khris
Senior Member
Almost a month late! Hopefully within the next week we'll see that gap close now.
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egotrippin
Senior Member
Yeah, that's definitely true. With its height, it'll make RBC look like a bit of a chunker. Though I still love RBC.
Build Up
Active Member
haha from that pic it makes simco place look short and fat, imagine how ritz is going to dwarf both of them
christiesplits
Senior Member
Seems like there are now four skyscraper clusters in downtown:
King & Bay
Yonge & Bloor
Front & Simcoe
Spadina & Lakshore
I'm crossing my fingers that some day we'll see some "infill" between these clusters for a Manhattan-like skyscraper vista.
King & Bay
Yonge & Bloor
Front & Simcoe
Spadina & Lakshore
I'm crossing my fingers that some day we'll see some "infill" between these clusters for a Manhattan-like skyscraper vista.
barrytron3030
Active Member
i don't see us ever looking like manhattan, as interesting as that would be. toronto has alot of set distrcits or neighboourhoods that won't permit skyscrapers because of style or heritage. remember, toronto is a unique major city because it has been graced with beautiful residential neighbourhoods within the downtown core. could you imagine skyscrapers being built in chinatown? in cabbagetown? in queen west? in the annex? it just doesn't seem natural or necessary. beautiful u of t also takes up a massive chunk of downtown.
still, the skyline will look terribly impressive in 5-10 years. there are two more neighbourhoods to add to your list that will be affected with an influx of towers: the st lawrence neighbourhood (L-tower, VU, Market Wharf), and yorkville (Four Seasons, Cumberland, One Bedford). aura on yonge will surely have a massive impact too.
still, the skyline will look terribly impressive in 5-10 years. there are two more neighbourhoods to add to your list that will be affected with an influx of towers: the st lawrence neighbourhood (L-tower, VU, Market Wharf), and yorkville (Four Seasons, Cumberland, One Bedford). aura on yonge will surely have a massive impact too.
khris
Senior Member
That will change. Whether the people living in the small homes want it to or not, they can not stop it.
barrytron3030
Active Member
yes, i suppose in the very long run. but do you really want those buildings to be destroyed? i love them. theyre beautiful and are a staple of toronto style and character. the neighbourhoods i mentioned are terrific.
lots of tall buildings don't make a city great or beautiful.
Looking like Manhattan does not necessarily mean we have to have as many skyscrapers as Manhattan, just lots of skyscrapers...
...but it's the same with Manhattan too. There are lots of low-rise and medium-rise neighbourhoods in Manhattan where new development is fought against on a floor-by-floor basis. There's a large valley between Downtown and Midtown, skyscraper-wise, just for one example. Toronto is not so unique in having vibrant low-rise neighbourhoods downtown. It's just lucky to be amongst the group cities that do have them.
42
H
Hydrogen
Guest
Do remember that cities are about people. The buildings are secondary.
khris
Senior Member
Who says they have to be destroyed?
Tewder
Senior Member
I don't understand why people want Toronto to look like Manhattan? No city will look as much like Manhattan as Manhattan so it seems sort of silly to have this as an objective. In my experience nobody comes to Toronto to marvel at the highrises. They come here and end up loving the dense low-rise urban communities that flow from one to another in and around the downtown core. This is what is so vastly different from 'most' North American cities. The downtown core and skyscrapers are all great too, but they don't define Toronto anymore than 'downtown' LA defines it.
isaidso
Senior Member
I don't think people want Toronto to look like Manhattan, but there's definitely a sizable proportion of the population that lives here, or moved here because they love big cities and all the delights that a big city offers. Toronto is as big as you can get without leaving Canada, so it's only natural that some people just can't wait for the city to add another 5 million people, 300 km of subway, build another 6 museums, and another 50 towers over 250 metres.
That doesn't mean they want to be Manhattan, it means that they love big cities. Toronto is Toronto, and will always be Toronto. There were people back in 1970 who wanted Toronto to stay the way it was arguing that growth meant that Toronto would become less Torontonian and more something else. Well, I'd argue that Toronto is still Toronto, and 100 times better than it was back in 1970.
I also think you're assuming too much when you say that people don't come to Toronto to admire the skyscrapers. It's Torontonians who appreciate the neighbourhoods, but I can guarantee you that it was the tall buildings and the CN Tower that I came to see. It's also one of the reasons I chose to move here. Chicago and New York may be more famous for their skyscrapers, but to a Brit it didn't matter to me. A 200 metre office tower was something I'd never seen before, and Toronto had them. You might be surprised or find it strange, but I guarantee you that people still come here to gaze at the tall buildings. Toronto is a skyscraper city in the eyes of most of the world.
Was Hong Kong trying to be Manhattan by building vertically? No. It's just the what many cities do when they reach a certain stage of their development. Toronto may be a city of neigbourhoods, but it's also always been one of the world's early skyscraper cities. Royal York? Commerce Court North? Canadian Pacific Building?
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yyzer
Senior Member
well said, isaidso...
Translude15
Frank the Tank
Ditto. The entire GTA is promoting the use of high density structures to try to curb urban sprawl. Toronto in a span of 10 years has developed substantially in terms of high rise construction.
If you ask me, I see a very clear Manhattanization of the city from the CBD and northward along Yonge (Yonge-Dundas, Yonge-Bloor, Yonge-Eglinton, NYCC). Current developments will only expand that thin sliver of high rises.
If you ask me, I see a very clear Manhattanization of the city from the CBD and northward along Yonge (Yonge-Dundas, Yonge-Bloor, Yonge-Eglinton, NYCC). Current developments will only expand that thin sliver of high rises.
Dan416
Senior Member
Don't forget MCC and Brampton and Oakville to an extent as well.