[simuls]

The area where Corus is being built is a huge wasteland. Attracting business to the area in its current state is difficult because people can't see the potential in the area as it is. Corus may be just an 'ok' building, but what it will do for the area is by far its biggest achievement. It will prove that the area can be a great place for business. Once all is said and done, other businesses will see that the risk Corus has taken will have paid off, and people will be lining up to be part of development on the waterfront. Im sure the people following Corus will want something that stands out, and from there we should be getting much better buildings.

If you are a nobody, you have no chance to spend a night with Jessica Alba... but once you spend a night with Lilly Allen, you are suddenly in the spotlight. Your chances with Jessica have just increased! The land where Corus sits would never have been able to attract a Jessica. Instead, it attracted a Lilly with help from the city (in terms of concessions). Jessica will soon follow, as will Angelina Jolie... God I cant wait for Angelina!

To me this is based on the faulty assumption that ANY business is good business for the waterfront (and I completely disagree with QQT, it's a horrible space that is pure dead zone, except on the first floor outside - regardless of the performance space that is hidden inside).

Personally, I don't think the waterfront should have any sort of office space whatsoever. It needs to be a destination in and of itself that is purely and unadulteratedly (I don't think that's a word tho for the public. We're not trying to create a self-sufficient neighbourhood in this particular part of the waterfront where people can work - that would be further east in the Donlands area. This is an area that should be where people play. What we needed here is a Sydney Opera House, a Bilbao, or something dramatic like that - imagine how the fabulous skyline of Toronto would have been showcased around the world with something like that on it's water's edge! Think of all the free press Dubai has received for their bold (although admittedly excessive in terms of sheer numbers) in your face moves. Why can't we have the vision and desire to achieve the same instead of always accepting mediocrity for expediences' sake?

.........and trust me, sleeping with Lilly Allen will most definitely make sure that Jessica Alba wants nothing to do with your skeezy self.

 

[Tuscani01]

We're not trying to create a self-sufficient neighbourhood in this particular part of the waterfront where people can work - that would be further east in the Donlands area.

Huh?

You need to look at the plans again. This area is not planned to be a 'play' area, though there is going to be PLENTY of park space. Unless you want dead space year round, there is a need for businesses and residences.

Key elements of the East Bayfront precinct plan include:

. 5.5 hectares of parks and public open spaces including the 1.5 hectare
Sherbourne Park and the 1.5 km water's edge promenade
· 1,400 units of affordable rental housing
· 5,700 units of market housing
· Low scale development along the water's edge – four stories
· One million square feet of commercial space
. Activation of Parliament Street slip for water-based activities

As for a showpiece that can be viewed on the waters edge, we already have 2 great ones that the world already associates with our city:

 

[ProjectEnd]

Ballyhoo may call you,
Any night, any day,
In your heart, you'll hear it call you:
"Come away...Come away."

( Insert image of latest art museum in Boston, or Chicago, here )

Not sure where you're going with this considering that Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Institute of Contemporary Art and Renzo's Modern Wing are both immeasurably better buildings than Corus.

 

[Tewder]

I feel your pain. I also wished for better (with the design review) and feel like we just got a big kick to the head. It hurts! Sorry but "It's just fine" doesn't cut it with me. A night in the sack with Lilly Allen might be "just fine" but who would take that over a Jessica Alba? Yes, we know, "not every building needs to be iconic" but how about just one? Is one iconic building on our waterfront just too much, for our painfully ordinary city? Maybe I'm just a little too big for my britches and need to go where people actually expect quality. (London, Paris, NYC) Some of you guys are so happy to live with second rate, and that's your right but some people aspire to more.

I'm agreeing with you on this. If you evacuate the whole icon-on-the-water issue (where is that damn laxative?) this building is simply mundane at best, contempuous of context at worst. Does it function? Yes, I'm sure it'll meet the needs of paper-shufflers adequately. Does it have windows that look over the water? Yes, tick that off too. Does it have pathway access for pedestrians? Well yes, okay. Does it introduce a new building to the waterfront? No question. If these are all the things you require of the built form you will probably be happy and maybe even happy enough to sing a showtune:

I just got back from the Windy City,
The Windy City is mighty pretty,
But they aint got what we got.
No siree!...

Lets raise those pompoms and cheer for mediocrity. Even Chorus beats a barren wasteland, after all.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Not sure where you're going with this considering that Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Institute of Contemporary Art and Renzo's Modern Wing are both immeasurably better buildings than Corus.

Your standard response to any thread about a building you happen not to like is to spam it with images of some other building in some other country ( an art museum in Boston or Chicago, say ... ) as if it has anything to do with the building that's actually under discussion ... much as simuls promotes his Edifice Complex by the lake where we stare, slack-jawed at "something dramatic" because things are immeasurably better elsewhere.

Ballyhoo may call you,
Any night, any day,
In your heart, you'll hear it call you:
"Come away...Come away."

 

[ProjectEnd]

Your standard response to any thread about a building you happen not to like is to spam it with images of some other building in some other country ( an art museum in Boston or Chicago, say ... ) as if it has anything to do with the building that's actually under discussion ... much as simuls promotes his Edifice Complex by the lake where we stare, slack-jawed at "something dramatic" because things are immeasurably better elsewhere.

