Considering the Queen West location and history, I think "trash" an appropriate word choice to describe this new building seen in the rendering. This building is very harsh on the city. It looks like no thought went into it beyond the scale.
Certainly not a piece of trash, however, I think the design is more a step in the gentrification of Queen W. Boutique businesses and there building facades are all the craze for retail spaces, especially to those wanting to save a buck.
You'd think this city has absolutely no brick masons left who could do a nice, historically accurate facade. Do we always have to call on Margie Zeidler when we want something done right?
The scale and proportions of this building are about right however if - as it appears - they plan to use precast or maybe stucco that will be a huge disappointment and completely inappropriate. The only acceptable choice of material for a building of this style along Queen street is red brick. Also I don't like the choice of windows. They should have used sash windows that match the original design.
I don't think that we should be surprised about this apparent "cheapening" given the fact that the owners (like MOST building owners along this street) never took pride in the original building . If you watch the video posted of the original building you can see miss-matched windows - including the ugly slider-type of windows that plague most of our heritage retail buildings.