P
pw20
Guest
4 storey precast base with retail at grade - check
30-something "point tower" designed to alleviate shadows while still gaining density - check.
Ok... here's my opinion:
I'm sure any proposal for this site would receive opposition from neighbourhood groups (including the wealthy TLTC) but... on some level they're right.
Toronto has gone gaga for height and along the way we've lost the plot. Not every square inch of this city needs to be developed into a forty storey "point tower" with a mediocre precast base. And no, I don't think this is an anti-development or anti-intensification stance.
Can we not develop and intensify without resorting to out of character developments, simply dulled by the argument that: "it's a point tower so it won't leave a shadow." What about a 38 story building in Kensington Market? St Lawrence Market. Toronto has beautiful and unique mid-rise and even low-rise neighbourhoods, slapping a point tower and arguing that its ok because it's a point tower to be completely misses the point of how to create positive development in this city. At the end of the boom we'll look at what we've created and we'll have a legacy of forty storey point tower's with mediocre bases and the strenght of this city will be lost. A point tower isn't a panacea for intensification and development and perhaps we need to stop looking at it as such. Call me a NIMBY but... not every redevelopment site needs a point tower and we may hate the denizens of Rosedale but in the long run they may be doing us a favour.
30-something "point tower" designed to alleviate shadows while still gaining density - check.
Ok... here's my opinion:
I'm sure any proposal for this site would receive opposition from neighbourhood groups (including the wealthy TLTC) but... on some level they're right.
Toronto has gone gaga for height and along the way we've lost the plot. Not every square inch of this city needs to be developed into a forty storey "point tower" with a mediocre precast base. And no, I don't think this is an anti-development or anti-intensification stance.
Can we not develop and intensify without resorting to out of character developments, simply dulled by the argument that: "it's a point tower so it won't leave a shadow." What about a 38 story building in Kensington Market? St Lawrence Market. Toronto has beautiful and unique mid-rise and even low-rise neighbourhoods, slapping a point tower and arguing that its ok because it's a point tower to be completely misses the point of how to create positive development in this city. At the end of the boom we'll look at what we've created and we'll have a legacy of forty storey point tower's with mediocre bases and the strenght of this city will be lost. A point tower isn't a panacea for intensification and development and perhaps we need to stop looking at it as such. Call me a NIMBY but... not every redevelopment site needs a point tower and we may hate the denizens of Rosedale but in the long run they may be doing us a favour.