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E

esplanade guy

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One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing ads for condos with great pics, only to be totally disappointed when I see the finished condo. Some have been so completly misleading, that I would never buy a condo in this city untill it is built and the cladding is up. Why does the cladding always look so much more exspensive and attractive in the renderings? How can these guys get away with that, some even change the whole design but never for the better. I am curious to see what you guys think is the biggest disappointment or most misleading condo ad or rendering you've seen in this city.
 
Condo advertisments are no different than ads for Big Macs or beer. Its marketing. Every ad does as much as possible (within legal limits) to make its product seem as appealing as possible. Toronto condo ads are no different than ads in any other major North American city.

Renderings can be good for offering one perspective as too how the building will look. But renderings will always be somewhat misleading. It is hard to find a program that can accurately render every material in 100% detail and to the exact specifications of the product that is actually being used. Ad that many companies just want something that will catch peoples eye and are not going to be too concerned with accuracy and you can ensure that most every rendering, anywhere, will be misleading.

In the end, if you want to know how a building will actually turn out, dont trust renderings, just as you wouldnt trust a McDonalds commercial to determine how your Big Mac will actually look when you get it. The best way to understand how a building will turn out is go through city documents and using elevations, research on the specific materials being used, manufacturer information, and a little imagination, you should be able to determine how it will turn out. Also just look at built examples of what the company has done before, which can offer a strong insight into the quality and construction techniques of their projects.
 
I hate when they just put the building in without any of the others around it. Most of the ones in MCC do this and it gets annoying because you can't tell the impact it has in the surronding area.
 
In my opinion, one exception to this is the 360 at Scarborough Centre by Tridel. The original rendering showed an elliptical "lipstick" tower with nothing on top, which I thought was ugly. The newly-completed real tower has an elliptical mechanical penthouse on the top that is set back a little from the facade, which I think makes it look a bit better than the rendering.

The best way to understand how a building will turn out is go through city documents and using elevations, research on the specific materials being used, manufacturer information, and a little imagination, you should be able to determine how it will turn out.
Click to expand...

With the new powers Toronto will be getting from the province, developers will probably have to show more architectural details (including cladding material) in the future on city documents. That, plus the possibility of a future urban design panel, might mark the end of misleading condo renderings.
 
I forgot to mention... the "Skysuites" at the ridiculous "Star of Downtown" gets my vote. Imagine how thin the air will be as you stand on your balcony in the sky... a heady 9 floors up.
 
The tower in the park renderings are the worst of the bunch, IMHO. At least give me a sense of place by putting in some boxes to represent surrounding structures. Convenietly forgetting to draw the other buildings, especially when they are other buildings in the same development is my favourite - Tridel Nuvo2.

Same goes for views. If you are going to post a view on a website, it shouldn't be from a building in the area. The Spire website is a great example of this - check out the "south" view. They have a photo from about 1000ft up, a good distance north of the site - Spire views
 
The flip side (as I often state) is some of the worst renderings turn out to be handsome buildings... not just via reduced expectations.

I predicted that 18 Yonge (pretty terrible rendering) would look fine and dandy with decent curtain wall... and that's exactly what is happening.
 
i would nominate Water Park Place (think that is the correct name) down on Queens Quay across from QQ Terminal. Not so much a misleading rendering of the building than an almost laughable artists interpretation of the area around the building. made it look like it's smack dab in the middle of Monte Carlo than on dreary run-down Queens Quay.
 
In terms of advertising, I think Antiloop said it all. Though I'd like to be more polite, it's hard not to say "Don't be gullible".

As for renderings vs. the real product in the end, I frequently find myself more pleased by the completed building than by the rendering. I think I colour the rendering with an anticipation of the worst possible outcome as a way of insulating myself from later disappointment. I've gone months and months without looking at a building's progress because I thought it would be too much to bear, only to be pleasantly surprised when it turned out, in my mind, much better than the rendering. Pinnacle 1 and 1 King West are a good examples of this.

I think other people must colour the renderings with their own anticipation of a fine building using expensive materials, and then get disappointed.

The renderings in most cases really allow both a pessimistic or an optimistic take on the buildings.
 
Solution? Don't buy pre-construction. In theory there are benefits in terms of choosing amenities and even price discounts, in practice time is worth more than money. The inevitable 6 months of delay and additional x months of post move-in hastle would best be spent by saving a little extra for re-designing a re-sale unit.
 
"Don't buy pre-construction"

Dude - you're killing the boom
 
In (minor) defence of the developers, it's really, really hard to make a totally accurate rendering of anything, especially what cladding will look like from different angles and in different light conditions. No doubt there is some creative license taken in the marketing drawings for some projects, but often what you see is what the architects are working with too--although, obviously, their work is much more influenced by samples and technical drawings.
 
I agree, Waterpark Place was totally misleading. It made it look like they were tearing down that parking lot behind it and the condos would be oval, reaching to the highway. I was totally fooled by the rendering.
 
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