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Hume: New Ritz-Carlton, five-star architecture http://www.thestar.com/news/article/942294--hume-new-ritz-carlton-five-star-architecture?bn=1
By Christopher Hume Urban Issues, Architecture
Even in a city glittering with shiny glass towers, the five-star Ritz-Carlton stands out. See-through or not, the 52-storey residential skyscraper is among the most elegant additions to the Toronto skyline in recent years.
Designed by one of New York’s premier architectural firms, Kohn Pederson Fox, this hotel/condo complex has already left its mark on the downtown core, bringing a finer urban grain to a part of the city that had been overlooked for decades.
The new building occupies the south side of Wellington St., just east of John St. and the CBC Broadcast Centre. Further to the east, it is connected to the RBC/Dexia Tower, also designed by KPF. Despite the ubiquity of the glass highrise, the complex manages to lift the case for transparency to a whole new level.
Given its location in a block best known for service entrances, loading docks and parking garages; that’s no mean feat. The north side of Wellington west of Simcoe includes the back side of Roy Thomson Hall and Metro Hall.
The arrival of the KPF projects gives Wellington a much-needed chance to reconnect and be fully integrated into the city. Finally, it will attract people looking for more than a place to park.
The Ritz-Carlton (and RBC-Dexia) is one of those thoughtful and polished neo-modernist projects that remind us just how much life remains in the tower. The highrise box may be boring, but this is neither box nor boring. The hotel opens up as it rises, almost flowerlike, creating more room at the top as well as a distinctive architectural image. The tower sits atop a large glass atrium that cantilevers over the sidewalk, providing shelter and much visual interest in the process.
“We wanted to bring the façade out to the street,†explains principal design architect, Josh Chaiken, “along with the activities of the hotel. We see it as a piece of urban theatre.â€
That same spirit continues on the west and south sides of the building where significant open spaces will allow uninterrupted pedestrian access between Front and Wellington as well as room for future outdoor cafés.
Unlike, say, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Toronto-Dominion Centre, where the public realm has always felt sterile and windswept, these new areas are small and human scaled. They bring the monumentality down to earth and make it accessible, both physically and psychologically.
“The Toronto city planning department was very good in pushing for these pedestrian connections,†Chaiken says, “in particular between RBC and the Ritz. In the original design, the two were a bit tighter together. But after a bit of negotiation and collaboration with the city, we decided to move them further apart and take the towers a bit higher.â€
It’s an idea that makes a lot of sense; after all, if height belongs anywhere in the city it is here in the Financial District. Though the site is decidedly outside of the Canadian bankers’ Valhalla at King and Bay, the business core is expanding west towards Spadina and on the south, down York St. to the waterfront.
The KPF scheme, built on a former parking lot, fills in the gap that separated Simcoe and John. It helps knit the city into a more cohesive whole and provides an opportunity to make Toronto more walkable.
Though the glass facades won’t win any environmental awards, clearly the desire for transparency runs deep in the human psyche. Now, as never before, what you see is what you get.
By Christopher Hume Urban Issues, Architecture
Even in a city glittering with shiny glass towers, the five-star Ritz-Carlton stands out. See-through or not, the 52-storey residential skyscraper is among the most elegant additions to the Toronto skyline in recent years.
Designed by one of New York’s premier architectural firms, Kohn Pederson Fox, this hotel/condo complex has already left its mark on the downtown core, bringing a finer urban grain to a part of the city that had been overlooked for decades.
The new building occupies the south side of Wellington St., just east of John St. and the CBC Broadcast Centre. Further to the east, it is connected to the RBC/Dexia Tower, also designed by KPF. Despite the ubiquity of the glass highrise, the complex manages to lift the case for transparency to a whole new level.
Given its location in a block best known for service entrances, loading docks and parking garages; that’s no mean feat. The north side of Wellington west of Simcoe includes the back side of Roy Thomson Hall and Metro Hall.
The arrival of the KPF projects gives Wellington a much-needed chance to reconnect and be fully integrated into the city. Finally, it will attract people looking for more than a place to park.
The Ritz-Carlton (and RBC-Dexia) is one of those thoughtful and polished neo-modernist projects that remind us just how much life remains in the tower. The highrise box may be boring, but this is neither box nor boring. The hotel opens up as it rises, almost flowerlike, creating more room at the top as well as a distinctive architectural image. The tower sits atop a large glass atrium that cantilevers over the sidewalk, providing shelter and much visual interest in the process.
“We wanted to bring the façade out to the street,†explains principal design architect, Josh Chaiken, “along with the activities of the hotel. We see it as a piece of urban theatre.â€
That same spirit continues on the west and south sides of the building where significant open spaces will allow uninterrupted pedestrian access between Front and Wellington as well as room for future outdoor cafés.
Unlike, say, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Toronto-Dominion Centre, where the public realm has always felt sterile and windswept, these new areas are small and human scaled. They bring the monumentality down to earth and make it accessible, both physically and psychologically.
“The Toronto city planning department was very good in pushing for these pedestrian connections,†Chaiken says, “in particular between RBC and the Ritz. In the original design, the two were a bit tighter together. But after a bit of negotiation and collaboration with the city, we decided to move them further apart and take the towers a bit higher.â€
It’s an idea that makes a lot of sense; after all, if height belongs anywhere in the city it is here in the Financial District. Though the site is decidedly outside of the Canadian bankers’ Valhalla at King and Bay, the business core is expanding west towards Spadina and on the south, down York St. to the waterfront.
The KPF scheme, built on a former parking lot, fills in the gap that separated Simcoe and John. It helps knit the city into a more cohesive whole and provides an opportunity to make Toronto more walkable.
Though the glass facades won’t win any environmental awards, clearly the desire for transparency runs deep in the human psyche. Now, as never before, what you see is what you get.
