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West Don Lands: District Energy Centre (Steven Holl Architects)

some great renderings there, thx AoD......forgive me if it has already been discussed, but just what is this?

49faeafa8d6ed.jpg
 
yyz:

That's the pagoda and reflecting pool feature of the District Energy Centre, on the Cherry St. side. You can also see the Corten clad steps at the back...

AoD
 
that's no ordinary pagoda.....thx AoD....
 
I hope that is forgotten when it comes to actually building the project.
 
Some awesome renders!!
Does anyone know how the new Pan-Am games Athletes Village will cahnge the West Don Lands Plan. Is it just going to stay the same, with a section of the buildings designated to the Pan-Ams. THat would also mean that it gets built up faster.
 
Those rendering show much promise. I love the scale of the buildings. Now let's see if we can avoid 3 floor podiums and point towers.
 
Bad news re: the project, it would seem:

http://urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?5463-Toronto-2015-Pan-American-Games-Bid&p=381279#post381279

Development of the West Don Lands has already been plagued by serious delays. The District Energy Centre – part of Waterfront Toronto’s commitment to meeting the heating and cooling demands of its new neighbourhoods through a centralized district energy system – has been eagerly anticipated since it was announced two years ago that New York luminary Steven Holl would be designing it with local firm Bortolotto Architects. Construction was to begin at the end of 2008. Alas, the plan to centralize is now being rethought, says Waterfront CEO Campbell. A smaller series of energy minicentres is now being considered for the site, but when or how that will happen has yet to be decided.
Click to expand...

AoD
 
It seems a shame that for all the water features of the Don Lands projects, none of them actually connect up to the Don. There's something strained and artificial about their presence. I know there is a lot of pre-existing infrastructure that makes such a connection extremely difficult, but I think even so that there is a missed opportunity here. The Don is being treated somewhat like a problem to be worked around, rather than something to be embraced.
 
Tulse, you need to go to the WaterfronToronto site and read up on the Don River. The Don is the problem. It floods every few decades, and construction of the West Don Lands project depends on completion of the landform they are currently working on. If any water feature did connect to the Don (not sure this is actually that possible with elevation differences) it would be a flood conduit into the neighbourhood. No missed opportunity, unless building a catastrophe in waiting is an opportunity. The landform will essentially be incorporated into a large park. The eventual development in the Lower Don Lands (port lands) will have more integration with the river.
 
I didn't realize the Don was so problematic (although I suppose I should have figured that out given the flood prevention berm being built). No doubt rectifying such a more systemic issue would be hugely expensive, but it is rather sad to me that a city with two sizeable rivers that run to the lake can't do a better job incorporating those rivers into the city fabric (like, say, Paris, or even San Antonio).
 
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