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

I'm not sure how comparable the situation is to the Oxford towers, but are there many here who regret that we an no longer see the Royal York from the lake and wish Southcore had not gone up?
 
A few points to add to this CN Tower discussion:

Many cities have sightline preservation guidelines around important landmarks. I believe that NYC has a height limitation (either official or through systematic denial of applications) immediately around the Empire State Building. Ottawa has something like 24 "protected" views of the Parliament buildings that must be respected by any development.

I think the CN Tower needs to have at least one protected universal sightline: from the Lake. The sightline from the west is likely to be preserved because of what's already there, ditto for directly from the east.

In my opinion, the city should determine a few "classic" viewpoints from the north, and see how the Oxford proposal impacts them. Then you can re-mass and re-scale appropriately to have the proposal work from those viewpoints. What I think should happen is the Oxford towers should be limited to a height whereby, from those classic viewpoints, the main pod is still visible.

There are many spots in the city where developers can go gangbusters on height. But personally, I think at least iconic views of the CN Tower should be protected.
 
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gweed:

One I can think of is the University College-John Street axis. Not so much so "protected" per se but at least be cognizant of the potential impact.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
gweed:

One I can think of is the University College-John Street axis. Not so much so "protected" per se but at least be cognizant of the potential impact.

AoD
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Very true. The view from U of T is quite nice too. The other one that I was thinking was from Varsity Stadium.
 
ksun said:
you put too much emotion to a TV tower. It is nothing more than a tall concrete TV tower. Let the city grow and our skyline evolve, please.
Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower used to be the same iconic thing, then the city built two office buildings much taller than it in the past few years, and the people didn't seem to feel losing their "home". I would be happy if we build something taller than the CN tower and change our perception of the skyline completely.
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I'm pretty sure you are in the vast minority who feel that way, thank god. The CN tower is much more than just a "TV tower" it's a national icon, a civil engineer wonder according to American Civil Engineer Society and just plain pretty to look at. I have no problem building taller than CN Tower, but as other UT members have said, it is important to keep the CN Tower visible in both viewing from it and of it.
 
I guess may be this proposal is going ahead with the two 300m+ towers because the hotel towers are missing in the renders.
 
Man, I hope they go ahead as planned, even though the proximity to the CN Tower and resultant blocked view does bother me. Pity about the hotel component. I very much liked the ovoid/cylindrical design of those two.
Anyone have an inkling how long we'll have to wait to hear some fresh news about this?
 
Tewder said:
Yes, let's look to China for preservation cues.
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Have you visited Shanghai yourself before being all sarcastic about it? We need to be fair instead of being blindly dismissive about anything related to China.
The city has preserved plenty of heritage buildings. Although our media made it sound like Shanghai has demolished everything more than 30 years old to make room for new shiny skyscrapers, the old city centre has tons of historical buildings that were meticulously preserved. Most of the demolished buildings are really the sort of tacky commie blocks from the 1950-70s with horrible living conditions and sanitary standard (most without washrooms).

The French Consession for example is very well protected, with most old low rise store front preserved and restored, combined with new highrises in the back, not unlike what we are trying to do in downtown Toronto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_French_Concession
 
ksun said:
Have you visited Shanghai yourself before being all sarcastic about it? We need to be fair instead of being blindly dismissive about anything related to China.
The city has preserved plenty of heritage buildings. Although our media made it sound like Shanghai has demolished everything more than 30 years old to make room for new shiny skyscrapers, the old city centre has tons of historical buildings that were meticulously preserved. Most of the demolished buildings are really the sort of tacky commie blocks from the 1950-70s with horrible living conditions and sanitary standard (most without washrooms).

The French Consession for example is very well protected, with most old low rise store front preserved and restored, combined with new highrises in the back, not unlike what we are trying to do in downtown Toronto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_French_Concession
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That is fascinating to know, i was unaware of this. Makes me quite keen to go, places like Singapore lost a great deal.
 
buildup said:
That is fascinating to know, i was unaware of this. Makes me quite keen to go, places like Singapore lost a great deal.
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Also Google "the Bund" it has a very Euro scaled Beaux Arts European style streetscape that can't be found anywhere in North America.
 
pw20 said:
Also Google "the Bund" it has a very Euro scaled Beaux Arts European style streetscape that can't be found anywhere in North America.
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Yes, the Bund preserves an excellent collection of beaux arts architecture we don't see in Toronto or Montreal. It is nicknamed "Museum of architecture of 10000 countries". Today, those heritage buildings line up along the waterfront, acting as banks headquarters, designer clothing stores, or high end restaurant, telling all the stories about the city, in sharp contrast with the modern skyscrapers on the other side of the river, which westerners are more familiar with from the media.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bund

Shanghai preserves a great mixture of both Western and traditional style achitecture. The 300 year old Yu Garden showcases an extensive Chinese gardens and pavillions right in the heart of the old city, attracting thousands of visitors every day.

We can learn something from each country when it comes to urban design and heritage perservation, and the knee-jerk dismissive reaction to anything related to Chinese cities shows nothing but arrogance and ignorance. Do we really think the largest city with 1500 years of rich and complicated history in the one of the world's most ancient countries has nothing to offer architecturally?
 
…and back on topic. Thanks.

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