2.1K 
This is one of several articles covering the October 1, 2012 announcement of Mirvish+Gehry Toronto, a condo and culture complex proposed for King Street West in Toronto. The buildings would replace white-painted mid-rise brick warehouse/office conversions and the 1993-built Princess of Wales Theatre. In place of the theatre, the project proposes a new campus for OCAD University, an OCADU gallery, a 'Mirvish Collection' gallery for David and Audrey Mirvish's significant collection of modern art, and new shops to support the residents both above as well as the growing downtown community as a whole. All of this is meant to create a vibrant, engaging streetscape above which three landmark towers in the 80-storey range will rise.
The October 1 press conference revealed lots of information regarding the new Frank Gehry / David Mirvish proposal for three soaring residential towers on King St. West. The press conference also provided the rare opportunity to see the progression of a piece of art from a mere concept to a working proposal. Many tower models of varying design along with three podium models were on display, all showing different stages of the proposal's evolution. First, we will take a look at the evolution of the towers themselves;
Three different podium models were presented, each another chance to experiment with how the project will meet the street.
While Gehry was not promising that the design depicted here is the final plan, we can at least show you some images of the most evolved design integrated into a full scale model of the Entertainment District:
A project of this magnitude has the power not only to rejuvenate the Toronto condo market and cultural scene, it has the power to redefine our skyline and provide an architectural landmark to represent our city on a world stage.
Additional articles covering various aspects of the Mirvish+Gehry megaproject will follow. For now, check out our dataBase entry, linked below, for more information and images.
