Toronto Yonge & Rich Condominiums | 156.35m | 46s | Great Gulf | a—A

UtakataNoAnnex said:
So I guess it's safe to say they're not painting those podium slabs red as depicted in the renders at this point... :(
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They don't paint precast, they stain it, as paint would flake off whereas stain seeps in. You'd only ever stain neutrally coloured precast (normally with a brick pattern molded into it). Dark precast, (as here, which would have been tinted when it was molded) wouldn't show the stain particularly well. King West Life Condos are an example of where a rather anemic, monotone stain job was done on neutral precast, and BackYard Neighbourhood Condos is an example of where are pretty good job was done. Like I said though, we have a tinted precast here (and boy is it ever dull).

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March 22, 2021

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interchange42 said:
They don't paint precast, they stain it, as paint would flake off whereas stain seeps in. You'd only ever stain neutrally coloured precast (normally with a brick pattern molded into it). Dark precast, (as here, which would have been tinted when it was molded) wouldn't show the stain particularly well. King West Life Condos are an example of where a rather anemic, monotone stain job was done on neutral precast, and BackYard Neighbourhood Condos is an example of where are pretty good job was done. Like I said though, we have a tinted precast here (and boy is it ever dull).

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Well thank you for explaining that for me...

But as one can tell, I'm not in the industry as I am using quaint n00b terms in describing standard techniques here. So I'll now amend my respective post to: I guess it's safe to say they're not staining those podium slabs red as depicted in the renders at this point. :(
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
Well thank you for explaining that for me...

But as one can tell, I'm not in the industry as I am using quaint n00b terms in describing standard techniques here. So I'll now amend my respective post to: I guess it's safe to say they're not staining those podium slabs red as depicted in the renders at this point. :(
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Naaaaah… and no need to apologize for anything!

I know not everyone thinks the podium cladding is poor—the developer would probably tell you it was subdued to as not to compete with the heritage walls (not mentioning that what they've chose is much less expensive)—but you can't even see the heritage walls from Richmond Street. I would much rather have seen embedded brick panels, something darker in tone so that the heritage buildings would still stand out on the Lombard Street side, while leaving something handsome and textural on the Richmond and Victoria street sides.

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evandyk said:
That part of Richmond is pretty gross anyways, and you'd be crazy to walk there because Richmond St is basically a highway, so this will be fine for that location. The Victoria side looks nice, and I like the tower from a distance.
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You don't have to be crazy to walk on Richmond, that's complete hyperbole. 60 Richmond, just across the street, is residential, BTW… and even if that road is one of the faster ones downtown, that's not an excuse for cheaping out the cladding. Why deprive drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians of something worthy even just as background 'fabric' on any street? Cheap is cheap no matter where in town it is, and takes away from the city overall.

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I actually am forced to walk on that stretch regularly, as my toddler is obsessed with watching the ambulances come and go from the garage there. And it had Hawthorne Food & Drink for a while, and still has Bob's bulgogi. Still, the volume and speed of the traffic makes it one of the worst places to walk downtown.
 
I think part of why Richmond is not a great pedestrian experience is because it's one way, meaning drivers do go quickly here when they hit a stretch of green lights. It could easily be 1 lane in each direction with wider sidewalks from parliament to bathurst. Pre installation of the bike lanes it was 4 lanes one way so not exactly the most friendly environment to walk next to, but even with the lanes installed it can feel a bit bleak. Ideally we would see adelaide and richmond go 2 way in the near future but I am doubtful there is the political will to make that happen.
 
DavidCapizzano said:
I think part of why Richmond is not a great pedestrian experience is because it's one way, meaning drivers do go quickly here when they hit a stretch of green lights. It could easily be 1 lane in each direction with wider sidewalks from parliament to bathurst. Pre installation of the bike lanes it was 4 lanes one way so not exactly the most friendly environment to walk next to, but even with the lanes installed it can feel a bit bleak. Ideally we would see adelaide and richmond go 2 way in the near future but I am doubtful there is the political will to make that happen.
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I agree it should happen; but it's not really feasible in the east end because of the way in which the overpass connections to the DVP are set-up.

You can't just re-stripe and those go 2-way.

The only section that was seriously looked at for 2-way conversion was west of University.

Adam Vaughan was supportive of that as I recollect.

But it didn't go anywhere.

Here's an article on that, from The Star in 2009.

www.thestar.com

Is two-way traffic the best way?

Is it time to convert one-way Richmond and Adelaide back to two-way streets?
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com
 
To each their own, of course. As someone who mostly walks and cycles through downtown as I don’t own a car, but often drives through downtown in a work vehicle for deliveries, I personally think Richmond and Adelaide being one way with decently separated bike lanes is the single best practical design feature of downtown Toronto. Sure the bike lanes (adelaide and Yonge area sucks, delivery trucks blocking throughout) and pedestrian experience could be somewhat improved, but I always gravitate towards these streets in a bike or car specifically because they are one way, and as a pedestrian have actually grown to quite like them as a somewhat more Covid-friendly route through downtown. There are indeed notably less pedestrians, but imho the speed of traffic has next to nothing to do with that, it really doesn’t seem bad/fast at all. Others may disagree. If 70% of residents said they wanted to go back to two way streets, you wouldn’t catch me complaining to Adam Vaughan or whoever about it, whatever the most people want should fly, but I currently have a strong strong preference for one way options downtown.
All of which is to say that of course the podium matters, because of course people walk and live here, and of course it sucks that this one is so, so bad.
 
Are we sure it’s 1-way streets that correspond with poor pedestrian experience? NYC has plenty of them, and it’s a vibrant, walkable city. Isn’t it more likely that block length, number and width of travel lanes, poor frontage and small sidewalks have a bigger impact - regardless of whether the street is one-way or not?
 
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