I think the best way to have a more variegated skyline is to have no height limits in the first place... if there were no height limits in the Entertainment District, there would be no table top effect...
 
I noticed over on SkyscraperPage that if you search projects under construction or proposed, Sydney has one page of projects; Melbourne, one; Vancouver, one; Chicago, two; New York, two; Toronto, 16. It's possible that the architectural monotony we're witnessing stems from the fact that so much is being built all at once. This happens in cities that go through massive growth spurts. Tokyo has a pretty "samey" skyline (Tokyo was extensively rebuilt after WWII). Vast swathes of Paris rebuilt by Haussmann between 1853 and 1870, while charming, are pretty much all of one height and style. Munich consists overwhlemingly of 6-8 storey, stucco-clad, apartment buildings with whatever older buildings that survived WWII bombing popping up in between.
Paris had the good fortune of being extensively rebuilt in an architectural style that has remained enduringly popular with a lot of people. Toronto will, for a long, long time, be defined by glass and concrete skyscrapers just as New York is largely defined by Art Deco skyscrapers. Each city appeals to a different taste.
 
SSP isn't completely reliable for comparisons as most cities are not documented as extensively as Toronto. New York has far more than two pages worth of projects underway, but they are simply not documented. Similar to Vancouver, Melbourne, etc.
 
I wonder why cities like New York City don't have more people willing to take on part of the load of updating projects. Considering its much larger population, New York City should be at least as heavily documented as Toronto.
 
I can only be a teenaged fanboy on this one. Don't want to think about curtain wall quality or lousy lay-outs or "shortenings"... just want to see it in the skyline. KPF should probably have saved this (at double height no doubt) for China, but works for me. Dear Santa.....
 
Mongo said:
I wonder why cities like New York City don't have more people willing to take on part of the load of updating projects. Considering its much larger population, New York City should be at least as heavily documented as Toronto.
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SSP is heavily dominated by canadian users, and has a few prolific database updaters from the GTA.
 
Irishmonk said:
How have Melbourne, Sydney, Vancouver, Calgary, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Philly and a host of other cities managed to avoid--for the most part--the curse of the 50 story grey glass and spandrel box? Maybe our city mandarins should find the answer(s) and seek to mimic others' success.

Or maybe it's all just dumb bad luck on Toronto's part and we should just learn to live with it because nothing can be done.
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Perhaps to some extent Toronto's success as a place to live and the high demand for condos is a contributing factor- the industry is just building quickly to meet demand. Toronto's boom also coincides with an age where glass curtain and the cheaper window wall make building projects less complex- so they stick to formula. The average buyers don't seem to mind one way or the other afterall.

The dominant architecture of the core has also been for decades the "less is more" International style, so perhaps these first tall buildings set the tempo for more restraint in highrise building design. Notably, Foster's first foray into this market resulted in a box- a lovely box with neat stuff inside mind you. Culturally there is perhaps a touch of Canadian (Ontario?) reserve and sensibility involved too.
 
innsertnamehere said:
SSP isn't completely reliable for comparisons as most cities are not documented as extensively as Toronto. New York has far more than two pages worth of projects underway, but they are simply not documented. Similar to Vancouver, Melbourne, etc.
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True, no doubt. Also, according to Wikipedia, SkyscraperPage’s office is in Victoria, BC, further skewing Canadian content.
 
yyzer said:
I think the best way to have a more variegated skyline is to have no height limits in the first place... if there were no height limits in the Entertainment District, there would be no table top effect...
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Not necessarily - you will still have to have some kind of density limit, and developers wanting to maximize profit and minimize cost will be building in a certain way that result in towers that are more or less the same height.

AoD
 
Irishmonk said:
I don't know the answer to this as I have no experience or training in writing legislation or urban design.

But many other prominent cities seem to have figured out how to achieve diversity in their built form. Unless Toronto has some peculiar set of characteristics, alien to any other urban entity in the world, there must be a way to encourage, champion, ensure --if not outright regulate--decent tall building architecture that doesn't immediately dive down to the lowest ebb of the bottom line.

How have Melbourne, Sydney, Vancouver, Calgary, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Philly and a host of other cities managed to avoid--for the most part--the curse of the 50 story grey glass and spandrel box? Maybe our city mandarins should find the answer(s) and seek to mimic others' success.

Or maybe it's all just dumb bad luck on Toronto's part and we should just learn to live with it because nothing can be done.
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Toronto's development boom is a fairly peculiar phenomenon with many players having got into the game to meet the rapid demand for condos and profit along the way. I think the nature or driver of development plays a role in what is 'championed'.

The development in other cities with more "stable" growth cycles probably were being planned for much longer and to serve a more specific purpose than the average Toronto development.

The other thing is as Bogtrotter mentioned, it just so happens that this boom cycle is taking place in an age where not just architectural style, but construction methods and costs call for window walls and glass curtains.
 
AOD: "intertwined" = Billy was fed up (as u know) and starting something local and new. We all helped a bit and then Ed the "overlord" took over ;-). He's done well of course but props to Billy for the start.
 
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