adma
Superstar
And presumably, it allows you to draw enjoyment from cities with *no* discernable "major tourist attractions", i.e. those described in guidebooks as "industrial"...
And presumably, it allows you to draw enjoyment from cities with *no* discernable "major tourist attractions", i.e. those described in guidebooks as "industrial"...
bgd
New Member
Postponement for Toronto L-tower design as crunch means investors are slow to pay
The doors have closed on Toronto's Sony Centre this week to make way for a revamp due to bring the building into the 21st century. Studio Daniel Libeskind has designed an L shaped tower that will envelope the 50-year-old Sony Centre for the Performing Arts - formerly the Hummingbird centre – at the corner of Yonge and Front in Toronto, Canada.
The redevelopment of the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts has been designed to boast the new L Tower Condominiums, an arts and cultural facility dubbed the Arts and Heritage Awareness Centre (AHA) and the revamped existing theater structure.
However, while the commercially viable L-tower residential block will continue without hesitation, local Canadian publication, the Globe and Mail reports that the AHA, which was to be the justifying centre of the development, is getting to grips with the credit crunch as it faces further financing delays. The AHA, costing C$75 million, was due to receive C$60 million of senior government funding and private donation by December last year but the funds are yet to be seen. Despite an extention until September 2008 there is little hope that the funds will be received and there is talk that the centre could transform from a cultural hub to a retail haunt.
Libeskind’s design proposal held the cultural component of the L Tower and Sony Centre for the Performing Arts central to the concept - offering a fresh residential approach promising to integrate inner city life with culture and the arts. His design is conceptually engaged with the programmatic and experiential intentions of the ArtsLab. It achieves this via a formal and spatial strategy articulated through a central void in the building. This collective space, in the form of a semi-sphere, is a cultural hub, symbolic and functional, evoking in form the global diversity of cultures present in Toronto and celebrated throughout the program.
Yet the residential tower component comprises the majority (428,000 sq ft) of the overall redesign. Situated atop the cultural facilities, it will contain approximately 470 units and rise to a height of 57 stories, providing views over downtown Toronto and Ontario. The L Tower will have a concrete structure with glass curtain wall and window wall cladding. Prices of the desirable apartment’s suites start at C$ 589,900 and penthouses range from C$ 950,000 to C$ 2.5 million. While the residential tower will doubtless continue as planned, Toronto plays a waiting game to see if the heart of the L tower will be one of commercial or cultural significance.
Laura Salmi and Niki May Young
http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=10029
The doors have closed on Toronto's Sony Centre this week to make way for a revamp due to bring the building into the 21st century. Studio Daniel Libeskind has designed an L shaped tower that will envelope the 50-year-old Sony Centre for the Performing Arts - formerly the Hummingbird centre – at the corner of Yonge and Front in Toronto, Canada.
The redevelopment of the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts has been designed to boast the new L Tower Condominiums, an arts and cultural facility dubbed the Arts and Heritage Awareness Centre (AHA) and the revamped existing theater structure.
However, while the commercially viable L-tower residential block will continue without hesitation, local Canadian publication, the Globe and Mail reports that the AHA, which was to be the justifying centre of the development, is getting to grips with the credit crunch as it faces further financing delays. The AHA, costing C$75 million, was due to receive C$60 million of senior government funding and private donation by December last year but the funds are yet to be seen. Despite an extention until September 2008 there is little hope that the funds will be received and there is talk that the centre could transform from a cultural hub to a retail haunt.
Libeskind’s design proposal held the cultural component of the L Tower and Sony Centre for the Performing Arts central to the concept - offering a fresh residential approach promising to integrate inner city life with culture and the arts. His design is conceptually engaged with the programmatic and experiential intentions of the ArtsLab. It achieves this via a formal and spatial strategy articulated through a central void in the building. This collective space, in the form of a semi-sphere, is a cultural hub, symbolic and functional, evoking in form the global diversity of cultures present in Toronto and celebrated throughout the program.
