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

They are proposing to replace the galleria roof of the skywalk, yes.

This is one of the earlier images associated with the plan, and I'm not sure the design still holds exactly, but the idea is that the skywalk needs to expand to accommodate the numbers of people who will be using it (especially if the UPX is popular). The new design widens it a bit and adds volume. It also cuts down on how much the skywalk will heat up when the sun is shining upon it; currently it's not shaded by other buildings.

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This is the closest we get to it from the current batch of renderings:

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This one isn't moving forward until they get a tenant . That seems to be a big accomplishment for these larger towers. So let's wait and see.
 
Thanks IC24, that helps make it clear. I like how the redo of Station street into a raised plaza works alongside the reconfigured skywalk. It should also make the parkette on Front street more viable as it will connect on the same level as the plaza and skywalk. This will make it easier to access Union Station and southcore from Front Street while hiding the shipping access under the plaza.
 
I think it's a shame that this building wont have a street presence. It isn't able to add to Front street, which would have been great.
 
I was doing some research on Allied REIT. Not only do they own the data centre at 151 Front, they also own one at 905 King West, and they've leased space in 250 Front West (CBC) for more data centre space.

With their focus on data centres, does anyone think they will move the 151 Front content into Union Tower? It would free up that land so they could redevelop it.
 
^ I was thinking the same thing. An office tower without street frontage is not "Head Office" material and is likely better suited for data centres or secondary office requirements. Does anyone know if they are shooting for a LEEDS designation on this puppy or is it simply "space" for rent?
 
Waterloo_Guy said:
I was doing some research on Allied REIT. Not only do they own the data centre at 151 Front, they also own one at 905 King West, and they've leased space in 250 Front West (CBC) for more data centre space.

With their focus on data centres, does anyone think they will move the 151 Front content into Union Tower? It would free up that land so they could redevelop it.
Click to expand...

They are not "focused" on data centres but DO have more exposure to them than almost any other public company. 151 Front is a host agnostic carrier hotel and is one of the most important data centres in North America (though isn't a typical data centre). They would have a very hard time moving it even across the street and couldn't "turn it off" during a move (or everyone in Canada's credit cards would stop working, as would the TSX, Canadian access to the Nasdaq, NYSE, US banks etc...). Originally they had looked at adding some more floors of data centre space to the early plans which would have been on top of 151 as opposed to behind it.

905 King is more classic data centre space while the CBC building is piecemeal space and doesn't meet the needs of high end users (but is still accretive to Allied).
 
Then I guess it's here to stay. It would be nice if they could re-clad it so it has a nicer impact on Front street.
 
Actually, it looks OK in that render. Maybe they could just clean it up a bit. Maybe some restoration work.
 
At this point I'll take anything in brick since we're slowly losing material variation and texture in the core, and have essentially none in Southcore. Keep the brick.
 
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