3Dementia said:
^ your comment confuses... Yonge Street's "iconic status" as you put it, was built on an urban stew of music clubs/stores, strip clubs, head shops, buy anything et al... Yonge Street is Fun Street.
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I suppose that's true to some extent, but don't forget also the legitimate theatres (e.g., Elgin/Winter Garden, the current "Panasonic"), the movie houses, the higher-end shopping, much of which was either lost or greatly reduced by the '70s and '80s. Yonge Street really did fall into seediness from its glory years (heck, I've seen it happen over the time I've been in Toronto), and it is only in the past decade or so that we've seen a rejuvenation of it.

I'm not suggesting that the city somehow force out the dollar stores and head shops and strip clubs and junky electronics shops, but at the same time those kind of businesses really show how undervalued the street is.

Of course, while saying this, I'd be devastated if we ever lost the Hairy Tarantula comic/game shop, which is about as authentically tatty as they come...
 
Tulse said:
Of course, while saying this, I'd be devastated if we ever lost the Hairy Tarantula comic/game shop, which is about as authentically tatty as they come...
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The problem is that once the street starts to gentrify, or realize its value as Toronto's central drag, the smaller independent guys can no longer afford the rents... which brings me back to an earlier point that hopefully a new place would emerge where these things can come together.
 
Tewder said:
The problem is that once the street starts to gentrify, or realize its value as Toronto's central drag, the smaller independent guys can no longer afford the rents...
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Absolutely, and I realize that it's not completely consistent to want a nice Yonge yet hope that places like the Hairy T can stick around. But right now much of Yonge Street has stores that would be equally at home in suburban strip malls, and that seems out of keeping for someplace as geographically important as Yonge.
 
Of course, while saying this, I'd be devastated if we ever lost the Hairy Tarantula comic/game shop, which is about as authentically tatty as they come...
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Ah... there's the rub. ^

As opposed to the rub 'n tug. ;-)
 
Brass Rail is a pretty damn good strip club. I've rarely seen a higher quality of ladies at any other one.
 
Tulse said:
I'm perhaps not the best judge of these things, not being a frequenter of the establishments, but I doubt that either the Brass Rail or the Zanzibar count as "great" strip clubs. They sure ain't the Moulin Rouge.
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True; at this time, they might be better, i.e. less of a tourist trap...
 
For those who haven't see it, Bravo has made available for free online the excellent documentary Yonge Street: Toronto Rock & Roll Stories. It covers the part that clubs in this part of the strip played in the development of rock and roll in Toronto in the '60s. It certainly gave me a much deeper appreciation for this area and role it had it developing the city, and corrected a lot of my understanding of how this part of the city worked in that era. (For example, I had no idea the Zanzibar had such a long and distinguished history, or what a huge loss the Edison was.) I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the history of this area, and how much has vanished to re-development.
 
We've added the Ryerson Student Learning Centre to our dataBase - it's the 100th entry in the dataBase in fact - and it is rendering-crazy, with higher res images and lots of detailed enlargements. Check out the entry here for your fill our rendery goodness!
 
Brown Bear said:
I just read an article in the National Post about the SLC. Does Peter Kuitenbrouwer have a personal vendetta against Ryerson and this new building? His first remarks on the Learning Centre were not flattering as well, to say the least...

Here's the new article: http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/0...wn-bia-blasts-ryerson-sheldon-levys-waterloo/
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His comments are all spot on. The building has a blank wall facing Yonge St! It continues Ryerson's tradition of people-unfriendly buildings, instead of integrating with the surrounding city.
 
The issues I have with this project is the "BLANK" wall on Yonge St and it needs to go.

It could be taller to deal with future needs for the university. It should be design for future floor additions.

It should connect to the existing building either as a bridge or all floors over the laneway if the existing structure support can hold it. A few extra few columns next to the existing structure will do the job.

Some green space would help.
 
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There is no concrete wall on Yonge. (this appears to need repeating on every other page of this thread).
 
alklay said:
There is no concrete wall on Yonge. (this appears to need repeating on every other page of this thread).
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But the one render of the building we have doesn't make clear what faces Yonge, except that it's several stories, seems to be a continuous wall, and seems to cut into the sidewalk space. If ground-level retail and an inviting street appearance are part of the building, that has not been shown in any images, so it's understandable people might be worried about that aspect.
 
Who said "concrete"? I contacted Ryerson to ask exactly what will be along Yonge, since the original announcement said "retail" but the render appears to lack entrances or be anything but a barrier. Their answer was that render is all there is.

I'd love to see more renders/information, if you have it!
 
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