, Murano, Casa I through III, Karma, Peter Street condos. They're all the same damn tower.
 
egotrippin said:
The shorter tower looks pretty good, they've actually carried the brick throughout its entire height so it actually relates to the podium. The taller tower sucks though. Why couldn't it follow the theme of the shorter one, it honestly looks like it could belong to any other project. I like aA, but they need to move on from this design. Spire, Murano, Casa I through III, Karma, Peter Street condos. They're all the same damn tower.
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I'm likely in the minority but I'm ok with that. For me, a simple, skillfully detailed, extruded box is perhaps the most engaging piece of design. In that vein, I'd take Chipperfield, Renzo or Zumthor over Zaha, MAD or Gehry any day. But that's just me.
 
ProjectEnd said:
I'm likely in the minority but I'm ok with that. For me, a simple, skillfully detailed, extruded box is perhaps the most engaging piece of design. In that vein, I'd take Chipperfield, Renzo or Zumthor over Zaha, MAD or Gehry any day. But that's just me.
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I generally like it too, but it seems to get watered down with each successive iteration of the design. Spire was very fresh and interesting in that location at that time; Murano brought a crisp lightness to the beige and concrete Bay Street; Casa achieved the same thing on Charles, II is a nice counterpoint- but III is overkill in such close proximity; Peter Street has a great podium design that should've been echoed in the tower portion, so it seems like a wasted opportunity to me. Now with Karma and TeaHouse within close proximity, and the three Casas just up the street I guess it seems like a bit too much of the same thing.

I feel like such a large and prominent tower as this should have a unique design, as I generally prefer Clewes' execution of the glass box to work better as a fabric building within a cluster of different styles. Standing so prominently over Yonge Street, I think the larger tower here will feel like a bit of a squandered opportunity. It won't be unattractive or inelegant by any means, but I was hoping for something a bit more "landmark".
 
I don't like the solution for the top of the shorter tower, it seems to me a pretty cheap way to terminate a building. Also, I'm a sucker for bricks buildings but thOse balconies look unrelated with the rest of the external finishes, the combination of "sprandel/glass + few bricks" is a combination that never satisfied me (does it make sense? :p). That said, I find the podium portion gorgeous. The taller tower has a better, more pondered design in my opinion, although many could claim that this is just another glassy box (and in many ways it is), it reminds me in some way the FCP.
 
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Bad Bear said:
Also, I'm a sucker for bricks buildings but thOse balconies look unrelated with the rest of the external finishes, the combination of "sprandel/glass + few bricks" is a combination that never satisfied me (does it make sense? :p). .
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Totally makes sense. Just look at how High Park Condos is coming together... Yuck.

In the renders, the brick on the shorter tower looks limited to the balconies. These models (edit: hopefully? on second look I'm not so sure) seem to show it running all the way up the tower, though. Love the patios on both ends, too; Alexander looks engaging for pedestrians. Just wish they'd gone red brick on the tall one :p

Tangent alert, but my pipedream for the Yonge HCD is laid in brick. Each Victorian south of Bloor fixed up, widened red brick sidewalks, red brick extending up and down new towers (among other contemporary styles).

Textured red brick is finally creeping back into our buildings. Kinda seems like they're finally looking to integrate, even replicate historic fabric in modern developments in a cohesive style, even in the absence of a historical facade at their disposal. I'm hoping The Well and 620 King W will prove to be strong, spandrel-minimal examples.

And hoping TeaHouse will make me happy on this front, too. It just feels like mature city building.
 
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egotrippin said:
The shorter tower looks pretty good, they've actually carried the brick throughout its entire height so it actually relates to the podium. The taller tower sucks though. Why couldn't it follow the theme of the shorter one, it honestly looks like it could belong to any other project. I like aA, but they need to move on from this design. Spire, Murano, Casa I through III, Karma, Peter Street condos. They're all the same damn tower.
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Exactly; they’ve been making the same tower repeatedly for a decade. There work becomes much more interesting when using something other than glass for cladding, like the brick here.

Why does the brick stop short at the corners? That bothers me.
 
At this point I'm not even concerned about architecture.

This project eliminates by far the most deadly nasty retail block on Yonge (possibly in all downtown Toronto).
 
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