This POMO lump is going to be a big fat exclamation mark terminating the last remnant and perhaps the best preserved example of Toronto's Victorian streetscapes thus totally screwing the scale and context that exists(ed) in this area. I'm a modernist, and I'm not anti-development, nor am I afraid of density. At all. BUT - I see the value in preserving the irreplaceable. This remarkably intact stretch of impressive Victorian facades continue(ed) almost unterrupted all the way to St. Lawrence Market. I'm not suggesting that the demolished building should have been preserved, just that it should have been replaced by an exceptional building (even starkly modern) that adheres to the disciplined scale of the adjacent row. Especially above the 4th storey parapet, where the building should have ended. The chamfered corner and cheesy cornice of this building just adds unsult to injury before the next 8 storeys expose the token contextualism for what it is.
In a city that has all but obliterated it's past I see this development as another nail in the coffin.
This city seems to be hell-bent on transforming itself into a bland corporate schlockscape. Remarkably, by the tone of this forum, many of it's members are standing by panting, eager to see it happen.