Regardless of the criticism of the tower, I applaud Bazis/Plaza for the Yonge St. side of this project. Those restored buildings look so damn good! I just love looking at 'em. I just wish we'd see more of this kind of redevelopment instead of the token facade 'saves' that so many developers seem to get away with nowadays. Hopefully some solid tenants will move in soon.
 
That's just it, since the pedestrian experience with buildings occurs at street level, unless you're craning your neck up you likely won't even notice the tower. So many projects are miserable at street level, so I much prefer this tradeoff. That said, I surprisingly don't hate this tower either; it's ok with some interesting ideas, including the way the wavy bits terminate as columns at the base. Materials and execution leave a lot to be desired, but I could say that for majority of this city's condo projects.
 
egotrippin said:
That's just it, since the pedestrian experience with buildings occurs at street level, unless you're craning your neck up you likely won't even notice the tower. So many projects are miserable at street level, so I much prefer this tradeoff. That said, I surprisingly don't hate this tower either; it's ok with some interesting ideas, including the way the wavy bits terminate as columns at the base. Materials and execution leave a lot to be desired, but I could say that for majority of this city's condo projects.
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There is also the neighbours'' experience - you know, those who see that tower from their living room window 24/7 and recognize it for what it is.
 
As I recall, expectations for this building were quite high. Unfortunately, the choice of materials never lived up to those expectations, so what we have is a building that at some perspectives and lighting conditions is a definite head turner, but up close kinda' disappoints. Can't say that I hate it though. Hate is a strong word that I'll reserve for the truly nauseating and abysmal.
 
As I said before, the tower narative got lost in the spandrel. And yes, the project shines at the heritage level...as long as you don't look up. >.<
 
Seriously, can we stop the complaining of spandrel here? It seems entirely just for the sake of virtue signalling pretentiousness.

"The cherry on my ice cream sundae is just a plain grocery store marasheeeeeeeno, and not a true Luxardo Marasca. It is therefore entirely ruined and not worth keeping."
 
Bayer said:
There is also the neighbours'' experience - you know, those who see that tower from their living room window 24/7 and recognize it for what it is.
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I mean I'd like better tower design too, I did describe it as a tradeoff after all, but I place more weight on the design at street level and a building's impact on the public realm.
 
zang said:
Seriously, can we stop the complaining of spandrel here? It seems entirely just for the sake of virtue signalling pretentiousness.

"The cherry on my ice cream sundae is just a plain grocery store marasheeeeeeeno, and not a true Luxardo Marasca. It is therefore entirely ruined and not worth keeping."
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Absolutely not.

But if you're a lover of all things spandrel though, you are under no obligation to agree with the spandrel hate. As others and myself are under no obligation to stop complaining about it. And adding weird arsed alt-fact internet terms to it will likely do less to discourage us from complaining about it. /shrug
 
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egotrippin said:
That's just it, since the pedestrian experience with buildings occurs at street level, unless you're craning your neck up you likely won't even notice the tower. So many projects are miserable at street level, so I much prefer this tradeoff. That said, I surprisingly don't hate this tower either; it's ok with some interesting ideas, including the way the wavy bits terminate as columns at the base. Materials and execution leave a lot to be desired, but I could say that for majority of this city's condo projects.
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What? I see the tower rather easily and it looks terrible. The building is 58 storeys but as long as the first 3 look good, then forget about the other 55 storeys?
 
TheKingEast said:
What? I see the tower rather easily and it looks terrible. The building is 58 storeys but as long as the first 3 look good, then forget about the other 55 storeys?
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No but if you had to rank what is more important it is definitely the ground level. Frankly most people do not look up, but something that sucks at ground level (like YC Condos) is very noticeable. Public realm is arguably the most important aspect of a building, it's the only redeeming quality of a development like Daniel's waterfront.

In this case the ground level is top notch which is what most people will notice on a daily basis and influences how you feel when you walk past this thing. You're not walking past thinking about how ugly it is and how it ruins the area or is soulless.

The tower itself, while certainly not amazing, is better than a lot of buildings in this city anyway and frankly even if it sucks theres so much else going up around it to block the views of it from various angles that no one other then skyscraper enthusiasts will really notice it in the near future.
 
Bjays92 said:
No but if you had to rank what is more important it is definitely the ground level.
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Hogwash. While it may be definite for you, but it's definitely not definite for everyone, so maybe definitely is not the best word to use. Let me demonstrate:

If you're close to a tower, sure the ground level is more important, but if you're a bit further from it, which is for most of the people seeing the building, most of the time, it's the way the upper floors look that is more important because that affects the local surroundings as a whole, and the whole area through its look on the skyline, so it's definitely the tower expression that's more important.

42
 
...the only positive I'll say about this tower is at angles of sun during the reflected of the prefab can create dynamic patterns. But that is both brief and fleeting...and not worth what could of been done if they threw as much love at the tower as they did with the heritage podium when it comes to materials and detailing. It would be virtue "signalling", indeed.
 
Bjays92 said:
No but if you had to rank what is more important it is definitely the ground level. Frankly most people do not look up, but something that sucks at ground level (like YC Condos) is very noticeable. Public realm is arguably the most important aspect of a building, it's the only redeeming quality of a development like Daniel's waterfront.

In this case the ground level is top notch which is what most people will notice on a daily basis and influences how you feel when you walk past this thing. You're not walking past thinking about how ugly it is and how it ruins the area or is soulless.

The tower itself, while certainly not amazing, is better than a lot of buildings in this city anyway and frankly even if it sucks theres so much else going up around it to block the views of it from various angles that no one other then skyscraper enthusiasts will really notice it in the near future.
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The last part I agree with especially. A lot of these glassy condo towers disappear into a homogenous mass from a distance and it becomes difficult to discern the higher quality glazing from below average anyway. Ground level is where a many people will have up close interactions, so placing increased importance on street level design makes perfect sense.
 
From Lakeview Mississauga.
DSC_6308.jpg
 
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