Toronto Waterfront Innovation Centre | 53.03m | 11s | Waterfront Toronto | Sweeny &Co

I sent an email to a pile of people at Waterfront toronto and got the response copied below. Then I received another email that I think was mistakenly added to, but the sender pressed reply to all. I've copied it below as well.

email 1:

Thank you for reaching out – we always encourage a dialogue about the ongoing revitalization of our waterfront. I have noticed a handful of comments similar to yours online. It’s great to see that people are so invested in how our waterfront neighbourhoods are developing. The latest version of the renderings for the Waterfront Innovation Centre are part of the evolution of the building’s design as it goes through the Design Review Panel process. I’ve shared your feedback about the WaterfrontInnovation Centre with Menkes, since they are best positioned to address any concerns about the evolving design.

If you’re interested in understanding more about the process these projects go through, I encourage you to attend a session of the Design Review Panel. Sessions are open to the public – dates and times are posted in our online calendar of events: http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/misc_pages/calendar

Sincerely,

Mira

email 2:

Mira saw some of these comments on line yesterday and is engaging Menkes comms folks. This is escalating maybe so think we should discuss.

Sent from my BlackBerry - the most secure mobile device - via the Rogers Network
 
clarkburglar said:
email 2:

Mira saw some of these comments on line yesterday and is engaging Menkes comms folks. This is escalating maybe so think we should discuss.

Sent from my BlackBerry - the most secure mobile device still not impervious to human error - via the Rogers Network
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Fixed that for you... I mean for Mira... I mean for BlackBerry...
 
I think we have to keep emailing them and showing concern. If there's enough noise the glass will shatter.
 
am29 said:
I think we have to keep emailing them and showing concern. If there's enough noise the glass will shatter.
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Lisa Rochon (then Globe architecture critic) would have ripped this to shreds. This is what she said about Corus:

2) Corus Quay

Designer: Diamond + Schmitt Architects

Client: Corus Entertainment

It could have been exuberant but, in the end, a glassy-eyed building envelope was hastily assembled by city land owner TEDCO to install the first commercial tenant on the East Bayfront. Waterfront Toronto’s design review committee pushed, to no avail, for an easily accessible public galleria through the eight-storey Corus building. Sadly, there's a deadening north wall that is hardly inviting, though the public art and interior mega slide are entertaining and witty. Essentially, this is an incredible hulk of a building full of wonderful high-tech goodies, including three Toronto radio stations. A waterfront restaurant next to the building's airy atrium provides the best seats in town for enjoying the theatre on the water passing by.

Grade: B-
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...cs-report-card/article4255441/?service=mobile

And an even longer review of Sugar Beach touching on the project:

Such is the unsettling truth of the central waterfront as it is being currently rolled out - beautiful moments in its new public space marred by the construction of ordinary architecture.

The chunky green-glass Corus building was one of those Waterfront Toronto cloak-and-dagger secrets, once referred to mysteriously and misleadingly as Project Symphony. Its architect, Jack Diamond of Diamond + Schmitt, had been hired without a design competition by the Toronto Economic Development Corporation (TEDCO), a city agency that owns more than 60 per cent of the 1,000 acres in the city's downtown brownfields known as the Portlands. Diamond had previously worked as a consultant for TEDCO on the precinct plan for East Bayfront, just next door to Toronto's Harbourfront.

Given that Diamond has made a career of creating buildings designed to fit into the streetscape rather than express something individualistic or exuberant, the match was made in heaven: Emotional architecture is not what TEDCO, wanted. Flou? Feed it to the seagulls. In its wisdom, TEDCO - representing the Toronto taxpayer - wanted something glassy and generic.

Why? "The market pays for view. View was paramount," says project architect David Dow. Still, was it really necessary to promote something this indistinguishable on one of the city's grand-finale waterfront sites? "It had to be a generic enough office building that it could satisfy other tenants in the future," explains Dow. Imagine for yourself the hint of regret in his voice.

In response, Diamond + Schmitt created two glass office buildings linked by an atrium. Hardly a jewel, but, nevertheless, a competent design solution. The glass is dark green - not the golden colour of glass kissed by the sun, as it appeared in one of the earlier renderings from 2007. It's sustainable, smart design; but to the eye, it's a corporate clunker.
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6 years post-review, we are heading the road down the corporate clunker again - and no blaming TEDCO this time around.

AoD
 
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I wonder if outreach to the likes of Alex Bozikovic and Christopher Hume (he still makes intermittent appearances on the Internets), quoting both this and the Reddit threads might also help garner some momentum.

That apparent CC/BCC/reply all mixup posted above is pretty interesting; it might not take as much as one would think to tip the scales here.
 
mjl08 said:
Only way CP24 would mention the story is if Doug Ford was hosting a press conference at the site.
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And why would we want to do that, knowing what happened the last time he attempted to dip his fingers into the file. He'd sell his brother if he could.

AoD
 
More nonsense from Menkes:
Coming Soon: The Waterfront Innovation Centre is a new cutting-edge project in collaboration with Waterfront Toronto, Menkes Developments and Sweeny&Co Architects located in downtown Toronto 125 &155 Queens Quay East. This new office building currently under development will represent the next evolution in commercial office development and will reinvent how employees work together in Toronto’s rapidly evolving creative and technology sectors – including advanced visualization and interactive digital media, film and TV production.
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Bullshit.
 
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