Ugh..... the more cladding they install, the worse it looks. What a huge let-down. Quality control just ain't there - they're phoning it in. Shame, that. I like the massing in general and it has a huge presence along that stretch of Queen, and Eastern too - but that shifty, inconsistent cladding looks flimsy as hell.
 
The renders made it look like might use EIFS, so it's kind of sad that I'm wishing they did. At least EIFS has ... texture?

They've started installing the cheap panels at the rear of this turd. I think I've accepting that this thread is just documenting the creation of urban blight now.

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Hey, you can see the undulations in surface of the panels on your last shot! That's difficult to capture.
 
Listen - I like the crisp white, I really do. But the variation from panel to panel, the fit and finish, are driving me batty. It looks tissue-thin.
 
I don't see it staying crisp for very long. Cheap panels tend to age and weather poorly and quickly. Each extra seam provides an additional source of streaking. And the street artist who go up to R-Hauz is likely salivating at the sight of that big, blank canvas!
 
Aside from the tinfoil cladding, I like the idea of having some mass and density up against the parkland. Residents will have good access to transit, parkland and increasing waterfront connections to the spit, portlands, etc. If you're going to put density anywhere, it's here.

What really disappoints me is the "Toronto" sensibility of making a big, antisocial, inward looking buildings. This thing has a bunch of private amenities, a private courtyard, private this and private that. You can live your whole life inside this building. This location asks for density but it also would be better if that density fostered social connections between the building, urban strip and natural space. You hear all these people complaining about how lonely the city is and we keep building loneliness factories. I've been to cities in other parts of the world where you find strips of urban density up against waterfronts and parks and buildings take advantage of and enjoy that dynamic. Yes, there's a small public square with this project, but the building itself is a bunker.
 
Absolutely... the secretive, inward-facing courtyard which screams exclusivity.... yes, it's a bunker mentality. Love that term, "loneliness factories."

But the density is right and folks there will have immediate access to the park which comes alive with music and festivals in the summer, plus the trails and boardwalk of Ashbridges Bay... that's pretty sweet.
 
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