Ballyhoo may call you,
Any night, any day,
In your heart, you'll hear it call you:
"Come away...Come away."

The smarmy tone of self-satisfaction in your post indicates that you are happy with the foul ball we've been lobbed, and that we should not look to other cities for inspiration? The only spamming that I can see is your incessant boostering of Jack's tired 'fitting in' rhetoric. Grey is the most colourful colour? Never heard that one before.

 

[condovo]

It's an excellent average building.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The smarmy tone of self-satisfaction in your post indicates that you are happy with the foul ball we've been lobbed, and that we should not look to other cities for inspiration? The only spamming that I can see is your incessant boostering of Jack's tired 'fitting in' rhetoric. Grey is the most colourful colour? Never heard that one before.

Grey is the most versatile colour because it contains all others - UN studio used a silver grey to unifying effect on the exterior public face of their La Defense Offices, Almere, Netherlands for instance - which p5 posted images of earlier on this thread. Piano's Chicago addition is all neutrals, as is the ICA in Boston. They're both art institutions, on other sites, in other cities, for other clients, with other requirements, and neither are models for what Corus has to look like, or be like, any more than the other buildings that get plucked from the electronic ether now and then by fanboys like you and held up as examples of what we should be building on such-and-such a site are.

 

[Dan416]

When did this become known as "Corus Quay"? Did I miss something?

 

[alklay]

Grey is the most versatile colour because it contains all others - UN studio used a silver grey to unifying effect on the exterior public face of their La Defense Offices, Almere, Netherlands for instance - which p5 posted images of earlier on this thread. Piano's Chicago addition is all neutrals, as is the ICA in Boston. They're both art institutions, on other sites, in other cities, for other clients, with other requirements, and neither are models for what Corus has to look like, or be like, any more than the other buildings that get plucked from the electronic ether now and then by fanboys like you and held up as examples of what we should be building on such-and-such a site are.

No disrespect, but I think there is only one fanboy in this thread.

And to justify the 'colour' of Corus, using other sites in other cities, and then stating that they should not be models for what Corus should be, is a twisting of logic that is simply incomprehensible.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Tewder:

...this building is simply mundane at best, contempuous of context at worst

Contempuous of context? I mean, if there are any issues it is that this building is contextual to a fault.

Quite frankly, if the waterfront is meant to be iconic (and better yet, heroic) in scale, they would have chosen Foster or god forbid, the TWBTA scheme. West 8 was chosen is plenty telling, in many ways. Besides, no one seems to have any clue as to what an architectural icon (and its' attendant use) to put on any key spot on along the waterfront - much less having any solid ways to pay for them.

AoD

 

[khris]

When did this become known as "Corus Quay"? Did I miss something?

Last week I believe.

 

[adma]

.........and trust me, sleeping with Lilly Allen will most definitely make sure that Jessica Alba wants nothing to do with your skeezy self.

You got shallow taste in women.


Then again, one can always hope for a 3-way...

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Well, that was entertaining.

I know this is a discussion forum for people that love construction, architecture, and buildings in general. But for the love of God, we have a crappy, disused, empty, post-industrial waterfront. We're rebuilding it into an exciting mixed-use commercial, residential, and recreational focus for the city. And people are saying beyond goofy things like it 'physically hurts' that the first office building looks like a well-planned, well-built office building. It's the hysterical tone and antics that drive me nuts. They're having trouble curating a museum inside the Crystal, for goodness sake. Think of what a disaster it would be if it was office cubicles they were trying to put inside!

Corus Quay will have Sugar Beach on one side, George Brown on another, a wide and beautiful boardwalk along the water, and a new and gorgeous walking/biking/TTC greensward along Queens Quay. The fact that it won't draw attention to itself, but allow the public realm to dominate, is a STRENGTH, not a weakness.

Move along people. Nothing to see here. Time to start criticizing Sherbourne Park or Sugar Beach for not being avant-garde enough.

 

[unimaginative2]

Building an average building in the hopes that it will "jump start" more interesting development of the waterfront has been tried before, with Harbour Square. It didn't work then, and it won't work now. Bland or even outright offensive buildings only serve to make the waterfront less attractive, not more. Now, this building certainly fits into the former category, and it remains to be seen what it actually contributes to the neighbourhood. If the base is lined with public uses like restaurants, it will be an asset regardless of its architectural appeal. In many ways, a variety of shops and restaurants along the water would do as much to attract people to the neighbourhood as some sort of "iconic" building. Unfortunately, I don't think our civic leadership is inclined to or capable of building something architecturally inspiring in the area. Perhaps someone will come along to change that.

Toronto is a great city, but it's an ugly city, and Queens Quay is the ugliest of all. Walk down the street east of Spadina with a dispassionate eye and it's impossible to genuinely believe that the street is even remotely attractive. Condo towers ranging from bland to hideous loom over the street, while for much of its length the water is barely visible. The massive condo and institutional buildings leave virtually no space for human-scaled diverse public uses. There are a grand total of three restaurants on Toronto's waterfront, all of them tourist joints that are way beneath this world city. If we keep building monoliths because that's all we know how to build, the eastern half of the central waterfront will turn out the same way as the rest.