P23 said:
Insulting would be something like that hotel in Laval. This looks like a perfectly fine office tower, most cities are filled with plenty like it.
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How is that ok? I can't name a single office building to have gone up yet that is this square. This is a perfect box. At least the other ones had some minor doodads to differentiate.

Insulting because it is on a very prominent site, and unlike RBC Waterpark Place, it isn't covered by another building. This ugly box will be front and centre from the lake.
 
Filip said:
How is that ok? I can't name a single office building to have gone up yet that is this square. This is a perfect box. At least the other ones had some minor doodads to differentiate.

Insulting because it is on a very prominent site, and unlike RBC Waterpark Place, it isn't covered by another building. This ugly box will be front and centre from the lake.
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Not every tower needs to be a landmark, take a look at the top skylines in the world and you'll see nondescript boxes everywhere. It's a bit dull, but calling it ugly is hyperbolic.
 
ADRM said:
Factors possibly affecting the sale price:

- We don't know what level of remediation will be required on the site, but it's infill land so it's to be expected that at least some will be
- The (presumed) mandate to construct a 2-acre park
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The park is pretty easy...they are, at max, paying for 9 acres of usable land for development.....you might want to add in "what are the terms of the LCBO occupancy.....if, say, as part of the deal LCBO is occupying a large amount of the office space and the retail store at what the developer sees as rates below what could be obtained on the market it will impact cashflow which impacts the value of the end product which impacts what you would pay for the land to put that building on.
 
P23 said:
Insulting would be something like that hotel in Laval. This looks like a perfectly fine office tower, most cities are filled with plenty like it.
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It is insulting to compare Toronto to "most cities", especially for a future office building situated on our central waterfront.
 
P23 said:
Not every tower needs to be a landmark, take a look at the top skylines in the world and you'll see nondescript boxes everywhere. It's a bit dull, but calling it ugly is hyperbolic.
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Agreed.. But this is a special site. This is similar to the KPMG box in Vaughan.
 
Less is more is definitely the safer route when it comes to commercial office architecture across Canada. There's some really tacky towers from our national developers elsewhere. That said, it's a letdown that this is the next one to go up when there are some decent proposals out there. The podium is awful. It looks like something Riocan dredged up for their newest big box mall.
 
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P23 said:
Not every tower needs to be a landmark, take a look at the top skylines in the world and you'll see nondescript boxes everywhere. It's a bit dull, but calling it ugly is hyperbolic.
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I agree generally, and I don't think I would go so far as to call this building ugly, but I do think we should be striving for a bit more than nondescript here at the gateway to our revitalized waterfront. There is arguably a happy medium between landmark and nondescript.
 
Skeezix said:
I agree generally, and I don't think I would go so far as to call this building ugly, but I do think we should be striving for a bit more than nondescript here at the gateway to our revitalized waterfront. There is arguably a happy medium between landmark and nondescript.
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I think we can all agree on that. And I have to side with maestro regarding the podium, it is pretty weak.
 
P23 said:
Not every tower needs to be a landmark, take a look at the top skylines in the world and you'll see nondescript boxes everywhere. It's a bit dull, but calling it ugly is hyperbolic.
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That's what people say every single time a boring glass box is proposed. And in Toronto, that is 95% of the time. I think we have enough nondescript "contextual buildings" in this town and could use a little flourish- on the warfront of ALL PLACES!
 
The banality of the design is par for the course in Toronto. What makes this project stand out is its modest height. 24 stories seems pretty small for such a desirable sight.
 
UrbanFervour said:
That's what people say every single time a boring glass box is proposed. And in Toronto, that is 95% of the time. I think we have enough nondescript "contextual buildings" in this town and could use a little flourish- on the warfront of ALL PLACES!
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It doesn't even need to deviate from a box typology - how about just a slight deviation from a perfect rectangle? What about materials other than just glass. How about some warm terracotta? painted steel?

http://www.building.co.uk/first-impressions-renzo-pianos-central-st-giles/5013647.article

AoD
 
100+ metres is a good height. I think it's fair to assume the size is based on the amount of space the LCBO is taking.
 
LUVIT! said:
I think it should be in the shape of a bottle of Gin...but what brand?
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I hadn't played around with SketchUp in well over a year, and I definitely am not a pro with it like other users here. But your post (combined with excess cold+flu medicine last night) pushed me to create a bottle-shaped abomination of a building. Very PoMo IMO. The dimensions are based off the Beefeater bottle. Originally I was thinking Bombay Sapphire, but that brought back memories of Harry Stinson's "Sapphire Tower" proposal (which I never liked). Still have a cold/fever, and I probably wouldn't post this otherwise. But for fun:

rect3007.png
 

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