Sure, the stacked rink proposal looks really nice, but it is a night-time view! Of course it will look luminous, ethereal, magic, etc. Day-time views are the real test: will it retain some of the glass lightness, or will it look like any old tinted glass cubic suburban office building? Questions about the quality of materials and work, etc.
As for the Hearn Plant, no, I'm not blaming toronto planning in the least, but the fact remains that the private company has approached the city with a plan that is worth considering on its functional, architectural and planning merits, eventhough submitted as a reaction to the decisions being made elsewhere. Even if the private company really just wants to get out of the no longer wanted leasing agreement, the city + planners should not ignore it just because the proposal originates from a private company! Especially since the stacked proposal still significantly changes the Lower Don Lands planning, though of course much less than the original flat one.
The Hearn proposal would not have interfered in the Lower Don plans, in fact it would have acted as a kind of nucleus for further repurposing of the port lands and gradual opening to public uses.
We spend large sums of money & hire good private sector planning consultants to develop coherent plans for Toronto, only to dump them at the first expedient opportunity and build, bit by bit, in another direction.
