interchange42 said:
I talked with a prominent Toronto architect a couple of years ago about a plan their firm had for a building that was just shy of supertall status, and the reaction on UT to that. He was surprised to hear the comments—they had not thought about the height that way, only stopping the building before the shadowing would become a problem for the City—but took it onboard and the subsequent revision found a way to get it over the 300-metre mark without impacting shadows. There's another revision on the way, no idea if it will maintain supertall status, we'll see. It comes down to supertall status might be nice to have, but it's not the driving force behind the design for every tall building going up here.



Unless you're American and tied to the antiquated Imperial System, why would you care about 1,000 feet? Forget about that arbitrary number clung to by that backward nation and go with the arbitrary number that the modern world has settled on: 300 metres!

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Wow so you're the one we need to thank for pushing CC3's initial 298 m design to the current 302 m design?
 
ushahid said:
Hey @interchange. you showed our comments to an architect and they added some height to the project. is it possible to show our comments to big fishes at Concord? 😂
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Hey @interchange, can you get them to do something about all the ugly, grey spandrel too.
From your mouth to the development god's ears. ;-p
 
Quint said:
Do you honestly believe that Developers and Investors "don't care about skyscraper or supertall status"? Do you really believe that this developer got within 1 metre of achieving supertall status and decided "who cares about an extra metre in height" ? Do you not think for potential buyers of units in this tower that being able to claim that they live in the first Super Tall Tower in Canada doesn't impart an extra level of prestige and extra level of value to their Condo ?
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It won't be the first supertall in Canada; there are 2 already under construction. Like @interchange42 mentioned, such statues are not even on the mind of developers. Do you see any building being advertised as a skyscraper or supertall? We have more than 70 skyscrapers built and under construction. Check if anyone claims skyscraper status as a selling point.

TL;DR: It's good if we get a supertall (maybe not if it's built by Concord) but people involved with the building in any way don't care.

Back to building's construction please.
 
Torontovibe said:
Hey @interchange, can you get them to do something about all the ugly, grey spandrel too.
From your mouth to the development god's ears. ;-p
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It would be a dream to be able to have that kind of sway! The almighty dollar is much mightier with most developers than our wishes in that regard though… but we do need to keep at them. More buildings are getting brick again these days, more buildings are going with full-height windows without the waist-height mullions, we just have to keep hammering away at them in the comments about such cheap-outs! Those are the kinds of causes where too much negativity on the internet can (at least in some instances) have a positive effect in the future. Raising the height of buildings? That's a one-off chance.

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interchange42 said:
It would be a dream to be able to have that kind of sway! The almighty dollar is much mightier with most developers than our wishes in that regard though…
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But it would be nice to imagine that you could give them a pay cheque vacations for the ages for trolling us with bad window wall choices. <3
 
interchange42 said:
It would be a dream to be able to have that kind of sway! The almighty dollar is much mightier with most developers than our wishes in that regard though… but we do need to keep at them. More buildings are getting brick again these days, more buildings are going with full-height windows without the waist-height mullions, we just have to keep hammering away at them in the comments about such cheap-outs! Those are the kinds of causes where too much negativity on the internet can (at least in some instances) have a positive effect in the future. Raising the height of buildings? That's a one-off chance.

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Are you serious, or am I really gullible? Do we actually have any effect on the development industry? I don't even think we have an effect on planning policy makers... which are the people you'd think would be interested in this website and yet they are nowhere to be seen.
 
daniel_kryz said:
Are you serious, or am I really gullible? Do we actually have any effect on the development industry? I don't even think we have an effect on planning policy makers... which are the people you'd think would be interested in this website and yet they are nowhere to be seen.
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There are people in the development industry who post on this forum.

So it's safe to say there is some impact.

Many other posters have direct or indirect influence; for instance, amending certain planning rules in the City.

While UT should not overstate its influence; its membership, both individually and collectively (as a community) do have some stroke in this town.

Doubtless, less than we'd like.............but probably more than we give ourselves collective credit for.....
 
daniel_kryz said:
Are you serious, or am I really gullible? Do we actually have any effect on the development industry? I don't even think we have an effect on planning policy makers... which are the people you'd think would be interested in this website and yet they are nowhere to be seen.
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UrbanToronto is widely read within Toronto's development community, although that's not to say everyone reads it. You can expect that in many cases your thoughts are noted by some of the people responsible for whichever development, but you cannot, however, complain about a building and expect a direct response, even if occasional changes may be made to designs based on the feedback here.

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EDIT: It should also be noted that different UT contributors feel differently about any given project, so a comment you might make could be contradicted by another contributor. What are developers, architects, and planners to make of that other than there is disagreement out there, but possibly ideas trending in a particular direction? The professional reader may also simply disagree with what they are seeing here, or may be constrained by a budget or any number of rules or a timeline that rule out a response via an updated design. All of that means continue as you were, and occasionally some good may come of it.
 
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Thanks for the great explanations! The fact that people here care about our physical world is a great accomplishment, and I'm certainly grateful for this and the amount of information in the forums. I do hope that there'll be more influence, and that perhaps this platform could be used directly in city planning consultations.
 
This is why I like to make my opinions known on the subject, as one needs to remember once those bulidings go up....they are there for a lifetime. And if it's hard to look at and/or makes one want to hold their nose as they walk by it, it won't be going away anytime soon. So speaking up now here is important!
 
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