Yesterday's Photo of the Day consider how TeaHouse 501 Yonge Condos took Toronto's relentless orthogonality and applied a grid to a since curve. Today we look at another project that plays around with grids, also rather successfully. Still under construction at Jarvis and Shuter Streets, the new Hyatt Centric Hotel and The 203 Residences on Jarvis takes other approaches to its play, choosing two different expressions, and also adding a transition between them. The building's lower section is devoted to the hotel; here, an otherwise orthogonal grid has been toyed with by varying the width of the frames for the windows, even as they all continue to line up with each other above and below, as any self-respecting grid should. The upper portion where the residences are sports balconies, popping away from the strict box behind in alternating places on successive floors, adding diagonals to that section, yet never straying from its grid. The transition between the two sections is exactly that — a set of supporting diagonal members that not only transfer some of the load, but also make a similar visual impact. While the image below by UrbanToronto Forum contributor Riseth captures all of it in one image, detail images by contributor skycandy in this post emphasize the individual components.

Looking northeast to the coming Hyatt Centric and 203 Residences on Jarvis, image by UrbanToronto Forum contributor Riseth

Of note, the building to the left in the background, which plays around with grids as well, is in fact another local landmark — Grid Condos — with its geometrically constrained snaking pattern marking the building as it rises.

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