Yikes.

The "podium" (why would a slab form like this need a "podium" in the first place?*) is rough. And its endless window wall cladding reinforces the problem. *Not saying there is never a time and place for that... but in a city where podiums serve as the default "solution", I don't understand why...

But in all seriousness, this thing already looks fantastic. The massing and the gestural stepping looks even better in person. The precast is the cherry on top so far.

Huge fan of the slab-tower form of this one. I am a sucker for a wide and shallow plate at any height. Looking great so far, the precast is nice.

Very glad to see precast used here. I was worried that like so many other projects it would default to alum. paneling.

Nothing about this is good or aspirational in any way. That facade is bargain-basement crap.

I find it strange that they took the strongest feature of the entire tower — the concrete shear walls that frame the long balconies — and played it down entirely by cladding it in window wall with spandrel panels that emphasize the horizontal. It would have made more sense for the architecture...

I wouldn't read into this as anything more than it is - a mislabeling of the unit type. Using OBC floor area minimums, you cannot achieve a 3B in 663 sq ft. A lot of developers are pushing for 610-620 sq ft 2B units in Toronto these days and it's not really workable. 650, yes. Below that is not...

It feels metropolitan and complex, while managing to be understated and visually succinct at the same time. Toronto usually isn't good at that, so it's nice to see Vińoly bring some of that here. (It's also serving an 80s cocaine-corporate vibe that I think is really interesting and sexy.)

Very ungainly 😖

19 Duncan is literally in another stratosphere from how this thing will turn out.

Geez we're an insufferable lot here, aren't we?! (And I say that as a Corktowner who is desperate for a grocery store to open in this area.) Realistically, they are probably dying to get foot traffic in there and product sold ASAP.

That tiny retained facade with the glass block is by far the most interesting part of this entire hulking complex. I can barely bring myself to make any other positive comment about this hulking waste of space and resources.

Oh man… I forgot about how bad this one is. The rendering alone suggests it will be a contender against the Social for worst new build.

Unfortunately, it looks like another Charles Street East condition is shaping up here. No guiding vision for the broader city block, just a bunch of parcel by parcel developments with a tower on a podium, none of them having any real regard for each other. The whole will never be greater than...

What's not good for our environmental footprint is that this entire building should be fully razed to the ground and replaced with something less insulting to whatever we have left of a civic identity. Dundas Square was already where architecture goes to die, but this might be the very final...

Hi all - new owner here. Does anyone happen to have any of the original PDFs from the marketing or around time of completion of the building? Let me know here or by DM. Many thanks!

This building is trying to be too many things at once. There are a number of questionable choices on the residential portion but my latest favourite thing to hate is the precast vertical elements at the first two storeys which are co-planar with the brick above (which they visually clash with)...

The Gardiner isn’t heavily used relative to its cost? I don’t love the thing either but you are essentially speaking gibberish.