The original guards were a continuation of the slab, not a precast panel. They had to be chiseled off and the slabs were reformed. My point was mostly that if they were renovating the balconies to modern standards, it would have been nice to see glass guards vs the folded metal panel railings currently in place. Yes the original formed concrete balconies had character but realistically restoring them or reforming them was never on the table.

If it was possible in the 1970s, why not now? Why condone gutting this heritage building of its most notable features? The metal panel railings have a chance of resembling the original design. Glass railings would look generic and wouldn't capture the spirit of the original design.
 
Gutting of a heritage building is a bit of an exaggeration and it sort of takes what I said to an extreme conclusion which doesn't really reflect how I feel, or what is happening to this building.

We will have to agree to disagree - in the end it's Cromwell's money and not ours, so it's not really up to us. I can't tell you the details behind Cromwell's decision making process regarding this building because I don't know what they are. I do know that glass guards would have probably looked better (at least to me) than metal panel guards. I think it's also what renters are expecting in a renovated mid century apartment. 100 Spadina Rd did a good job at recreating the breeze block balconies with fritted glass.

The most notable feature of this building (again, at least to me) is its distinctive 70's slab form - not the concrete balcony railings.
 
Recladding work on the sides to a beige colour looks about done now:

July 26, 2020

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I noticed that the other day...it's nice to know they're not going to 401 Bay the sides so far.
 
401 & 700 Bay Street, please take note of this.
 
The comprehensive beige-yness of the paint and siding jobs is a bit much. Would've preferred if they kept it within the original off-yellow/orange colour scheme. But I didn't find the quality of the new balconies nessarily to be that bad. It was reasonable IMO.
 

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