I'm normally against supertalls, but I'd rather see a supertall here than another two 70s twin towers on a shared podium. Let's make it 300 or 400 floors, 3x height of the CN Tower. Then the argument "there isn't enough condos or office space downtown" can be put to rest for about 60 years.
 
000 said:
I'm normally against supertalls, but I'd rather see a supertall here than another two 70s twin towers on a shared podium. Let's make it 300 or 400 floors, 3x height of the CN Tower. Then the argument "there isn't enough condos or office space downtown" can be put to rest for about 60 years.
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300 or 400 floors? Is that even technically possible? Isn't that past supertall? That's megatall! Maybe a hundred years from now, but definitely not now, but wouldn't it be awesome? Lol! I wonder how deep they'd have to dig the foundation to support something that tall? I'd be happy with 100 floors, but even that's a very long shot. If my experiences on UT has taught me anything, it's that nothing, and I mean nothing, ever goes to the original plan. Look at the height Rollercoaster of One Bloor. Originally 85 stories, then totally scrapped and redesigned at a mere 65, then 70, and now 75 floors, what's next? City council may be many things,(much of which I cannot repeat here) but they're definitely not boring, nor predictable, they certainly keep us guessing. To be fair, I can't imagine being on city council, particularly Rob Ford's council, can be easy. So many politics, and obstacles, always getting in the way of trying to decide what's best of the city, rather, what they think is best for the city. To be off topic just for a moment, just from media reports, I despised councilor kristyn wong-tam, but after speaking with her via email, I realized she really does care, a great deal, for the well being of her constituents, and her city. If I'm wrong about her, perhaps I've misjudged others as well.

I have learned that they do respond if you email them. Kristyn gave me a brief outline of what's involved in approving a skyscraper proposal, made my head spin. I have a new found respect for her, and applaud her concern. When I first heard she negotiated a 3 million dollar donation from a developer requesting additional floors, I was appalled, but when she explained how the money is used to improve local infrastructure to help cope with the stress of additional residents, it all made perfect sense, guess you can teach a very old, grumpy dog new tricks, WOOF!!!
 
Per unit development fees pay for infrastructure improvements to cope with new development. My guess is they're probably too low to cover the true impact of new development on existing infrastructure. Section 37 payments are for community benefits in exchange for development that would not be allowed under current zoning.

I'll pull the Section 37 agreement for Aura when I get home but I'm almost positive it went toward improvements for a park but not the less sexy infrastructure like waste water or transit. While parks can technically fall under infrastructure it may be a little misleading if she made you believe that the funds were going to crumbling pipes. Will double check all of this when I get home.
 
ugh I hope this doesnt come to be one of those supertall discussions that last for months only to be proven to be a multi tower 30 story glass box buildings

and then we take another couple months to whine and moan because all our dreams have been shattered...

that is until the next corner of a street is ripe for development and the whole cycle starts again...

I call it the "hope unto crushed dream" cycle

Man, I should be a philosopher .
 
Heh, Toronto has the most urban development in the western world. It's not that bad. Try living somewhere where nothing is being built and downtown has been decaying since the 60s :p

I'm still amazed at the Mirvish proposal. If one yonge flops and can't be built this cycle, oh well.
 
But the Burj has already been done. And the race for height alone is a doomed race. Too many cities vying to out-do ya just as soon as you get it built and declare the latest (all too fleeting) record-buster.
 
And now that the kingdom tower has started, we would need to build something over twice as tall as the CN tower to claim that record. (1,100+ meters)
 
000 said:
I'm normally against supertalls, but I'd rather see a supertall here than another two 70s twin towers on a shared podium. Let's make it 300 or 400 floors, 3x height of the CN Tower. Then the argument "there isn't enough condos or office space downtown" can be put to rest for about 60 years.
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I'm pretty sure your comment was made tongue in cheek....but when you think about it, a 300 storey building = ten 30 storey buildings, so if we are talking just condos, at the rate that Toronto has been growing, this would probably be assimilated in about 1 year, not 60! :p
 
Hanlansboy said:
To be off topic just for a moment, just from media reports, I despised councilor kristyn wong-tam, but after speaking with her via email, I realized she really does care, a great deal, for the well being of her constituents, and her city. If I'm wrong about her, perhaps I've misjudged others as well.

