Right, in someways it is more of a perception problem than a real problem to begin with. Like crime, many consider 'downtown' Toronto to be something out of The Wire when homicides are fairly spread out across the city. Perception can be just as bad as real problems though. It would have been interesting to design CityPlace with a really top notch public school as a selling point. It worked well for NYCC & Earl Haig.

Then again, who knows. These days people are probably (in Toronto, at least) *more* likely to associate "problem schools" with ghetto stuff in the burbs like C. W. Jeffreys; and urban schools as bastions of Stuff White People Like-ness by comparison. Indeed I can see the bigger perceptual problem having more to do with ideology than safety, i.e. parents not wanting their kids to be brainwashed by the loony politically-correct socialists in charge...
 
Templar,

42
 
City Planning Preliminary Report

To be considered by Toronto + East York Community Council on January 13 2009:

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-17732.pdf

Proposal Description:

This application proposes the development of a 41 storey mixed-use building (142 metres). The first five floors (21.8metres) of the building will be the podium or base component. The building will be comprised of mechanical uses on floors 40 and 41, residential dwelling units on floors 12 to 39, amenity space on floor 11, hotel guest rooms on floors 4 to 10, a hotel ballroom on the 3rd floor, hotel lobby functions on the 2nd Floor, and restaurant uses and the residential lobby on the ground floor. The heritage façade is proposed to be maintained.

I don't see any balconies ... that to me makes this look like a office bldg, almost resembles the TD Centre or United Nations bldg in NYC... :p

56BlueJays_east.jpg


56BlueJays_north.jpg
 
I love this tower...!!! A very unique proposal, especially in the way it looks so convincingly like an office tower.

:)

I just worry that it will be proposed, but unable to be built due to market conditions.
 
....or, if we're really lucky, the owners will demolish the existing structure to give us a commercial parking lot, and then can the project.
 
^^There is a bunch of stuff posted on Adam Vaughn's flickr page worth looking at and into. I am not sure how much of it has been posted or even spoken about on this board, but maybe worth a look..No explanations about the renderings though.

Could be a great addition to the area - I think that the more we look at increasing density and activity in this area the better -
 
It seems like Adam Vaughan's photos are restricted. Anyways, from his March 2009 Newsletter

56 Blue Jays Way

(image available in PDF version of newsletter)

Councillor Vaughan's King-Spadina Development meeting on January 20 constituted the statutory planning meeting for the development proposal at 56 Blue Jays Way. The project was presented by architect Rudy Wallman.

This site, which currently is home to the Diesel Playhouse, has a prior approval for a 18 storey residential building, however a new proposal has come forward from Lifetime Group for a 41 storey building that would house a hotel and residential tower. The building would have a café and two storey restaurant associated with the hotel at ground level, 120 hotel rooms in the lower storeys of the building, and 260 residential units in the upper levels of the tower. There will be a publicly-accessible rooftop lounge and terrace.

The façade of the historical building currently on the site would be retained, and the new portions of the building would be set back 2 m to create a wide sidewalk on Blue Jays Way.

The development will be located south of an east-west laneway that runs south of King St W. This laneway will be widened to the city standard 6 m, and both the ramp to the underground parking and the drop-off area will be accessed through this lane.

56BlueJaysWay.jpg
 
This 'angular plane' business seems like complete nonsense. Why must the skyline taper in such an arbitrary way?
 
because angular planes form an orchestrated skyline ? rather than one with towers popping up here and there ~
 
I assume it's about maximzing light and density. The cone shape is mathematically the most efficient when it comes to that.
 

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