Banal and rundown are two different kinds of ugly. I think I prefer the former.

Banal can't be fixed...rundown can. Rundown doesn't get fixed, however, when owners let their buildings fall apart waiting for condos - which is precisely why the west side of Yonge, north of Park Home, for instance, is rundown. Chain stores and the improvement dollars they invariably bring (not that chain stores are the only or the best path to improvement) have concentrated between Empress and Sheppard, but will eventually spread north of there. Or, they may not spread north of there: chain stores will not move into retail cubicles like Northtown or Centrium and there may be no good street retail spots left - the "ugly" 1-2 storey retail strips you're talking about - by the time retail at Yonge & Finch and Yonge & Steeles is renewed. Demolishing all the pre-condo retail buildings would be disastrous for the area.
 
Still can't believe people buy at that price, but I guess they did, if they're putting the second one up for sale...
 
Brasilia? We should be so lucky! To me, they speak of:

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Am I reading the site plan correctly, but it looks as if they will be putting the garage for the buildings underneath the park instead of under the buildings, or at least the ramp will be. That would require them ripping up all the trees and vegetation in the existing park to build this, and replacing the mature trees with little stick baby trees. That would be outright AWFUL!!!
 
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Well, without ripping up the park just to replace it, the project couldn't be completely awful: this way, it can. Kudos to Menkes for creating something so black and white in an age of so much gray.

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I'll take this over the tops of the New York Towers any day (although I realize that's not saying much).
 

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