Xray_Crystal_Junkie
Senior Member
With the space at the western most part of the roof, it certainly looks like it could have been set back further from Yonge. Is that patio space back there?
Toronto The Dineen Building | ?m | 5s | Commercial Realty G. | George Robb
- Thread starter Braddale
- Start date
Hipster Duck
Senior Member
Up&Away
New Member
I find that my eyes are primarily drawn to the architectural details of the building, and the glass work at the top secondary. IMO they missed the mark only in that they should have replicated the first floor cornice detail around the top of the glass of the addition. It would have made the addition look less like one, and reduced its modern appearance.
Wrenkin
Active Member
Disagree. In places like London, full of historic low-rise buildings, you see this kind of thing a lot. Where it works is when the modifications are as unobtrusive as possible, modern without apologizing. No cornices, just a glass box, well-executed. The problem in this case is the glass itself. I don't understand why it's so dark. Perhaps they were trying to emulate the first floor? It just doesn't work though.
egotrippin
Senior Member
Yes, this is a case where something very light, airy and transparent should've been employed. The heavy dark glass is straight out of the 1980s, and is very distracting. I won't go as far as saying it's ruined the whole building, but it's definitely a detriment.
SP!RE
°°°°°°
...Or it would look like a modern glass addition with a cornice tacked onto it.
adma
Superstar
greenleaf
Senior Member
I saw the Dineen building in person today and it doesn't look quite as bad as the pictures make it out to be (although, is not excellent either). What could have been done to improve it in my opinion: set the glass top floor back a foot or two, and curve the glass on the corner to match the windows on the lower floors.
milanista
Active Member
Restaurants The Chase and The Chase Fish & Oyster House will be occupying space on floors 1 and 5.
Opening Summer 2013.
Opening Summer 2013.
canmark
Active Member
Website for the new restaurants: http://thechasetoronto.com/
Some info on the restaurants from Toronto Life.
Some info on the restaurants from Toronto Life.
k10ery
Senior Member
No particular reason, but here's the architect's sketch of 1897.
officedweller
Senior Member
An angled mansard style may have been better or shorter windows
with a steel curved mansard roof above (providing interior height).
i.e. a variation on this at The Rise (big box mixed use complex), Vancouver):
http://www.iwdstudio.com/slike/2007/SEFC/3/DSCF3019.jpg
Pic by Zivan56 at SSP
with a steel curved mansard roof above (providing interior height).
i.e. a variation on this at The Rise (big box mixed use complex), Vancouver):
http://www.iwdstudio.com/slike/2007/SEFC/3/DSCF3019.jpg
Pic by Zivan56 at SSP
Parkdalian
Senior Member
At first, I hated it. But now I'm liking it - vaguely against my own will. The top has a symmetry with the bottom that seems intriguing.
Automation Gallery
Superstar
Great article on Heritage Preservation
..........http://www.thestar.com/news/insight...daptive_reuse_to_save_heritage_buildings.html
Architects turn to ‘adaptive reuse’ to save heritage buildings
A new and financially viable style of historic preservation called ‘adaptive reuse’ flaunts the interesting parts of a property’s heritage
Just inside the Temperance St. entrance to 140 Yonge St., Clayton Smith is pointing to an overhead arch with the original wood lath left exposed — the thin wooden slats that plasterers would have originally covered with a brown coat and then a putty or finishing coat.
“It shows the old workmanship,” says Smith. “We wanted to show it off.”
In a corner of the lobby sits an iron safe that was hauled up from the basement and restored, with “J & J Taylor Safe Works Co.” repainted on its front to match the style of a similar safe at another Smith property, the Gooderham Flatiron building.
Beyond the safe, towards Yonge, four false ceilings and a century’s worth of remodelling have been removed to reveal the original 15-foot height of the ceiling, supported by fluted iron columns. The walls, meanwhile, have been gutted back to the brick.
Smith had the doors from the building’s original coal boiler (Polson Iron Works, Toronto) similarly brought up from the basement, restored and hung on one of the walls, where a coffee emporium is set to open this spring.
It’s this sort of look — funky and minimalist, yet flaunting the interesting parts of the building’s heritage — that has become a staple of what architects call “adaptive reuse,” a financially viable style of historic preservation in which Smith is emerging as a young star.
What it mostly means is doing traditional restoration of a building’s exterior, but gutting the interior to create adaptable space with a more modern look and the sort of amenities tenants would expect in a new property.
More.........Which takes us to the first hurdle in saving heritage buildings
..........http://www.thestar.com/news/insight...daptive_reuse_to_save_heritage_buildings.htmlArchitects turn to ‘adaptive reuse’ to save heritage buildings
A new and financially viable style of historic preservation called ‘adaptive reuse’ flaunts the interesting parts of a property’s heritage
Just inside the Temperance St. entrance to 140 Yonge St., Clayton Smith is pointing to an overhead arch with the original wood lath left exposed — the thin wooden slats that plasterers would have originally covered with a brown coat and then a putty or finishing coat.
“It shows the old workmanship,” says Smith. “We wanted to show it off.”
In a corner of the lobby sits an iron safe that was hauled up from the basement and restored, with “J & J Taylor Safe Works Co.” repainted on its front to match the style of a similar safe at another Smith property, the Gooderham Flatiron building.
Beyond the safe, towards Yonge, four false ceilings and a century’s worth of remodelling have been removed to reveal the original 15-foot height of the ceiling, supported by fluted iron columns. The walls, meanwhile, have been gutted back to the brick.
Smith had the doors from the building’s original coal boiler (Polson Iron Works, Toronto) similarly brought up from the basement, restored and hung on one of the walls, where a coffee emporium is set to open this spring.
It’s this sort of look — funky and minimalist, yet flaunting the interesting parts of the building’s heritage — that has become a staple of what architects call “adaptive reuse,” a financially viable style of historic preservation in which Smith is emerging as a young star.
What it mostly means is doing traditional restoration of a building’s exterior, but gutting the interior to create adaptable space with a more modern look and the sort of amenities tenants would expect in a new property.
More.........Which takes us to the first hurdle in saving heritage buildings
adma
Superstar
Though the interior-gutting part can be a dicey matter in some more stringent heritage-minded circles. (And it's nothing new; the Cabbagetown-style sandblast/gut/rebuild formula became a byword for ironically insensitive overgentrification in the 1970s.)