Toronto U of T: Centre for Civilizations, Cultures, and Cities | 42.75m | 9s | U of T | DS + R

Would not mind if the Planetarium was replaced by something of the calibre of Vagelos Education Center. It's actually a bit too flashy IMO, but scale is quite similar to what's being proposed for this site.

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http://www.dsrny.com

Any project should ideally have some connection to the ROM- imagine if there was a de Young-style observation deck on top for ROM visitors.

I wasn't under the impression there are any renderings of the DSRNY proposal here; is that not the case?
 
Just basing my thoughts on the zoning study above and what was previously proposed for the site. The actual proposal may look very different.
 
Nice to know that- I do like the way the Vagelos Centre allows you to experience the city from multiple vantage points, so I hope they introduce something like that for the site.

Something to look forward to:
At first, the school and architecture firms architectsAlliance and Diller Scofidio + Renfro planned to turn the existing space into a recital hall, or a centre for the astronomy and astrophysics program. Ultimately, the school said it would demolish the building – but they will still have a planetarium-like experience somewhere else on the campus.

[...]

“That process right now is deeply in the schematic phase. The architects are meeting with academic leaders,” Mabury said, and the artists’ renderings for the new building should be ready by the summer.

http://www.citynews.ca/2017/01/25/north-carolina-man-fighting-save-toronto-planetarium/
 
Also, I saw rendering of this. AFAIK the design is certainly not yet set in stone, but what I saw was 14 stories, using wood and glass with some ondulations on some floors of the walls of the eastern face floors. The pedestrian way on the southside of the old house on Queen's Park will remain and will have a series of (three iirc) cantilevering boxes, one over the other over the other, kind of like a geometric ships bow. Looked fresh and very nice. Most of the old house will remain too.

Among a number of things, a certain difficulty in designing the site was around the need for semi-trailers getting down to the ROM loading dock.
 
In place of Toronto’s McLaughlin Planetarium, some golden architecture

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In place of Toronto’s McLaughlin Planetarium, some golden architecture

If approved, the building would rise on a crowded site next to the museum, in front of the university’s main music building and next to its law school. It would contain a 250-seat recital hall, an “urban lab” for public events and more, all stacked up along a staircase that slices diagonally upward to the sky.

source:https://www.theglobeandmail.com/art...aughlin-planetarium-some-golden-architecture/
 
I don't mind the building overall.

In fact, I quite like the warm-windows side(s).......not so sure about the treatment at the other end.

But I always have reservations about context in this town where we insist on plunking size, and very contrasting style next to heritage properties.

The building feels a bit 'heavy' for the spot it's in.

Plunk it on the west side of St. George, south of Harbord, and you could hardly go wrong.

Here, I'm not quite as sold.............though it's far better than some earlier ideas for this site.
 
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I don't mind the building overall.

In fact, I quite like the warm-windows side(s).......not so sure about the treatment at the other end.

But I always have reservations about context in this town where we insist on plunking size very contrasting style next to heritage properties.

The building feels a bit 'heavy' for the spot it's in.

Plunk it on the west side of St. George, south of Harbord, and you could hardly go wrong.

Here, I'm not quite as sold.............though it's far better than some earlier ideas for this site.
Ya agreed it's a lovely building but just crammed into the space. Especially the south portion of the building. It will be touching the music building and connected to it by walkway. It's right up against the herritage building. The open space is actually a lot smaller than what is depicted in the render.

I would prefer to see something like the new law building that plays off existing architectural elements of the herritage structure. Very cool design though.
 
Love the little plaza, too.

Also, add another top-notch international firm to the list of those with projects in the TO pipeline (or under construction or semi-recently completed): DSRNY; Snohetta; F+P; Gehry; Piano; 3XN; BIG; Henning Larsen; etc.
 
Couple other renders from the U of T site:

This one gives a much better sense of the appearance/materiality of the north portion; nice look at the plaza, too; love the tiering.
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Love this vista -- reminiscent of DSRNY's Boston Institute of Contemporary Art.
174501
 

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