I welcome the orange! Tbh basically every big building in this neighbourhood is utter junk and terrible in execution so that's my expectation now and just the small victory of having a warm colour is a relative win. It's an ugly skyline around here aint no mistake, but I think the orange will be something positive regardless of how the rest turns out. Hopefully they don't get rid of it. In the presentation they talked about it being a colour pulled from the rusts colours of the neighbourhood and the orange Railpath and hopefully they keep that idea.
The somewhat punched window look is encouraging as well and hopefully will be maintained. Surely there with be copious spandrel and mullions in there, but some solid materiality is good so we don't just end up with pure window wall spandrel and mullion junky Borg cube architecture.
It's not a high bar but this in the running for best building on the skyline at this Dupont & Lansdowne and area cluster, providing there aren't significant changes or execution issues.
I also welcome the population density this will add either way. I live very nearby and it's a great neighbourhood and stretch along Dupont but it's still a little sleepy and I think lack of foot traffic on the street and population in the area limits the potential for business along the stretch, and there's a lot of storefronts that are boarded up or converted to residential use. The area is kind of isolated by the railways on the north, west, and east with either low density (north and somewhat the south as well) or hostile streetscapes and intersections (east, west) zones on either side of that and then the long walk up from Bloor in the south (which is also dead and hostile around this stretch) to Dupont. Getting more population in the Junction Triangle itself I think could have a positive impact on the vibrancy of the area and maybe local business sustainability and viability as well.
I think a tower is totally good here, but I'd also like to see more proactive missing middle and midrise in the neighbourhood as well to add density, population, and mixed use vibrancy (retail, food, offices, businesses, etc.) to the middle of the triangle and throughout and knit it together as one whole vibrant urban zone. We already are a bit of an odd duck neighbourhood with missing middle and mid-neighbourhood retail and mixed use offices and businesses and stuff — we should embrace it and make the Junction Triangle live up to its potential and be one of the best urban neighbourhoods in the city!
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