That ad is idiotic. I thought it was a joke.

A great improvement over the previous scheme and infinitely better than the horrible plaza that's there now. This can't happen soon enough.

Excellent. Good to see this happening finally. And the more they can do to hide that Tridel tragedy to the south the better!

This podium discussion is getting tedious but I feel I need to clarify...a podium is a base, or a platform. Formally in architecture, it is just horizontal element that supports larger mass, often a tower, usually with some distiction between the two. It doesn't matter how it is programmed...

White is better to reflect light and heat.

Got an invite to register for this in the mail today. The website is: artcondos.ca No new info on there yet. Bad name and really bad art on the mailer. The building looks ok though.

A is certainly Patkau and is the best of this group by a long shot in my opinion. I liked the ideas of excavating that D was going for but it wasn't well resolved and ultimately the thing looks like a train wreck...or a car wreck. Any the other two look like student work...fine but half baked.

Not bad, I expected worse...and a hundred times better than those terrible townhouses across the street.

I believe Concord Adex has aquired more land west of parade 2, so most likely they will build west (and lower) before they commit to something as tall as the 'signature' would be.

yeah, more like a 5/10, very average.

Probably to make up for some of the floor area that was lost when they reduced the floor count. It's cheaper to make bigger floor plates then to add more floors. That said, this thing is so tall and narrow I don't think the impact will be that different.

Interesting. This thing is getting bigger and it's nice that some intesification is going to happen on Queen Street. I wonder how they'll manage the lane since it appears to intersect their two properties.

90%! That was fast. With the parking garage already underway this thing can be done pretty quickly. Nice.

Retail space along Bloor is pretty maxed out, so it is inevitable that it will start migrating west. You won't get Prada here but it certainly won't be fast food anymore. Even McDonald's is on it's way out.

Leases in condos like this pecifically exclude fast food restaurants as they cheapen the perception of the property. You're more likely to see high end retail shops attempt to move west across Bloor. An Apple store would be more likely...you have the intersection of University students and well...

Apparently Redpath processes sugar mainly from Cuba. It is basically viable as long as the US keeps it's embargo. If the US ever starts trading with Cuba, there's no need to ship raw material this far...or so I've heard.

This building does look great. Even just the bottom 6 floors alone could sit comfortably on any main street.

^It was. There was a bit of parking in front of the muffler shop but not really a parking lot.

It's not that temporary. The LCBO would have signed a multi year lease that I doubt would be that short. It looks horrible. At the very least they can use it as a condo showroom when the time comes...

^good point. It certainly has a 'star of downtown' quality to it. This area has otherwise been pretty fortunate.