• Thread starter superdeduperawesome
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Always wonderful to see brick rather than yet more of the dreary pre-cast. Brick is so readily available here, builders should be falling over themselves to use a bit more of it.

This will be a nice project, for a number of reasons, notwithstanding lengthy delays.
 
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I find this building strangely likable so far. I like its muscular proportions and clear glazing, a pleasant surprise given the more common green glass cheep-out. Thanks again for the pics, drum118.
 
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Decent brick and nice glass on a hulking, streetwall-forming, block-eating building is a-ok in my books. This is what we need more of, big buildings (big doesn't have to mean tall) filling in the holes and gaps in Toronto's built form. Save the excess open space, parking, and low density for the fringes, and let's keep up the dense and full city-building.
 
If you've seen this in person you'll notice the glass looks amazing! Compared to many other fine projects that is.
 
The curtain wall is an absolute mess right now, but I think the brick will do a good job distracting from that.
 
I pass this building every morning on my way to work and it gets better every time. I have high hopes for this one based on the bricks they are using (real).
 
If you walk around the site it becomes obvious that this building will place some restrictions on what can be done with the north side of Adelaide. Some of the existing structures appear to be in poor shape and will probably be replaced in the next few years, but whatever goes up will probably be nothing greater than three or four floors. All that's separating Boutique and the buildings on Adelaide is a service lane way (about six or seven metres).

In the long run this will probably be good. With so many multi-floor proposals in the area, the lower Adelaide street presence will keep it from feeling too crowded.
 
If you walk around the site it becomes obvious that this building will place some restrictions on what can be done with the north side of Adelaide. Some of the existing structures appear to be in poor shape and will probably be replaced in the next few years, but whatever goes up will probably be nothing greater than three or four floors. All that's separating Boutique and the buildings on Adelaide is a service lane way (about six or seven metres).

In the long run this will probably be good. With so many multi-floor proposals in the area, the lower Adelaide street presence will keep it from feeling too crowded.

I don't disagree that it would be nice if that stretch of Adelaide were to be forever limited to 3-4 stories, but I'm not sure how Boutique would serve to decrease the height potential for Adelaide landowners. To my knowledge, the bylaw and rezoning process stipulates mandatory setbacks or windowless building faces to account for neighbouring landowners' future development potential. Unless the Adelaide landlowners have signed an easement in favour of Boutique, I doubt there's any way they will feel that Boutique serves to constrain their height potential.

In fact, Boutique's 35-stories are part of the precedent that has all local landowners seeing great height potential in the Entertainment District. As demonstrated by the recent OMB approval of a minor variance to build 235 feet at Peter/Richmond, the Adelaide landowners wouldn't even need to rezone to get 20 stories.
 

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