You all may be correct, there may be others who beat 1BE to the 'curtain wall' punch. This would be great as it would seem that some amount of curtain wall inertia is already sweeping the local condo scene.

I should be clearer though - many projects use curtain wall at the ground level to spruce up the street level view of the building, then switch to the cheaper window wall system for the bulk of the building above (the Murano, for example).

I know the 550 Wellington project also uses curtain wall, but only for the hotel portion of the building on Bathurst Street. For those who are curious about the difference between curtain wall and window wall, this is a great example. Take a look at the Bathurst facade versus the rest of the 550 Wellington building and you will see curtain wall's potential for elegance vs. the mundane window wall cladding.

Curtain wall by-passes the slab edges for a continuous unbroken envelope while window wall can only span a relatively limited height and must 'sit' on every floor slab... this may not sound like a great difference, but in practice curtain wall is amazingly flexible and customizable while window wall is a very rigid and unyielding system.

The irony of the two systems is that window wall is a more complicated system than curtain wall to fabricate and install but costs significantly less.
 
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So Number One Bloor will use the "curtain wall" system for only 20-30% of the building? This would imply it's use on the podium and maybe the top. This doesn't sound promising...
 
No, the curtainwall is running up the tower. It'll make more sense when the renderings come out
 
They want to build a condo at what is probably the most prominent intersection in the city for so many Torontonians, with some of the highest prices, and it's a guaranteed sellout. So what are they going to do? Build another condo similar to all the average new Modernism we've seen around the city, if what we've read so far is any indication. They really must not think much of Toronto when even building for high prices at the most prominent location doesn't motivate them to invest in unique architecture.

I guess we'll have to wait and see, but there's no room for compromises here.
 
They really must not think much of Toronto when even building for high prices at the most prominent location doesn't motivate them to invest in unique architecture.
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You are talking about Great Gulf here. 18 Yorkville, Hudson, Morgan, X. Every one unique. I suspect they will come up with something different. Fingers crossed.
 
I would like to think that the architects, the investors and the developers were all aware of the gravitas and significance of this intersection but something inside says they are all blissfully ignorant and are just doing what they want and have considered nothing else.

In a perfect world, the man who ultimately designed this building would have gown up in the area. He would have watched, as I did, Toronto grow from a gritty, industrial second city to a shining, thriving bustling destination metropolis. He would have explored the city streets as a child, wide-eyed at all the changes unfolding around him. Dreamt of gleaming towers soaring higher than this city had ever seen. Imagined the bold promising edifices that would one day grace clean, thriving streets. He would have appreciated the humble beginnings from which Toronto had spawned. He would love the architecture already in existence so much, that when he returned to Toronto after a couple of years away, he would actually, physically hug the towers at King and Bay, because he was that glad to be home. He would have striven to design a tower to impress not just the eyes or appease the masses, but one that would thrill the soul.

Such a man would be worthy of an intersection with such import.

But we will get a boob.
 
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Traynor said:
I would like to think that the architects, the investors and the developers were all aware of the gravitas and significance of this intersection but something inside says they are all blissfully ignorant and are just doing what they want and have considered nothing else.

In a perfect world, the man who ultimately designed this building would have gown up in the area. He would have watched, as I did, Toronto grow from a gritty, industrial second city to a shining, thriving bustling destination metropolis. He would have explored the city streets as a child, wide-eyed at all the changes unfolding around him. Dreamt of gleaming towers soaring higher than this city had ever seen. Imagined the bold promising edifices that would one day grace clean, thriving streets. He would have appreciated the humble beginnings from which Toronto had spawned. He would love the architecture already in existence so much, that when he returned to Toronto after a couple of years away, he would actually, physically hug the towers at King and Bay, because he was that glad to be home. He would have striven to design a tower to impress not just the eyes or appease the masses, but one that would thrill the soul.

Such a man would be worthy of an intersection with such import.

But we will get a boob.
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I think I got some goosebumps reading that! haha
 
Is there anything that suggest to anyone here that the proposed building will be any less architecturally worthwhile than our slate of office buildings from the 60s to 80s, which, if you are honest with yourself, are fairly conventional by international standards and certainly NOT groundbreaking? Distill all that Thorsellian florishing down, we're back to the same old argument:

"It's not tall enough"

Why not just say so and move on? Wait it's already been said.

AoD
 
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I love how there is post after post, page after page of complaining about a design that has not even been shown publically yet. I fear the day the actual design is shown.
 
Uncle Teddy said:
You are talking about Great Gulf here. 18 Yorkville, Hudson, Morgan, X. Every one unique. I suspect they will come up with something different. Fingers crossed.
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Add to that the Moshe Safdie designed project on the East Bay Front. Whether you like the design or not, you can credit Great Gulf with going out on a limb and hiring a world renowned architect to design something urban and unique in terms of Toronto’s built form.

I share AoD's sentiment that a lot of people are clearly in the 'it's not tall enough' camp and design means little to them (they’ll suggest why not both, but we are getting a 65 floor tower that will loom over everything else in the intersection – get over it and be happy we didn’t get the two previously proposed projects by Bazis & Kolter – you may have liked the renderings, but execution and past track record is a different matter).

The Bazis design was pretty terrible, but it was tall so it got a pass. Great Gulf on the other hand has been behind some of the highest quality designs that don't necessarily scream 'look at me', but are thoroughly urban and contextual within their immediate surroundings (i.e. X, Hudson & Morgan). I'm not going to slander other developers, but the site is now in very good hands with a top notch professional team that take their task very seriously despite the yearning for 'tall shinny objects' that gets way too much attention on these threads.
 
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