I can imagine in 50 to 100 years, long after the Gardiner has disappeared, some visitor to Toronto with little if any knowledge of today's street orientations and patterns, looking up and wondering why this building is so uniquely shaped. Yet, in my opinion, this building quickly loses its interest after the sharp apex of its podium gives way to the blunter angle of the tower above. This building is unique only in that its form was dictated by the uniqueness of its site. What we are left with is an essentially banal glass tower in what is becoming a sea of banal glass towers.
I just can't help thinking what a great opportunity was lost here. This site was screaming out for an iconic piece of architecture. Something that would endure and help define Toronto on the world stage just as the CN Tower and new City Hall did generations before. Imagine if this were London or even New York, where the densities of those city's demand innovative and interesting solutions to oddly shaped lots, and then consider what might have been erected on similarly unique sites there. I'm not asking for the Great Pyramids here, but it's time we started to demand more from our builders and architects, and design and build our city with a longer term view.