From Orde and Murray on 5 June.
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Reminds me of that Ministry of Defense building (generalstab) in Belgrade that was bombed by NATO in the 90s - which stood untouched as a monument for a decade

...I don't think NATO strikes would resolve the issues with this tower though. >.<
 
I've seen worse 30 story condo/apartment buildings built... With this height, thankfully it won't make that much of of an impression regardless. Why are there just these rectangular boxes going up. Is there a lack of imagination on the part of the architects. The city should flat out not accept these proposals. Toronto is an amazing city and deserves better!
 
I've seen worse 30 story condo/apartment buildings built... With this height, thankfully it won't make that much of of an impression regardless.

General appearance issues aside, its prominent location beside a signfiicant heritage landmark and kitty corner to AGO makes its problems more of an issue.

Why are there just these rectangular boxes going up. Is there a lack of imagination on the part of the architects. The city should flat out not accept these proposals. Toronto is an amazing city and deserves better!

There are lots of reasons for similar'ish, and bland architecture. These are much discussed on the forum. That said, even a rectangular box can be made reasonably aesthetically pleasing, or at least inoffensive.

The nearby Artist's Alley had to deal with the same planning rules as this site, but produced far superior buildings owing to a far superior architecture firm and one given enough budgetary room by client to achieve.

*****

As to the City they basically aren't allowed to control for the aesthetics of a proposal under Ontario law.

Its a little more nuanced than that in practice, but certainly there is no easy, or practical way for the City to refuse a proposal because its architecturally bland or tasteless, under normal circumstances.

(an example of a partial exception is when something is located in a Heritage Conservation District); but even there, the City's ability prescribe has very real limitations.
 
Saw this earlier today and I've gotta say, some of the posters summed things up quite succinctly. One quote stood out specifically:

"I've never seen a city condemn itself to harsh mediocrity, building after building after building like this."

About sums up how I feel about the past ~10 or so years of new Toronto buildings as well, and got me thinking, is anywhere else consistently this bad? For every decent project there are probably 15-20 miserable piles, and honestly, I could probably count one hand the buildings that I'd truly call beautiful going up right now; from a global perspective anyway. "Good for Toronto" just shouldn't cut it anymore.

As others have pointed out, Tribute marketed this as the Artistry condos, built right across from one of the country's premiere art galleries and a major design school, and this is what they give us? It's sad.
 
A BlogTO article that actually has substance:

While I appreciate brutalism, this podium is thoughtless and grossly out of context to its surroundings. Will the concrete be painted as per the renderings? The concrete is already pigmented black (and inconstantly), which leads me to believe this may be the colour we unfortunately will be faced with, which gives off depressing 70s communistic dystopian vibes, and the projecting random horizontal bands looks like the facade is hastily held together with two-by-fours. This is oddly in contrast to the tower which is a cheap knockoff of aA’s Market Wharf condos. This building makes no sense. Call it con-artistry.

Graziani Horrorazza has done enough to scar the architecture of our city. They have no shame.
G+C no Grazie!
 
G+C's biggest fault here is that they don't have an issue working for developers with the lowest common denominators. So while it's on them for designing this crap, it's not all on them allowing this crap to see fruition in the worst kind of way. /bleh
 
A BlogTO article that actually has substance:

While I appreciate brutalism, this podium is thoughtless and grossly out of context to its surroundings. Will the concrete be painted as per the renderings? The concrete is already pigmented black (and inconstantly), which leads me to believe this may be the colour we unfortunately will be faced with, which gives off depressing 70s communistic dystopian vibes, and the projecting random horizontal bands looks like the facade is hastily held together with two-by-fours. This is oddly in contrast to the tower which is a cheap knockoff of aA’s Market Wharf condos. This building makes no sense. Call it con-artistry.

Graziani Horrorazza has done enough to scar the architecture of our city. They have no shame.
G+C no Grazie!
Funny enough, Tribute intended on going with red brick pre-cast in the podium, but opted to go ahead with the grey. It was a cheaper alternative than mixing different clays and adding dye to get it red.
 

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