This is depressing. It looks like the Portlands are going to remain industrial. Sound stages don't make for a happy stroll along the water.
 
This is depressing. It looks like the Portlands are going to remain industrial. Sound stages don't make for a happy stroll along the water.

The Portlands are quite big. It will take decades to develop them, and this could be a decent interim use. Though it is depressing that we probably won't see the Alsop building built.
 
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The studio complex isn't anywhere near the water ... at least from my perspective. The overall plan always seems a tad ambitious by today's standards. It will be decades before anything gets done with the port and its surroundings. Yeah, I could see a hotel and restaurants doing quite well surrounding by brownfields, a waste depot, a recycling plant, a concrete campus, and the Hearn.
 
Now chldren, go back to your rooms and be happy with your glass covered grey boxes.

;)
 
This might suck from an architectural point of view but it's really not clear what impact it'll have on the square feet of space being built - it's not clear they're building less sound stages / studios / what not ... so it might be a little too early to react here.
 
Wipe your eyes kiddies, for sure as God made little green apples Mr. Alsop will design you a shiny red something-or-other for some other part of town soon enough.
 
^ Hope that prediction comes true. But in the meantime I don't have a problem with a facility which will help maintain Toronto's reputation as a centre of film making. It helps produce some of those useful things called jobs.
 
Alsop's basic idea, such as it is - ripping off the form and material of a Serra sculpture and going reely, reely big with it - can be recycled.
 
Monday July 5
12:50 p.m.

Luncheon and tour of Pinewood Studios, Toronto:

Supporters of Canada’s film industry The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh arrive in Toronto at Pinewood Studios for a luncheon hosted by the Province of Ontario and a tour of Canada's largest film and television production complex and the third largest film studio in North America after Los Angles and New York. Deepa Mehta, the acclaimed Canadian film director, explains a current project to Her Majesty and His Royal Highness and they watch a scene being shot in 3-D.
 
Third largest? When it was being built, they said it was the largest in North America.
 
Largest soundstage, but third largest studio (although I wasn't aware that LA or NY were studios - I had always thought they were cities).

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The buildings at the end of my street usually host about 4 movies a year but this year they've already shot 4 and it's only March.
 
This sounds like a huge boost for the film industry, especially with our dollar at par. Does Pinewood then lease out the studio to anyone who wants to use it or will it be for Pinewood produced movies only...how does that work?

In recent years it seems that its been mostly smaller films and TV productions here. I guess it was 'Chicago' that was the last big film or blockbuster filmed in TO.
 

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