Toronto Union Centre | 298m | 54s | Westbank | Bjarke Ingels Group

[MetroMan]

Would an overclad be possible?

The cladding material (brick) isn’t the problem. It’s that there’s a long blank wall on a major street with heavy pedestrian traffic. It’s a shitty street level experience. A re-clad isn’t going to fix that.

Replacing the data centre capacity in the new building and converting the brick building to retail use at street level might be possible given that it’s the same owner.

 

[smuncky]

Would an overclad be possible?

Depends on how close the building footprint is to the property line now. From the City of Toronto map, doesn't look like there's much left.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

The cladding material (brick) isn’t the problem. It’s that there’s a long blank wall on a major street with heavy pedestrian traffic. It’s a shitty street level experience. A re-clad isn’t going to fix that.

Replacing the data centre capacity in the new building and converting the brick building to retail use at street level might be possible given that it’s the same owner.

You probably still wouldn't want to add troublesome public uses (e.g. kitchens) no matter what you do to it. It's not that offensive - I'd be happy with better glazing and maybe some terracotta paneling (a la the Parliament St. data centre).

AoD

 

[Northern Light]

Front Street, at ground level, currently has 3 sections which should probably be windows, in an ideal world.

The section where venting has been located would seem to preclude glazing matching the rest of the street front, but the other 2 sections should be possible, even if the glazing had a solid wall behind it.

Not ideal, but better.

Something more challenging here though; that sidewalk on the Front Street frontage is far too narrow. That's at existing pedestrian volumes, never mind with upwards of 15,000 new workers in the area.

If the development doesn't create the opportunity for widening, the only remaining option would appear to be narrowing Front Street by one lane, which has implications all its own.

Extending the PATH system to this site might deliver some relief, but not likely enough to handle this, Union Park and a probable MTCC expansion.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Front Street has tons of excess width through here - You could add probably around 4m to the sidewalk without impacting the total lane count on Front here (though you would lose the full time parking lane).

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Front Street, at ground level, currently has 3 sections which should probably be windows, in an ideal world.

The section where venting has been located would seem to preclude glazing matching the rest of the street front, but the other 2 sections should be possible, even if the glazing had a solid wall behind it.

Not ideal, but better.

Something more challenging here though; that sidewalk on the Front Street frontage is far too narrow. That's at existing pedestrian volumes, never mind with upwards of 15,000 new workers in the area.

If the development doesn't create the opportunity for widening, the only remaining option would appear to be narrowing Front Street by one lane, which has implications all its own.

Extending the PATH system to this site might deliver some relief, but not likely enough to handle this, Union Park and a probable MTCC expansion.

Actually I'd go the other way - use art - especially art that speaks to the kind of activity in that building.

AoD

 

[jje1000]

You probably still wouldn't want to add troublesome public uses (e.g. kitchens) no matter what you do to it. It's not that offensive - I'd be happy with better glazing and maybe some terracotta paneling (a la the Parliament St. data centre).

AoD

I was thinking this- retail will probably be a no-go given the nature of the building. I haven't been able to find ground floor (2nd floor) plans of the building, but the rest looks like a mess, which is probably why Allied wants to stay away from full renovations to the building.

151 Front St W, Toronto: Summary

Located on the southeast corner of Front Street West and Simcoe Street, in the Financial Core of downtown Toronto. Regarded as Canada's premier technology center.

www.spacedatabase.com

In this case, I feel that a slightly wider sidewalk + artwork would do a lot to help improve the street level frontage; retail isn't always necessary in improving the experience.

Depends on how close the building footprint is to the property line now. From the City of Toronto map, doesn't look like there's much left.

I found this staff report from the first iteration of the project years ago, which proposed a partial renovation to 151 Front. Also a bit surprising that 151 is listed as a heritage property since it looks like it was heavily modified in the 90s.

151 Front Street West
The original massing 151 Front Street West will remain with no additions. The north-west corner will serve as the main entrance to the new development behind. A windowed galleria will be added to the main floor interior at the west side. The NW corner of the building and the west facade will have exterior cladding added to help tie the building in visually with the tower behind and will serve to alert pedestrians to the entrance on the NW corner. The aluminized steel cladding will be attached to the heritage façade at the mortar joints and the original brick walls and window openings will remain unalteredbeneath the cladding. The cladding application is a “reversible” alteration.There will be a new canopy added to the north façade along Front Street for pedestrians.

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2007/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-7605.pdf

 

[ProjectEnd]

Nothing is happening to 151 Front. It will remain as is since security is just too great an issue. It's a military-grade facility which can't support additional uses since the necessary front and back of house penetrations would compromise it.

 

[Automation Gallery]

^ union centre is 1.7mil sq.ft

He mentioned Union Park which easily wil have a couple buildings of 2m + sq. ft.

 

[MetroMan]

You probably still wouldn't want to add troublesome public uses (e.g. kitchens) no matter what you do to it. It's not that offensive - I'd be happy with better glazing and maybe some terracotta paneling (a la the Parliament St. data centre).

AoD

I’d prefer a green wall extending from the new tower to envelope the windowless parts of the old building, rather than more blank paneling.

A series of green wall panels on the corner would enliven the street level experience. This is what’s there.

Pardon the photo, it’s the only one I have and my dog isn’t very good at taking pictures.

 

[ushahid]

no front story and updated database yet? it's always fun to read those.

 

[Strange Advance]

I'm not fond of the immense width of the new design, though I didn't care for the curves at the top of the previous one either. This, 160 Front W., and YSL are three Toronto towers I wish would not go ahead (though I'm too late on 160).

 

[ushahid]

you are late on YSL as well.

 

[torman404]

There are a lot of aspects I like about it, but please, give us some renderings without trees on them. They provide an unrealistic depiction of what will actually be built.

Agreed. There will be no trees.

 

[condovo]

This giant slab needs to be broken down and articulated much, much more and/or reduce the width and increase the height.