The shadow from E2 stretches 5 blocks north at this time of year.
You mean e8, and yes, it makes total perfect sense.

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The winter solstice was two weeks ago. Wouldn't that be part of a shadow study?
 
I went by last week and noticed they were building a glass box on top of the heritage building roof that wasn't in the renderings.
 
I went by last week and noticed they were building a glass box on top of the heritage building roof that wasn't in the renderings.
I certainly see a glass box in the renderings
 
Are you sure this isn't a second rate college dorm? It is just so plain and institutional looking aside from that hideous slab overhanging the post office. And those windows are awful!

I have a few thoughts on this. One is that not every building needs to be a brilliant work of art, especially in a market where the cost of housing is so high and frills add to the cost. The second is that this building has a nice balance and symmetry (at east/west elevations) that is simple but sophisticated. Every building looks half-baked when it's half-constructed but as this has finished up I have become impressed with the overall simplicity and dare I say elegance of the design. Sure I would love to see this in curtain wall instead of window wall etc. but this is reality and this is a new apartment building; costs have to be controlled. I think this has turned out reasonably nicely.

Edit: And personally, while I recognize this is a matter of taste, I like the overhang at the 4th (?) floor over the heritage building. The big cut back the level below really separates the volumes rather than mashing them together.
 
Yesterday:
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Assuming those really are limestone panels as originally specced, they marry the tower to the podium much better now… and might that be a limestone soffit coming together?! If so… wow! (Very cool patterning on it!)

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The stone panels on the tower are sort of textureless, don't quite form a strong connection to the stonework in the original facade beyond the colour- I wished they'd gone with a stone that had a more textured appearance, as in the original renderings.

Regardless, hopefully a bit of weathering over the next few years will add some texture to them, but it's an attractive project overall. I do like the way it's created a tiny little plaza space in front of it- a small gesture in a spot of the city that doesn't really have a lot of urbanistic 'stickiness' to it.
 
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Tower gets a 5/10, but the podium reno and streetscape is a real 10/10.
 
Tower gets a 5/10, but the podium reno and streetscape is a real 10/10.
It's worth more than 5/10: there are no waist-height mullions to junk it up, and it's got real limestone spandrels and soffits.

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Short of painting the limestone, what's a developer to do? I say three cheers for the materials, and the tower's a 7/10 for me (three points off for being a fairly boring box).

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