Yet the residential tower component comprises the majority (428,000 sq ft) of the overall redesign. Situated atop the cultural facilities, it will contain approximately 470 units and rise to a height of 57 stories, providing views over downtown Toronto and Ontario. The L Tower will have a concrete structure with glass curtain wall and window wall cladding. Prices of the desirable apartment’s suites start at C$ 589,900 and penthouses range from C$ 950,000 to C$ 2.5 million. While the residential tower will doubtless continue as planned, Toronto plays a waiting game to see if the heart of the L tower will be one of commercial or cultural significance.
Laura Salmi and Niki May Young
http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=10029
yyzer
Senior Member
I don't think it is the 'credit crunch' which has delayed government funding of the AHA! portion of the project...
It's not that 'investors are slow to pay'....but rather that 'governments are slow to give'
In any event, the key point, as discussed previously in this thread, is that the development is going forward, with or without the government funding.
We walked by the Sony Centre on the weekend, there are signs posted that they plan on reopening for the 2009-2010 season, although I would think that is a little over-optimistic?
It's not that 'investors are slow to pay'....but rather that 'governments are slow to give'
In any event, the key point, as discussed previously in this thread, is that the development is going forward, with or without the government funding.
We walked by the Sony Centre on the weekend, there are signs posted that they plan on reopening for the 2009-2010 season, although I would think that is a little over-optimistic?
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
I saw that today too and thought the same thing
No reason why the hall can't be open while they build the tower.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
A first for Libeskind, I think - the central void in this project won't be angular and off-kilter like the Spirit House, but "a semi-spere".
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
From the Star:
Sony Centre receives condo unit as donation from developer
L Tower condominium project developer gives arts centre gift of 10th-floor unit worth $559,534
Jul 05, 2008 04:30 AM
Paul Moloney
city hall bureau
A developer planning the boot-shaped L Tower condominium project above the city-owned Sony Centre for the Performing Arts is giving the theatre $1 million in the form of a new condo unit and cash.
The condo donation was not publicly disclosed last year, but was revealed in the centre's audited financial statements released this week.
It certainly came as news to Councillor Howard Moscoe, a Sony Centre board member.
"I wasn't aware we were given a condominium," Moscoe said yesterday. "As far as the condo, I've never heard (of) that one."
The financial documents place a value of $559,534 on the condo, an approximately 900-square-foot, 10th-floor unit expected to be ready by November 2010.
Councillor Mike Feldman, another Sony Centre board member, said he was aware of the donation and praised the developer, Castlepoint Realty Partners, headed by Alfredo Romano.
"I've got to say that the developer, Castlepoint, I guess they're happy with their sales and happy with the location, and they've been more than kind," Feldman said.
Councillor Adam Vaughan was more circumspect about the gift. It complicates what is already a complex development, said Vaughan, who wants to preserve as much as possible of the original theatre.
"It would be easier if the (condo) development and the business activities of the Sony Centre were kept as separate as possible," Vaughan said. "The more you mix the two of them together, the murkier it begins to get. It just muddies the water."
Vaughan said he understands the need to raise donations.
"They have to try to get funds for the Sony Centre. This is what happens when you don't fund arts properly. You end up with these arrangements. It creates a layer of complication."
The donation is not part of any contributions or payments due to the city, said Dan Brambilla, chief executive officer of the Sony Centre, previously the Hummingbird Centre and originally known as the O'Keefe Centre when it opened in 1960.
Brambilla said the highrise condo tower will provide funds to carry out a $20 million renovation of the Sony Centre, which closed last week for a 16-month makeover, but the donation is separate from those funds.
Romano is "just a great developer, a great guy, and he's just trying to support the organization, and that's really all it is," Brambilla said. "Other than the fact I know him and I asked him for a contribution in 2007 and he said he would do it, it's completely separate from the development as far as any monies owed.
"All I can tell you is it's not unusual for people that have resources to make gifts. Look at all the gifts the opera company has received, and the ROM and the AGO.
"We were the lucky recipients of a gift in kind, we're happy to get it and hope we can get further gifts from him and others in the future."
Brambilla said the intention is to sell the condominium once it's built, subject to market conditions. All the proceeds of a sale would go to the centre.
"Who knows what the board will do in 2010 or 2011 when the condo is built, but the intention is the board would sell it and put the money in its account," he said. "If the market gets soft, the board could hang on to it until the market gets stronger."
