The cladding looks almost shiny and reflective! That would be so awesome if it ends up looking like that. I wanna see the whole tower now.
 
The high-rise height seems quite inappropriate. College looks quite good with its collection of low and midrise buildings, especially those grand old apartments. Notice that over the past century, not a single high-rise was built on College between University and Spadina. Maybe that only became a possibility after World War II, but it seems to have been built up with a midrise streetscape as the vision.

There's also a lowrise neighbourhood behind College.
 
wow, the design is stunning. Condos should be designed like this.
I can't imagine anything taller than 10 stories on that stretch of College Street.
Something along the scale and height of Ideal Lofts on College and Markham would be more appropriate.

I used to go to The U of T school of architecture two blocks away from this site and rented part of a house north of Bathurst & College -- such a great area with Little Italy and Chinatown closeby.
 
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neuhaus said:
I can't imagine anything taller than 10 stories on that stretch of College Street.
Something along the scale and height of Ideal Lofts on College and Markham would be more appropriate.
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I cannot help thinking of how hard UofT fought the condo development on the former ROM planetarium site. And then they turn around and propose a project that's nearly as tall on the edge of their campus themselves. Of course, this time they are the ones set to profit from the student rentals, but I am sure that's just a coincidence. :rolleyes:

Admittedly, the previous proposal had definite sightline issues, but this one has its own problems too. (shadowing?)
 
No kidding - I like what I have seen but the context - and more importantly the precedent it will set is highly problematic. This is one step below the ROM condo IMO - considering the site is not nearly as sensitive (no Philsopher's Walk, CAMH across the street, etc) but I am still not inclined to support it. If it is right at the corner at the Burger King site that's another story.

AoD
 
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AlvinofDiaspar said:
the site is not nearly as sensitive (no Philsopher's Walk, CAMH across the street, etc)
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And keep in mind that CAMH is moving out of their building on College (and the old Addiction Research Foundation building immediately to its north), once the new facilities on Queen are ready. Perhaps UofT is considering redeveloping this whole corner of the campus, and this is just a foot in the door.
 
Tulse:

That maybe - though I can't see anyone demolishing the (60s?) structure anytime soon. I wonder who actually owns the site - CAMH or U of T? I totally see the latter snapping up the building if they don't and use it for office space for various departments (like the Medical Arts Bldg on St. George and Bloor).

AoD
 
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CAMH (and the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry before it) is fully affiliated with UofT, but I don't know if UofT actually owns the building. You're probably right that this building is too valuable to be torn down, although the lower-rise former Addiction Research Foundation building (which also houses CAMH offices) would I think be a strong candidate for redevelopment. (That would be a shame, actually, since I quite like the very modernist ARF building.)
 
Agreed: Good design. Way too tall for the site.

Also, D+S seems to be moving away from competent boxism toward sexy boxism. What happened? Is Jack Diamond taking viagra?
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Tulse:

... I wonder who actually owns the site - CAMH or U of T? I totally see the latter snapping up the building if they don't and use it for office space for various departments (like the Medical Arts Bldg on St. George and Bloor).

AoD
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The property (250 College and 33 Russell Street, the large lower building behind it) were bought by a private numbered company in 2004 and leased back to CAMH. I'd have to agree that U of T would be logical buyers once CAMH moves out. These are office buildings and it's very doubtful that they could be renovated for residential use.

I like the little bit we have seen so far for the residence proposal. As mentioned it's out of scale to the south side of College, but there are several high-rises along the north side and I don't think this would be so drastically out of place overall. U of T's problem, of course, is their lack of new sites to build on, and the ongoing need for more space. It's a bit like some monster in a bad movie, gobbling everything in sight. In fairness, they are putting a lot of emphasis on good design.

The University neighbourhood seems to be going from midrise to more of a highrise character. I'd expect the trend to continue.
 
Parkdalian said:
Agreed: Good design. Way too tall for the site.
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Why? There's nothing particularly grand or quaint about this stretch of College St. and the area seems to possess all the requirements needed to absorb high density development. In addition, the Universe (ity of Toronto) is expanding and the only place left for them to go is up. The way I see it, if The Distillery can bear the insertion of 3 30+ story buildings into its collective orifice then College and Spadina can certainly handle 1.
 
Irishmonk said:
Why? There's nothing particularly grand or quaint about this stretch of College St. and the area seems to possess all the requirements needed to absorb high density development. In addition, the Universe (ity of Toronto) is expanding and the only place left for them to go is up. The way I see it, if The Distillery can bear the insertion of 3 30+ story buildings into its collective orifice then College and Spadina can certainly handle 1.
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Well, we don't need to have the DD conversation affect this thread, but precedence is one of the major issues here. A large tower here will encourage adjacent developers to buy up nearby properties and demolish them for forty story buildings. College Street has some great mid-rise buildings that work perfectly well the way they are and they don't need to be facedectomized.
 
The great mid-rises, though, are further west. The stretch of College between Spadina and Huron is one of the crappiest sections of the entire street. I don't think a clutch of nicely designed 30-40 story buildings would be any worse than what currently exists there.
 
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