urbandreamer said:
As for the revised design: Very King West Life Plazacorp massing meets questionable aesthetic judgement.
Isn't that some sort of engineered wood panels not orange metal accents?
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I was thinking exactly the same thing. It looked like Quadrangle took King West Life and lopped off the tower portions on both ends. Instead of King West Life's incredibly busy and dizzying heavy grid patterning there is a more subdued loose grid of window and balcony openings. Unfortunately Quadrangle hasn't learned the art of making a building less bulky and more elegant. It still looks extremely busy and hulkingly massive.
Adam Vaughan shouldn't have allowed the extra height as it really amplifies the design faults of this building.

Neighbouring buildings 650King has 16- and 10-stories, and upcoming oneeleven will be 17-stories however these buildings are much more design sensitive and has some interesting elements to break up the facade, something Musée could use more of. The punched openings for the windows should have been ganged together to make it look more cleaner and give the illusion of less levels -- there is may too much going on. I was hoping Plazacorp would present an artful play of Tetris-like forms like in their teaser image presented last year:
7137753245_1f1432b2f5_b.jpg

I have a feeling because this is Plazacorp, those orange panels will most likely be metal panels.
 
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Hopefully one day these pedestrian laneways can develop into an intimate and charming urban space like this:

londeng.jpg

(London, England)
 

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I do hope Toronto could be that charming one day. But it is not likely my dream would come true.
 
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walter8299 said:
I do hope Toronto could be that charming one day. But it is not likely my dream would come true.
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Come on .... There are lots of Places in the GTA like that .... Yorkville, Distillerly District, Fronts and Church St. area, some parts at Woodbridge and St. Clair west to name a few.... We should try a little harder to make research before making outrageous statements about our city. Montreal has more places like this but Toronto is overall a better city than Montreal in my opinion ...
 
^^ Where do you see anything like that in Liberty Village or on Church Street? You are living in a fantasy world if you think Church Street has those small, intimate retail/pedestrian spaces. I've been hanging out on Church Street for close to 30 years, so if I somehow missed it, pleas tell me how to get there. Can you give me a specific intersection, where I might look?

As for Liberty Village, have you even been there? There is not a single retail alley in the whole district. I could see you kinda saying that about The Distillery but LV? lol (not even close) Even The Distillery is not the same. It doesn't have the narrow alleys but it's the closest we've got, outside of Yorkville. It would have been nice to see a few of these designed into the West Don Lands but that opportunity has mostly gone. I guess Toronto planners don't see the value in these kinds of animated public areas.

The only area of Toronto where I have seen these narrow retail alleys is in Yorkville and we only have 2 of them. Yep, only 2 in the whole city of Toronto, as far as I've seen. I wish we had many more.


This is what I want to see in Toronto.


Melbourne, Australia
70569273196a88b8636cb.jpg


Check out the cool lighting
42082605382f83a7e940b.jpg


Now if condos like Musee incorporated these types of retail/pedestrian alleys/arcades between them and the new condos going up beside them, they would really be adding some charm and texture to the city's core.
 
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King West has LOTS of alleys begging to be converted into pedestrian spaces. Some of them are arguably in the process of being converted (though they are also threatened by development).
 
I'd like to see more interior, pedestrian laneways connecting King West with Wellington and Front St to the south. Great potential here considering several upcoming projects along Front.
 
I saw the brochure for this. While the renderings hasn't changed, the floorplans show the penthouse level at 24 stories:
Brochure-Plans-43.jpg


Comparing to neighbouring buildings it is 8 and 14 stories taller than 650King to the south and 7 stories taller than Oneeleven directly to the west.
How did they manage to get 24 stories with such a crappy design?
 

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Since it's Plazacorp, I guess we should be expecting fake brick? Is there a single building Plazacorp has built that hasn't been mediocre design-wise? How do they get the biggest and most noticeable building in an area that has far superior building design?
 
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