When the Star contacted Castlepoint's Romano by phone and email for comment, he suggested the questions be submitted in writing, via email.
The Star did that and hadn't received a response by late yesterday.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/454833
AoD
Sony Centre receives condo unit as donation from developer
L Tower condominium project developer gives arts centre gift of 10th-floor unit worth $559,534
Jul 05, 2008 04:30 AM
Paul Moloney
city hall bureau
A developer planning the boot-shaped L Tower condominium project above the city-owned Sony Centre for the Performing Arts is giving the theatre $1 million in the form of a new condo unit and cash.
The condo donation was not publicly disclosed last year, but was revealed in the centre's audited financial statements released this week.
It certainly came as news to Councillor Howard Moscoe, a Sony Centre board member.
"I wasn't aware we were given a condominium," Moscoe said yesterday. "As far as the condo, I've never heard (of) that one."
The financial documents place a value of $559,534 on the condo, an approximately 900-square-foot, 10th-floor unit expected to be ready by November 2010.
Councillor Mike Feldman, another Sony Centre board member, said he was aware of the donation and praised the developer, Castlepoint Realty Partners, headed by Alfredo Romano.
"I've got to say that the developer, Castlepoint, I guess they're happy with their sales and happy with the location, and they've been more than kind," Feldman said.
Councillor Adam Vaughan was more circumspect about the gift. It complicates what is already a complex development, said Vaughan, who wants to preserve as much as possible of the original theatre.
"It would be easier if the (condo) development and the business activities of the Sony Centre were kept as separate as possible," Vaughan said. "The more you mix the two of them together, the murkier it begins to get. It just muddies the water."
Vaughan said he understands the need to raise donations.
"They have to try to get funds for the Sony Centre. This is what happens when you don't fund arts properly. You end up with these arrangements. It creates a layer of complication."
The donation is not part of any contributions or payments due to the city, said Dan Brambilla, chief executive officer of the Sony Centre, previously the Hummingbird Centre and originally known as the O'Keefe Centre when it opened in 1960.
Brambilla said the highrise condo tower will provide funds to carry out a $20 million renovation of the Sony Centre, which closed last week for a 16-month makeover, but the donation is separate from those funds.
Romano is "just a great developer, a great guy, and he's just trying to support the organization, and that's really all it is," Brambilla said. "Other than the fact I know him and I asked him for a contribution in 2007 and he said he would do it, it's completely separate from the development as far as any monies owed.
"All I can tell you is it's not unusual for people that have resources to make gifts. Look at all the gifts the opera company has received, and the ROM and the AGO.
"We were the lucky recipients of a gift in kind, we're happy to get it and hope we can get further gifts from him and others in the future."
Brambilla said the intention is to sell the condominium once it's built, subject to market conditions. All the proceeds of a sale would go to the centre.
"Who knows what the board will do in 2010 or 2011 when the condo is built, but the intention is the board would sell it and put the money in its account," he said. "If the market gets soft, the board could hang on to it until the market gets stronger."
When the Star contacted Castlepoint's Romano by phone and email for comment, he suggested the questions be submitted in writing, via email.
The Star did that and hadn't received a response by late yesterday.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/454833
AoD
Redroom Studios
Senior Member
all this is very interesting, now if they would just start working as they promised "in July"
casaguy
Senior Member
UrbanAffair
Senior Member
If were going by renderings that doesn't look nearly as nice imo.
khris
Senior Member
What a ripoff! At least L Tower looks far better in renders!
riley
Active Member
It really does look like the L tower, but I suppose there's room in the entire world for a similar tower. I wonder if Libeskind is involved in that one at all. I wonder if architects can 'copyright' their designs and sue for plagiarism like other artistic works.
Does it look like Libeskind is involved with that Istanbul project? It's just a pale attempt at some flash.
42
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Urban Shocker
Doyenne
His Crystals are all over the place, so why not his 'L'?
adma
Superstar
Kinda "L"ish, if you ask me...
I guess in Japan, it'd be the "R" Tower, if you don't mind the lacist humour
I guess in Japan, it'd be the "R" Tower, if you don't mind the lacist humour