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There are lots of projects in this city that grab the imagination from the first renderings, and which inspire a rabid following amongst UrbanToronto members from when the excavation gets underway until the last nick in the plasterboard is corrected. Those are the L Towers, the X Condos, the Four Seasons of UrbanToronto. And then there are the sleepers: the ones which found some champions early on, and where more and more members have woken up to the building's charms as floor by floor goes up, and brick by brick is laid. That's a Charlie, and Great Gulf's 36-storey condo now rising at the corner of King and Charlotte streets just west of the core has been adding fans with every new floor of concrete and rebar and glazing.
Lots of photographers have been aiming their lens at this Diamond & Schmitt-designed tower as of late. Let's take a look, running from mid-January to mid-February.
Above is UrbanToronto member androiduk's tight shot looking straight up from King Street. Of note here: black bricks which have been embraced by so many Toronto architects of late (was it Diamond Schmitt's own Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts that started the craze? yes!) make for a podium that one can warm up to, and then there are the columns, holding the building's tower up and over an amenity area atop the podium. That's a dramatic detail that more building designs could make good use of.
UrbanToronto member rdaner got this shot of the podium within its King West context. rdaner has stated he can't stop from looking at the building. Somehow, all the proportions, materials, volumes just seem right. We expect that its going to engage the street very well once the hoarding comes down and the building's retail opens. The cutaway square at the corner looks promising.
Travis caught this image of Charlie rising to the east of The Hudson, another Great Gulf Homes project which was also designed by Diamond Schmitt. When this building was completed in 2006, the consensus around UrbanToronto was that it had set a benchmark for condo development in the King-Spadina area.
UrbanToronto member Red Mars caught this view of Charlie from a parking lot just off Peter Street. The east wall, also seen in the following two shots, is marked by its twin runs of inset balconies. We really look forward to seeing the balcony glass go on: the look should be very sleek.
We caught this view of Charlie on Friday while standing atop Shangri-La's mechanical penthouse. The high-flying view shows that Charlie is now within a couple floors of topping off.
Finally, here's Charlie today, from Cinema Condos, a Daniels project which we will be bringing you at better look at soon.
UrbanToronto has many more renderings of Charlie, including several interiors, to give you more of an idea of what to expect when Charlie is all finished, in our database entry for the project. You can find that below along with links to the associated Forum links if you would like to join in the conversation!
