^ well, i mean sophistication in terms of market sophistication - ie. a greater familiarity with various modes and forms of building living. that is, i was more thinking that since most canadians grew up in single family homes with yards, they are accustomed to having that space and the balcony...

^ ah, thanks for the clarification. so it's the FAR bonus and the market bringing about the balconies then. i wonder if it's a sophistication thing - in cities where people have been living in buildings and towers for a generation or more, balconies are virtually non-existent.

^ yeah, there are obviously reasons for all of it, and those reasons could be good. but there's an aggregate result that maybe many people interested in cities and culture should feel very ill at ease with. the high barriers to entry in toronto mean that trends will tend to be set in america...

this is an important observation. chicago has far higher crime, far worse governance, and a worse financial position. but it's also a grand old(ish) city, with great public transit (toronto's is an international humiliation, btw), and just feels a lot more substantial, consequential and...

so as i understand it, balconies provide both extra space not counted toward FAR (so basically a "free" bonus on living space) and satisfy an open space access requirement so that they're scored as amenities spaces. parking requirements still stand in most of the city. personally, i'd prefer a...

introduces a pretty good scale to the area, regardless.

why don't they just change the damned rules so that the market can determine whether people will buy buildings adjacent to each other? wtf is this obsession with over planning all this stuff? has anyone been to new york or tokyo? toronto and vancouver treat podium point towers as a universal...

new paris courthouse (currently under construction) is 160 meters.

it's an attractive building, but it has to be top 10 worst facadectomies in the city that has elevated them to a fine art. looks very strange.

maybe they bought the cheapest panels they could get in the volume they needed. like deep discount on the lowest demand, sort of bargain bin ones. not joking, builders do this all the time.

they did a great job on this one. beautiful at the street level, great profile, respectful of the rear laneway. and still commercial to come. it looks like an icy northern version of miami.

^ why would you be glad about that? are you insinuating that you'd eat at a place like that?

man, i can't wait to see the before/after on this entire housing project, will end up as some sort of north america-wide model for renewing public housing.

honestly, this building looks more or less like a typical toronto tower. on the plus side, toronto may have generic-to-ugly buildings, but the current boom in the mid/low end of the market is a major investment in the long term prosperity of the city. these cheapo towers do a lot over the...

you all are complaining but this building will quickly decline in value and should greatly contribute to keeping that seedy "american bar"/resident hotel feel long characteristic of the dundas square/church corridor. building such an ugly tower is the developer's contribution to keeping the...

basically, the one issue for the toronto pearson line is cost. 28 bucks is nuts, just nuts. a couple flies into san francisco, it costs them 16.50 to get from sfo to the embarcadero, time: 45 minutes. a couple flies into vancouver, it costs them 16.00 to get from yvr to waterfront station...

will both towers be rising simultaneously?

atypically elegant for toronto, very nice.

basically, the people who have moved into the new highrise towers ringing u of t have pummelled the area with their dogs' urine and feces, finally leading to the university taking some action. i hate to use the word "entitlement" but, damn, how can you demand that u of t, which predates you by...

http://www.emporis.com/statistics/most-skyscraper-cities-worldwide emporis defines a skyscraper as a building over 100 meters. i'm counting at least 45 skyscrapers proposed or under construction in toronto right now, but i may be undercounting, possibly by a lot. with how tight the rental...