dt_toronto_geek said:
If the podium is any indication of what is to come, I'm going to go out on a wire here and state that One Bloor will set a new standards for both design and material excellence for downtown highrise condos.
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It's long over due. People have been frustrated for long enough. One Bloor represents many of our aspirations for this city. I don't expect every building to be as good, but the standard stuff we've been building just doesn't cut it..... not if we aspire to be an influential global city.

Toronto isn't there yet, but we're getting closer all the time. Torontonians are becoming more sophisticated consumers and more demanding. Predictably, standards keep rising to meet those demands: One Bloor, MLG Loblaws, the Distillery. The signs are all about.
 
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Taken yesterday

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This is looking so good.
 

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The perspectives of some of these photos are great. When you think about how relatively few photos there were of famous buildings being built in Toronto in the 60s and 70s compared to today it's awesome. Fifty years from now people are going to have so much more documentation of everything from today.
 
While I hope that One Bloor is setting the standard, I doubt it. I've spent a fair amount of time in other cities, including NY, SF, Vancouver and Chicago, and there is a lot of crap that goes up there as well. Not everyone can afford top notch quality, so I believe there will always be a market for cheaper buildings made with cheaper materials. At least there are some great buildings in the mix.
 
McMac said:
While I hope that One Bloor is setting the standard, I doubt it. I've spent a fair amount of time in other cities, including NY, SF, Vancouver and Chicago, and there is a lot of crap that goes up there as well. Not everyone can afford top notch quality, so I believe there will always be a market for cheaper buildings made with cheaper materials. At least there are some great buildings in the mix.
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Of course. There will always be buildings with varying degrees of quality that are going up, thats how it works in an open market. Income levels and land values vary by neighbourhood, which affects the building costs and potential profits. As land values in the city rise and as the economy grows and people have more money, we will hopefully start to see higher quality buildings going up more frequently from an architectural standpoint. The best architecture is usually what stands the test of time, so hopefully as the city grows some of the low quality and mundane stuff we've gotten this boom gets redeveloped or redesigned.

That being said, I'm not sure the exterior of a building is that important to a lot of condo buyers. They are probably looking more at layout, square footage, condo fees etc...as you get into the high-end market, prestige and image are a lot more important. Wealthy people seem to feel the need to display how wealthy they are, and being able to say you live in the fanciest building in the city would be bragging rights.

Ideally, quality of architecture can be determined by the market. If the people speak with their wallets by buying into the nicer buildings and not so much the ugly ones, it will force developers to come up with better design's that sell. Anyway, this post was longer than I anticipated.
 
poop said:
That being said, I'm not sure the exterior of a building is that important to a lot of condo buyers. They are probably looking more at layout, square footage, condo fees etc...as you get into the high-end market, prestige and image are a lot more important. Wealthy people seem to feel the need to display how wealthy they are, and being able to say you live in the fanciest building in the city would be bragging rights
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Exactly. The thing is that most people that buy units in the building (as in pre construction/near launch) don't buy these with the idea of "home" in mind. They are mostly seen as investments. So what most people buy in to is location, price, ammenities, etc. none of which have anything to do with the exterior design of the building. That's why you see so much crap being built around the city. Developers get away with it because they know people will buy these units regardless of how the building looks on the outside. There's no need to make the building 'memorable' even though they always market their projects as such.

Whereas with luxury/high end buildings. Oftentimes buyers or the clients of buyers are looking for the best place to live in short or long terms. So quality is important to the developer and must be shown inside and out. The design of a building architecturally is another element that can justify or even increase the prices of the units in favor of the developer. It makes the property look as expensive as it sells for and can even add more money to the price of living there.

L tower is one of those non-luxury properties that used a lot of its design to sell units in the building. They even hired a famous architect. By branding it the "L" tower it was seen as landmark building by many buyers. (Also helped by having a good location). They delivered on the design of the building. L tower is undoubtably a landmark. As for quality, it dont think it did, but most buyers won't notice because their building is still curved and they still live in the 'l' tower.
 
DtTO said:
In this image, I wonder if the balconies will jeopardize the continuity of the vertical "lines." the glass that is currently up is angled to match the line from one floor to the next, but the balcony glass I'm sure will not be angled.
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Good question - guess we'll have to wait and see if the balcony glass is angled or not.
 
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