[hawc]

They are in the middle of completely renovating the public areas of WPP 1 and 2, and the exterior access areas.

Yup, and they're doing a damn good job of it in my opinion, although lots of whining about all the construction right now from the people that work here.

Anyway, here's what I wanted to show you yesterday. A tale of two parking garages. New one on top (obviously) and old one on the bottom. I know which one I'll be parking in from now on since they're both joined.

 

[taal]

Its pretty sad that what is getting folks most excited about this project is the new parking garage ... just saying ... : - ) ...


On that subject, that old one really doesn't look that bad in comparison to some others I've seen.

 

[Mithras]

Oddly enough, 315 Front has 0 for lease, even though I know RBC took just about all of this building ? That's rather odd, not too sure what is going on.

Even on Oxford.com they show 0 space being available in 315 Front, only theories there:
1) They already have a tenant lined up (hard to believe, its a lot of space ~ 330K).
2) They plan on renovating the building and until that's done won't put it back no the market.
Hard to believe as well because even when companies plan to renovate they always market the space years in advance.

3) This may have something to do with the Oxford proposal for the Conference Center / Office building i.e. they want to keep the building empty for that reason.

Oxford left 111 Richmond empty for years before they finally redeveloped it for Google. No one would lease 315 Front with a demo clause in it and Oxford wouldn't put someone in there and not be able to kick them out... So it will sit empty until they do something with the MTCC.

 

[JasonParis]

I do tend to wonder sometimes if the 315 Front St W complex would be a candidate for a complete razing and rebuilding as something larger? It's not even that old, but just doesn't seem to fit with other desirable office space in the core anymore.

 

[taal]

But I recall 111 Richmond well ... even during the renovation they were actively marketing it, it had its own website, and other commercial real estate sites listed it. Say they were to renovate 315 Front, that'd probably only take a year or two, leasing such a building would take that long for sure. I'd think they'd be promoting it now.

So you could be right, but that would tell me there plans for the site are sooner than later, otherwise why hold off trying to lease for 10/15 years (which is a medium term lease many companies good take).

 

[taal]

I do tend to wonder sometimes if the 315 Front St W complex would be a candidate for a complete razing and rebuilding as something larger? It's not even that old, but just doesn't seem to fit with other desirable office space in the core anymore.

Actually I don't really agree with this statement ... its a class A office building built in the late 1980s ... implying compared to many other buildings in the core it's probably in very good shape (from a env efficiency point of view and what not), there are many many many other class A buildings that are older.

And keep in mind this is a data center && and office building in one, though interestingly enough the data center is for lease on various sites (but that could simply be old data).

BTW was the original plan to extent the confrenece center to the WEST (i.e. on top of / below of) 315 / 325 Front ?

 

[hawc]

It's pretty sad that what is getting folks most excited about this project is the new parking garage.

Well, it is a pretty gorgeous parking garage, however... here are some pics of the rest of the place.

The hallway from WPP II to WPP III.

The main entrance. The logo looks overly large in person. And feels kind of cheap in the yellow and blue that it's in. Might have been nicer if it was done in brass or etched into the wall or something. As it is now it's like a NASCAR style-logo indoors.

One set of elevator banks.

Damned if I know how this works. Anyone?

Here's the curved stone on the pillars. Can you curve marble like this or is it some kind of engineered quartz product?

 

[taal]

Nothing special ... typical office building lobby. They don't build them like they used too ... I'm picturing FCP or Scotia place or BCE ...

Telus is fairly impressive actually

 

[interchange42]

That's marble, and yes it's easily carved like that.

42

 

[simply Dan]

Everything about this building is underwhelming.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Thanks hawc for the interior pics. It's pleasant enough, but not uber luxe.

That's marble, and yes it's easily carved like that.

42

Nice touch, but less impressive than DSAI using curved granite at Bahen Centre (U of T) and Corus Quay. And Mies would be driven up the wall by the mismatched grain.

AoD

 

[isaidso]

Everything about this building is underwhelming.

The last 4-5 office buildings we've gotten have been about as mind numbing as humanly possible. This will go down as the most boring, coma inducing period in Toronto office design ever.

 

[JasonParis]

At least after BAC2 we should have a slightly more adventurous period of buildings coming online.

 

[ProjectEnd]

BAC3?

(I kid, I kid...sorta)

 

[ahmedyusali]

Those digital touch screen buttons are sophisticated, if someone want to floor 11, or 10 where he has to finds buttons of 0 or 1 .. Just swipe the screen?