some movement. I'm hearing more and more that this will be moving forward soon, they apparently have site plan filed and are slowly emptying out upper level tenants to clear space for construction.

595 BAY ST
Ward 27 - Tor & E.York District

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To modify the redevelopment plan approved under Site-specific By-law 1725-2013 to construct a four-storey office-use addition to each tower of the "Atrium on Bay" mixed-use building (Building A-West and Building C-East). A concurrent site plan application (12 131388 STE) is being processed.
 
Just 4 floors? I'm assuming this is just a temporary measure similar to the Scotiabank at Bloor/Balmuto till a more efficient use of that land surfaces?
 
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Condovo: How is it built out? It's on Yonge, Bay, a subway line, close to City Hall/Eaton Centre and only 14 floors. That might be built out for the Toronto of 1980 but it's a prime spot if ever Toronto built 500m+. I'm a little taken aback that you consider this 'built out'.

If Toronto isn't ready for that type of scale yet that's fine but the Atrium on Bay will eventually get re-developed into something far more substantial. It speaks volumes that the Eaton Chelsea will come down because it's size is a waste of valuable real estate.
 
isaidso said:
Condovo: How is it built out? It's on Yonge, Bay, a subway line, close to City Hall/Eaton Centre and only 14 floors. That might be built out for the Toronto of 1980 but it's a prime spot if ever Toronto built 500m+. I'm a little taken aback that you consider this 'built out'.

If Toronto isn't ready for that type of scale yet that's fine but the Atrium on Bay will eventually get re-developed into something far more substantial. It speaks volumes that the Eaton Chelsea will come down because it's size is a waste of valuable real estate.
Click to expand...

This isn't a prime spot for 500m+ in our natural lifetimes. Comparing it to Eaton Chelsea is also a little offmark - considering there is no office component there - it's a typical Toronto retail/hotel/residential project. Not sure if swapping 20s of office is worth that at this point.

AoD
 
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I'm curious if they're going to replace the exterior glass if their adding this addition. The glass right now is good and all, but if this extension is to occur, I'm not sure if they'd make it really match with the original building in respect's to façade.

I'd also wonder about the skylight at the current top, would they rebuild a skylight for the central retail area? Or cover it up? Or how would they treat the office floors comparative to the large areas of open space in the building?

Overall, this does sound like great news, the Atrium at Bay is a well-built piece of Toronto IMO, and stand well as a direct link to transit and jobs.
 
I hope they would replicate the skylights! Otherwise it would really not be "Atrium" on Bay. The last time I was there seeing the skylights felt very comfortable. I wonder if that's how folks in Rome's Pantheon feel when they look up at the oculus. Something "spiritual" about seeing lights streaming down from an opening high above you...

Also, aren't there height restrictions because of the nearby helicopter ambulance flight paths to Sick Kids Hospital, as well as the need to preserve the view from City Hall?

It would be nice if they finally got rid of those advertisements that are tacked on the 2nd/3rd floor exterior ring along Yonge. Technology exists for LED lighting to broadcast dynamic advertisement directly onto the glass surfaces.
 
Alright, here's a pic I took a year ago of the atrium, I'm really wondering how they'll construct this with a atrium, maybe cover it up whilst under construction to protect those below:
2016-01-29 12.37.13.jpg
 

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I hope the addition extends the atrium as well. It's something solely lacking in modern office tower design and, without knowing the plans, I'm not very hopeful.
 
isaidso said:
Condovo: How is it built out? It's on Yonge, Bay, a subway line, close to City Hall/Eaton Centre and only 14 floors. That might be built out for the Toronto of 1980 but it's a prime spot if ever Toronto built 500m+. I'm a little taken aback that you consider this 'built out'.

If Toronto isn't ready for that type of scale yet that's fine but the Atrium on Bay will eventually get re-developed into something far more substantial. It speaks volumes that the Eaton Chelsea will come down because it's size is a waste of valuable real estate.
Click to expand...


Don't get wrapped up in the number of storeys or the height. I believe there's about a million square feet of class A office space here. It would be extremely wasteful to tear it down. The Eaton Chelsea is not a forgone conclusion. It's just a rezoning application. It's not the first time a tall tower was proposed to be demolished and ended up being kept.

We simply don't have the tenants that want to anchor an 80 to 100 storey tower. The banks have absolutely zero interest to consolidate all their companies/operations under one roof. We aren't the financial capital of a country of 330 million with global headquarters of companies that own or lease 50 to 100 million square feet of space among all their operations. We don't attract billionaires that shell out $100 million on one apartment unit. There's too much red tape in the way to take advantage of migrant workers as a slave labour force or are the major property developers also the government/royalty that can throw billions at a project on a whim. Zoning allow for 30 to 40 storeys to be built almost anywhere in the 416 area. There no shortage of high density land available. Let's be realistic for once with your height addiction. We're lucky the boom has escalated to the point that 250 metres is reasonable at 9 feet at a time.

There's no advantage to building 500 metres at even our high allowable FSIs.
 
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