I have learned that they do respond if you email them. Kristyn gave me a brief outline of what's involved in approving a skyscraper proposal, made my head spin. I have a new found respect for her, and applaud her concern. When I first heard she negotiated a 3 million dollar donation from a developer requesting additional floors, I was appalled, but when she explained how the money is used to improve local infrastructure to help cope with the stress of additional residents, it all made perfect sense, guess you can teach a very old, grumpy dog new tricks, WOOF!!!
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Hanlansboy, try not to read or watch too much of anything connected to Sun media! Of course they hate her, she's a dyke who rides a bike and a 'left-wing pinko'. When Council comes back in January if you have time one day and have Rogers cable put on or record channel 10 for a few hours and watch the long, drawn out debates and what happens in Council. It can be tedious to watch at times and downright interesting other times. Being on Council must be a really challenging job at the best of times, then take into consideration what KWT told you about all the work, negotiations, planning, neighbourhood input and such that goes into one building then look at all of what is being built and proposed in her Ward (not even including all of the community initiatives that are happening or in the works). Then we've got two other terrific Councillors who have the other two sections of the downtown core, Councillors Pam McConnell and Adam Vaughan (also left-wing pinkos) who often have to co-ordinate community plans with each other and just try and imagine what they go through every day. Then those three (especially Wong-Tam and Vaughan) are out in the community almost every night taking meetings with community organizations, attending community events, fundraisers and such. My hat is off to them, huge respect. By the way, 1 Yonge Street falls into Pam McConnell's lap in Ward 28 which gives me hope for future development(s) on this site.
 
fedplanner said:
Heh, Toronto has the most urban development in the western world. It's not that bad. Try living somewhere where nothing is being built and downtown has been decaying since the 60s :p
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There are not many cities with 2M+ population where the downtown has been decaying since the 60s in the western world. Look at New York, London, Boston, Paris, San Francisco, they are all busier than ever. Berlin is literally full of cranes in the entire city, just like Toronto is. DT Los Angeles is experiencing a huge renaissance in the past 5-7 years.
Don't talk as if Toronto is the only city that is vibrant in the core or is growing, even in the western world. The American rustbelt is nowhere representative as the western world.
 
yyzer said:
I'm pretty sure your comment was made tongue in cheek....but when you think about it, a 300 storey building = ten 30 storey buildings, so if we are talking just condos, at the rate that Toronto has been growing, this would probably be assimilated in about 1 year, not 60! :p
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For that matter, ten 30 storey condos to fill up all those parking lots across the core is so much better than having a 300 story building at 1 Yonge. Imagine how fast the elevator has to be!
What Toronto needs urgently is to have mid and highrises replace those lots and crumbling 1-2 stories from Jarvis to Spadina so that prime land can be better utilized.
 
balenciaga said:
There are not many cities with 2M+ population where the downtown has been decaying since the 60s in the western world. Look at New York, London, Boston, Paris, San Francisco, they are all busier than ever. Berlin is literally full of cranes in the entire city, just like Toronto is. DT Los Angeles is experiencing a huge renaissance in the past 5-7 years.
Don't talk as if Toronto is the only city that is vibrant in the core or is growing, even in the western world. The American rustbelt is nowhere representative as the western world.
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Balenciaga, I think you may have misinterpreted my post. My apologies in advance if it was unclear. Point one is that numerous news reports have reported about Toronto's prominent high-rise boom. The Globe and Mail reported not too long ago that Toronto leads North America in highrise construction. It's been great for the city and if an 100-storey tower at 1 Yonge Street does not get built, it's okay because Toronto has had a great run over the last decade. For point two, I was specifically thinking about smaller U.S. towns that have seen their downtowns decline. London, New York, and San Francisco are among the greatest cities and are most definetly not in decline. I'm not sure why you believed I was referencing those places?
 
fedplanner said:
Balenciaga, I think you may have misinterpreted my post. My apologies in advance if it was unclear. Point one is that numerous news reports have reported about Toronto's prominent high-rise boom. The Globe and Mail reported not too long ago that Toronto leads North America in highrise construction. It's been great for the city and if an 100-storey tower at 1 Yonge Street does not get built, it's okay because Toronto has had a great run over the last decade. For point two, I was specifically thinking about smaller U.S. towns that have seen their downtowns decline. London, New York, and San Francisco are among the greatest cities and are most definetly not in decline. I'm not sure why you believed I was referencing those places?
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I am sure you meant well. But you can't compare Toronto, the largest city of Canada to "smaller US towns". It is meaningless. Enough smaller Canadian towns are in decline as well.
It is encouraging that Toronto is growing at a healthy speed, but let's not get ahead of us for two reasons

1) NYC, Chicago etc are much more mature cities. They experienced rapid growth in terms of building 50 or 30 years ahead of us. Toronto is simply catching up. There are so many surface lots in downtown even today that the current development speed is necessary. You don't see all those lots in Manhattan and Chicago loop. This is why they are not doing as much.
2) G&M's report may be true, but how many countries are there in "north America" anyway? 3 plus a few negligible ones. And how many cities in these three countries are in comparable size as Toronto? Not many.

Toronto's current boom, if put in a global context, is not such a big deal as many are trying to make it to be. We are a late boomer, and even as a late boomers, our growth rate is NOT exceptionally fast.

It may be OK if we don't build a 100 story at 1 Yonge st, if no reasonable proposal has been put forward. It is not OK if it is because the city somehow just thinks 100 story is "too tall" for whatever reason (such as it is taller than FCP) because that represents a reactionary mentality. Wd shouldn't be obssessed with height, but we shouldn't fear if when it makes sense either.
 
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