[Edward Skira]

You can view the page at http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2011/01/demolition-work-begins-site-concert-properties-berczy-condo

 

[MariahCarey]

some history just deserves to be destroyed

 

[gweed123]

It's that last rendering that really seals it for me. The complimentary brick, and the way the glass has been tinted to perfectly match the roof of the flatiron building. Fantastic.

 

[AlbertHWagstaff]

some history just deserves to be destroyed

some history just deserves to be destroyed

Well at least the red bricks of the old warehouse will be incorporated into this fine new building. If only that hideous parking garage at the bottom of Church St would go away instead.

 

[Conrad Black]

The area just keeps getting better.

 

[Redroom Studios]

hey, dont diss my favourite parking garage!

 

[Mcloukes]

i can understand them tearing down the exisiting building on the SW corner of Front and Church as it was boring and really didn't represent the area well but not the building south of that with all the ivy where the Keg was. that should of stayed.

nevertheless this buidling is a hell of alot better then the big glass jokes going up everywhere else

 

[WiddleBittyKitty]

Most glass jokes going up everywhere else are more elegant than this heavy-handed, ungainly, and over-corniced lump... and while it's actually the glass and spandrel part of this building that is Berczy's Achilles' heel, the lower floors don't look that great in the renderings either. I don't get why people like this building? Only because it has red brick cladding? The bricks are not arranged in a way that recalls the architecture of the Flatiron building across the street; they only look vaguely historical. The Front Street cornice may line up referentially with the warehouses to the west of it... but that's it: nothing else about the Berczy acknowledges the architectural context, and that's pretty sad in this special area of Toronto. D-

 

[HHC]

^^ Still looks better than glass. Who cares if it has little to no historical connotation unlike the flatiron, this building sure as hell has some character to it.

 

[4pook]

Don't think it's going to make my heart sing. Here's to hoping it looks better than the renders.

 

[Jayomatic]

heavy-handed, ungainly, and over-corniced lump

At least they're using a cornice. 95% of the developers in this city would just stop the brick and line the edge with aluminum. Take a look at the new Dukes and other rebuilds along Queen St. W.

 

[neubilder]

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.