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modernizt said:
The East Bayfront is a weird conundrum - the public realm (streetscapes, landscaping, plantings, materials) is so top-notch, but the architecture is by contrast so poor.
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There's almost nothing that architecturally pains me more than looking at what's been built here and comparing it to other contemporary builds in any of Oslo, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Antwerp, and a few other harbourfront locales.

Though I know their toolbox is at least somewhat limited, I nonetheless pretty strongly believe that despite the good work that WT has done with some aspects of this area, the quality of design is a serious and truly unfortunate flaw.
 
ADRM said:
There's almost nothing that architecturally pains me more than looking at what's been built here and comparing it to other contemporary builds in any of Oslo, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Antwerp, and a few other harbourfront locales.

Though I know their toolbox is at least somewhat limited, I nonetheless pretty strongly believe that despite the good work that WT has done with some aspects of this area, the quality of design is a serious and truly unfortunate flaw.
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Many times I've looked through magazines and have seen engaging and beautiful projects elsewhere and have lamented that we don't see these happening in this city, and on the waterfront in particular. All the furious development in Toronto isn't making much of a difference to this deficit.
 
old boy said:
Many times I've looked through magazines and have seen engaging and beautiful projects elsewhere and have lamented that we don't see these happening in this city, and on the waterfront in particular. All the furious development in Toronto isn't making much of a difference to this deficit.
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I blame the austerity agenda and the constant need for "efficiency" as the most important factor in all business decisions as the reason we don't see daring designs or colourful cladding. Other cultures have a higher valuation of beauty and design, and see them as means to the end of increasing property values. There isn't the same cognizance for design here. People have some likes and dislikes, but they're not held strongly enough to actually alter spending patterns. This is a generalization, but I feel it reflects why we haven't seen much change in the last 40 years apart from material economics.
 
I actually disagree for the most part. I think a large part of this trend has to do with the strong market here. There are so many buildings going up, and demand so strong, that there's always that "race to the bottom" in terms of cladding. You see similar trends in other strong markets, such as Miami. Another issue is that, as a strong market, we have a large quantity of investors who are only interested in specs, such as size, ceiling height, etc., and not architecture or cladding material. I predict that if the market were to cool down and fewer buildings were being built, there would be more emphasis on design/aesthetics/structural integrity/etc. as developers would have a much stronger interest in maintaining their brand, and the market is led by future residents rather than investors.

Unfortunately, outside of the market, the only way to alter the status quo is to enforce some legislation at the municipal level. I say unfortunately, because it is obvious that this city is completely apathetic when it comes to cladding and design and more interested in reducing heights and preventing shadowing. If not for legislation, at least give some incentive for developers to use curtain wall, but we all know that will never happen.
 
DtTO said:
Unfortunately, outside of the market, the only way to alter the status quo is to enforce some legislation at the municipal level. I say unfortunately, because it is obvious that this city is completely apathetic when it comes to cladding and design and more interested in reducing heights and preventing shadowing. If not for legislation, at least give some incentive for developers to use curtain wall, but we all know that will never happen.
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How do you even legislate for that?
 
It sort of slipped by me how quickly this has risen. Really cool seeing it next to Aqualina. Has me excited for the summer time.
 
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