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We all know that buildings don't always turn out like the renderings. Last-minute changes and real-life materials can all cause discrepancies between the vision and reality of a project. In our weekly Flash Forward Friday feature, we take a look at how different projects stack up.
With a history that goes all the way back to a design competition from 2002, Great Gulf Homes' Hariri Pontarini Architects-designed One Bloor East, currently nearing completion at the corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets in downtown Toronto, has come a long way from drawing board to reality. The massive 76-storey tower will soon redefine one of the city's most iconic intersections.
Already a topic of discussion on our sister site, UrbanToronto, back in 2010, what was once known as Number One Bloor was originally given a radically different design treatment by Kolter Properties. As depicted above, the design would have seen a much more conventional round tower sprout upwards from a relatively non-despcript podium. An early favourite at UT, the first proposal was eventually replaced by another, seen below, presented by Bazis International, which was only narrowly edged out by the current design by fellow Toronto-based firm, Hariri Pontarini Architects.
Seen at the time as an improvement over the original Kolter design, the Bazis proposal offered another podium and tower arrangement. There was also the addition of a sizeable video screen feature at street level, which would have turned Toronto's fashionable Mink Mile into a miniature version of Yonge-Dundas Square.
Today known as One Bloor East, the final iteration (above and below) of what has since become Toronto's second-tallest residential tower after Aura, has been under construction since late 2010. The 76-storey, 257-metre tower has long since topped off, and the majority of exterior work on its distinctive swooping balconies and glass curtain wall are today nearing completion.
We will return next Friday with another comparison!
