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

The little lump on the end would have been significantly better if the fins (and mullions?) were a different colour than the rest of the building (bronze? corten? wood? black?).

Right now it mushes together into one undifferentiated 905-esque office block.

The competition scheme at least attempted visual excitement (however derivative it is) - this iteration doesn't even bother with such pretense and gave us yet another anonymous piece of work along the lines of various other Menkes projects along that stretch of the waterfront.

And WT has no excuse this time around - it is your site, your chosen proponent putting forward this junk.

AoD
 
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It's like they intentionally tried to make it unresponsive to the surroundings. And there was so much potential there to do something grand
 
Pros:
No longer protrudes into the Sugar Beach walkway
Space inside the Nexus, especially at the Exchange (west) end of it looks like it will be quite appealing.
The building systems' green cred is all laudable.

Cons:
Clueless about people's desire to have something that looks innovative from the outside too. That should be a huge part of the program when you're sticking the word 'innovation' in the name of the place. Truly innovative companies are going to want that spirit to be telegraphed by the exterior of the building, as it will be their calling card, their first solid impression for many potential clients. While there's some attempt at juggling a few boxes into a whole on the Jarvis Quay side, (which is lame, but at least it's something), I'd argue that the Queens Quay (north) side is the most important for people's impressions of the building, and it's mostly undifferentiated and relentless in its utter blandness, like it were facing a backyard fence in a nondescript suburb: there isn't a hint that any thought other than "what's the cheapest wall we can put up here?" was formulated during its design.
You can't even tell "where the door is" on this building now. Now that the staircase is gone, now that the vaulted volume on the Jarvis Quay side is gone, there's nothing to draw anyone to a particular point in the facade (from what I've seen so far anyway) to draw first time visitors to a particular spot. Just another door at ground level, which looks like any other cafe or shop door, won't cut it: a building this long needs to draw people to the main entry from when they first see the building from a couple hundred metres away. Again, the Queens Quay facade needs a focal point, not a big drab nothing.

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I thought it was pretty bold for them to say there would be an LRT stop right in front. As much as I want that LRT line to happen, it feels like vaporware right now. Otherwise, the building itself is uninspiring in both colour and form. How long before they disable comments on that Youtube page? :)
 
Oh man....what is this..

I'll admit, the whole idea of the nexus, hive and exchange does sound like a really great idea, but this building's design is meshed with a fair amount of differing cladding types and materials. The whole row of pillars on the 3rd or so floor looks really unnecessary and weird IMO, but also the overall form is just strange. Part of me would like this to be a bit taller, maybe 15 floors, but honestly not something with this design.

Quoted from the video "This building represents change in Toronto"

You can interpret that how you want. I see several good and not so good things out of my interpretation.
 
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The little lump on the end would have been significantly better if the fins (and mullions?) were a different, warmer colour than the rest of the building (bronze? corten? wood? black?).

Right now it mushes together into one undifferentiated 905-esque office block with all the white/silver.

So is Menkes skipping DRP and going straight ahead? Pretty shameless if they're doing that.

The Waterfront DRP is one of the forces that got us to this ugly place, in this case.
 
The Waterfront DRP is one of the forces that got us to this ugly place, in this case.

I thought that there was a second DRP when they looked at the revised plans and also weren't satisfied about those.

Regardless, I'm entirely sure that the current form of the building is purely the result of a cost-cutting exercise.
 
I thought that there was a second DRP when they looked at the revised plans and also weren't satisfied about those.

Regardless, I'm entirely sure that the current form of the building is purely the result of a cost-cutting exercise.

It was scheduled but pulled off the agenda. It will have to be back for it.

AoD
 
I am very disappointed with the current design.
The waterfront deserve something respectable and iconic and not a trash like that.
I hope it will change for the better.
:(
 
Ok, so if Toronto isn't going to do something interesting in this spot, with this use, with the word "innovation" in the title, then I assume we aren't a city that is going to build interesting things anywhere.

Developers in Toronto must make significantly more money than developers in other comparable cities. We let them get away with crazy margins.
 
There is no pride of place for many of Toronto's biggest developers and Menkes is one of the worst in this regard. How does one shame these moneybag bean counters? I don't think any city in the world has tossed up as many bland boxes as Toronto has over the past 15 years.
 
Minutes from Feb WT Board meeting:

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/nbe/...the+February+10,+2017+Meeting.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

An award winning Architect-lead architect for the project will be Sweeny&Co. The project has been considered by the Waterfront Design Review Panel for concept design. Menkes has made considerable revisions to the concept in response to the Design Review Panel comments and anticipates that the building design will ultimately evolve to respond to tenant needs
(p. 4)

Doesn't sound all that positive regarding design changes.

AoD
 

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