Toronto West Harbour City | ?m | 36s | Plaza | BDP Quadrangle

I've walked down that street a couple times in the last month trying to envision what the community will look like at street level once the projects to the north get built out as well. I have high hopes that the townhomes, among other things, will make those streets a desirable place to live. The metal railings are a great architectural touch as well! They give a certain vintage-like touch to an contemporary structure.
 
March 13 2011 update

Previous photos that I forgot about:

West Harbour City 1
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West Harbour City 2
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The last shot looks like a bigger North York, walking down Doris Ave.
The building itself looks like a love child from a Ryugyong groupie :-D
 
arg, where are these lights from ? They're ugly.
 
Did I see that a TD Canada Trust is going to be opening in the bottom of Phase 2? Does anyone have any additional information about this?
 
I actually like the tower, just not in this location. The townhouses are awful. This is the best we can do?

It's annoying that over the last 10+ years Toronto's had a clean slate. A chance to really construct some striking buildings downtown along the water and for the most part it's been one giant failure.
 
Don't really understand the hate for the tower. You'd think people would appreciate the break in the sea of redundant green glass but I guess I'm the only one.
 
I love the tower! The base is meh though.

The townhomes aren't evil ... and if there were 5/10 of them it may be nice but there's just way too many of them.
 
HHC said:
Don't really understand the hate for the tower. You'd think people would appreciate the break in the sea of redundant green glass but I guess I'm the only one.
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You are not the only one. The reaction to this tower and the townhouses is hysterical, as per usual. None of this is terrible. This isn't my favourite style, but I don't want my city to be all one style.

For many people here there seem to be only two reactions: "epic" or similar, and "the sky is falling" or similar. Can no-one see shades of grey here? You would think so in a city with so much grey... (although strangley enough there's no grey in this project!)
 
WiddleBittyKitty said:
You are not the only one. The reaction to this tower and the townhouses is hysterical, as per usual. None of this is terrible. This isn't my favourite style, but I don't want my city to be all one style.

For many people here there seem to be only two reactions: "epic" or similar, and "the sky is falling" or similar. Can no-one see shades of grey here? You would think so in a city with so much grey... (although strangley enough there's no grey in this project!)
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Well, UT is one tough crowd, expect lots of black and white here. This whole area will present a much different aspect when thousands of people suddenly walk these mean streets .
 
taal said:
arg, where are these lights from ? They're ugly.
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I believe that these are Toronto's pseudo-standard streetlights in (random parts of) the downtown core, are they not? They've been used in a number of projects over a number of years, although they haven't ever been rolled out on a city-wide basis. They can be seen in the recent streetscape improvements on Yonge south of Lakeshore, the landscaping around the Ritz, and (with a different colour scheme) in parts of Yorkville, to name just a few locations.

As a somewhat depressing footnote, the last time I took the train from Penn Station to Newark Airport I noticed that the exact same lights are used at one of the many nondescript train stations in Jersey. I never liked these lights to begin with, but now I positively loathe them.
 
I know those lights have also been used along Fort York Blvd for atleast a few years now. I guess they are meant to be a modern take on a lantern. As for the townhomes, I guess I'll have to take a closer look in person but to me they look great in the pics. I love the way the red brick of the towns was picked up in the horizontal detailing of the towers. very crisp clean modern design using historic (or simulated) materials. Of course it all looks rather barren at the moment, wait till its finished and there is landscaping and leaves on the trees, people in the streets.

Still though I agree that Toronto for the most part seems to be incapable of building new neighbourhoods from a blank page. So much of it is merely building capacity with little to no livability, maximizing profits instead of building a true neighbourhood. North of here, Liberty Village only half succeeds, mainly based on what was there before the building boom. The highrises being built there feel as if they were just jammed in rather than being thoughtfully placed...
 
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