Toronto Union Park | 303.26m | 58s | Oxford Properties | Pelli Clarke Pelli

verticalvillage said:
Exactly. The owners of the CN Tower have no more rights than anyone else. You can't try to prevent the construction of a new building simply because it will block the view from your apartement.

Anyways, if it is built the CN Tower and Oxford Towers could create a new edge walk! Now THAT would be scary!
Click to expand...

The owner of the CN Tower is the federal government (i.e. all Canadians) and I think it's in the interest of all Canadians and Torontonians that the most iconic view of downtown Toronto from the CN Tower be preserved. The CN Tower is a major tourist draw and is Toronto's and Canada's most famous landmark. It's that thing that let's every Torontonian, no matter where they are in the city, know that they're home. I'm surprised that anyone would treat it with such disregard.
 
I'm probably isolated in the opinion that the towers would actually improve the view from the CN Tower rather than spoil it.

The Oxford Buildings will only block views of some of the old bank towers, which in my opinion are far less interesting to look at than the Islands or the low rise region west of the financial district.


Still, I seriously doubt this proposal will get through without some height revision (because this is Toronto), so you will probably get your way.
 
I know this is quite crude, but all I have is google Earth, so it's the best I can do.
Using the outlines of the Oxford Towers (which I posted earlier), I traced the outline of the towers from the vantage point of the CN Tower onto the city itself to find which areas would be irrevocably blocked by the proposal.
ddddkldskldvk.jpg

There area covered in pale green is the region that would be blocked if you were to stand in the middle of the observation deck looking directly towards downtown.
The red line is the area that would be blocked if you were to stand the western edge of the observation deck.
The green line is the area that would be blocked if you were to stand at the eastern edge of the deck
The opaque white portion is the area that would be permanently blocked by the towers. It's not super accurate, but it gives a certain idea of what will be obscured.

Conclusion: You would be losing the view of most of the FCP and the other towers of the financial district as well as some of the Eaton Centre.
 

Attachments

  • Oxford Shadow.jpg
    Oxford Shadow.jpg
    104.4 KB · Views: 498
  • ddddkldskldvk.jpg
    ddddkldskldvk.jpg
    103.9 KB · Views: 693
Last edited:
verticalvillage said:
Actually I would. These two towers are far more interesting and beautiful than anything in the financial district.
Click to expand...

You'd rather view a glass wall as opposed to over 40 years worth of different heights, colours, and building materials? What about Scotia plaza, City hall or the TD centre? Sure our financial district isn't the most interesting, but I think many Torontonians and tourists will agree that it's a lot more interesting than viewing someone's office cubical.
 
City Hall will not be blocked, first of all. The middle layer in my graphic was pretty inaccurate.

Well then I disagree with many Torontonians and tourists.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
Blocking the view from the CN Tower should be the least of our concerns when building this city. If the view from CN is blocked, well that's their own issue to fix.
Click to expand...

Most think that the CN Tower's blocked view, is bad for that picture perfect postcard shot of the city. That view is from the toronto island.

Re one of the previous posts:

"I'm sorry, I'm really confused about this project. Has the whole thing been scrapped, or just the casino and hotel component?"

We don't have to say sorry, to ask a question.
 
Last edited:
NBGtect said:
A little disturbing the lack of respect for the CN Tower. It's sacrilegious and not very Canadian. Eh?
Click to expand...

That question created so many thoughts that I simply cannot reply with one simple sentence. Here are the list of them:

-For me, running the view OF the CN tower is far more significant than running a SMALL PART of the view FROM the CN Tower. The former is something these towers simply do not do.

-Tell the people at Oxford they are being sacrilegious and UNcanadian by building tall next to the CN Tower and they will be quite amused.

-I had no idea that personal opinions on architecture are to be dictated in certain cases.
 
E.B. said:
Most think that the CN Tower's blocked view, is bad for that picture perfect postcard shot of the city. That view is from the toronto island.

Re one of the previous posts:

"I'm sorry, I'm really confused about this project. Has the whole thing been scrapped, or just the casino and hotel component?"

We don't have to say sorry, to ask a question.
Click to expand...

E.B. said:
We don't have to say sorry, to ask a question.
Click to expand...


I have received messages from some very indignant people on this forum due my "bumping" of threads, which most of the time were comments to ask how a project was getting on, rather than wade through pages of confusing comments. I like to apologize before when commenting sometimes to anticipate this reaction.
Also, its a bit of a habit (similar to saying "umm" as a prelude).
 
E.B. said:
Most think that the CN Tower's blocked view, is bad for that picture perfect postcard shot of the city. That view is from the toronto island.

Re one of the previous posts:

"I'm sorry, I'm really confused about this project. Has the whole thing been scrapped, or just the casino and hotel component?"

We don't have to say sorry, to ask a question.
Click to expand...

Good points I was annoyed as well seeing the two issues conflated. So long as most of King & Bay is visible from SOME PART of the lower deck, that is fine. In any case new areas will soon come to rival King & Bay. In so far as the view OF the CN Tower, that's somewhat more complicating. You don't want a complete wall around it. Perhaps one of the Foster Towers could remain a Tall, whereas the other could be smaller?
 
Ok. Have to throw in my two uneducated cents here, but, just because the CN Tower is our landmark, and the means by which so many define our skyline, how long can we continue to use it as a reason not to breech the 300+ metre mark? We've come so far in so many respects, yet remain in the dark (pardon the pun) when it comes to building anything near the CN tower, let alone a tall tower. As far as tall towers go, our skyline has looked exactly the same since the 70's, with FCP, the CN Tower, Scotia Plaza (I know, that's from the 90's) and the various banking towers remaining the hallmarks of our dated look.

Isn't it time that we, when given the chance, replace our old landmarks with newer ones. Call it a lonely impulse of delight, but I beg the skyscraper gods, please, building us a few new super talls. As for for shadowing or loosing views, that's all part of grow, is it not? How many blocked views and shadows have been created in the last 10 years in the uptown, downtown and south cores? So why is it we're seemingly so terrified to break such an old taboo? Honestly, we're always bragging that we have the most construction happening in North America, why not have something really worth bragging about? Love them or hate them, can you imagine the visual impact on our skyline if Gerhy's proposal, Oxfords, and 1-7 Yonge's was built as originally designed?

I know just how many factors are at at play here, but maybe that the problem. City council takes them, rips them apart, and offers a modified counter proposal, the owners do the same, until we're left with a design but a mere shadow of what it was designed to be. I'm not saying build with no limits, most bylaws are there for a good reason, but just once, I'd love to see something over 300 meters built, with no so much as a whimper from city council. Just a wild fantasy? Probably, but if we're ever to break the hight phobia paranoia, we've got to start somewhere, just sayin....... (Let the comments, commence! Lol! That's fine, variety, and different view points, are the spice of life, and things are about to get very spicy indeed) :cool:
 
I really respect CN tower, it is a beautiful piece of architecture and CN tower is the only reason I love Toronto so much and this is the only reason that made skyscrapers my interest and this is the reason I joined these forums. but I would love to see all these buildings go up as proposed because if you compare Toronto to what it used to built in 70's or 80's was much better than what was being built around the world. but now even cities you would have never heard of have better projects going up than Toronto.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top