- Thread starter UrbanAffair
- Start date
DonValleyRainbow
Senior Member
This has been added to The 100m List.
PMT
Senior Member
Social at Church + Dundas: http://www.pembertongroup.com/social/
enrigue8
Active Member
New render from talkcondo.ca
The building will be cool.
The building will be cool.
AlbertC
Superstar
I like the tower, but that podium is weak sauce.
ShonTron
Moderator
They haven't improved the podium one bit. Those balconies look sort of neat, but they also look too tiny for each unit (and I'm going to assume that it's going to be yet another investor-driven condo meant to rent out to students).
Condo balconies, IMO, are overrated. Most of them are too shallow to be of any use, or they're enclosed on five of six sides, and only suited for occupations by pigeons.
Gido
New Member
It's really too bad Ryerson didn't pony up for Calatrava's highrise engineering building directly to the north of this project. One could dream as to what it could have done accelerating development at that intersection. Rethink the podium a touch, please.
Amare
Senior Member
I couldnt agree more. I'll go as far as saying that some of them are truly wasted space.
I have no idea how people purchasing (who actually live in the unit) or renting units accept that kind of nonsense.
kotsy
Senior Member
I don't see how you could consider it wasted space since balconies literally take up zero space.
torontologist
Active Member
They're wasted in the sense that very few people actually use them.
They may not count as part of the floorplate for lot line restrictions, but the balcony obsession sure does result in some ugly and unimaginative buildings.
kotsy
Senior Member
That really comes down to the architect/developer. There's quite a few cases where they really enhance the building's design.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
I hope this trend of using balconies to add architectural features ends soon. It's cheap and lazy design.
It doesn't matter how many of you guys dismiss balconies with some lazy generalizations, the lack of evaluation is at minimum boring and more often disingenuous. A more honest approach would be to state "I'm biased—I don't like balconies—so take my comments for what they're worth." Without analysis, that's not much.
Yes, there is certainly lots of cheap and lazy building design, but when that's the case, it's not the fault of the balconies, it's the fault of the architect and developer.
There is nothing inherently cheap and lazy to using balconies to add architectural features to the design of the building. Any feature of a building exterior is, however, inherently part of the design: it has to be—it's not there unless it's designed to be there. As there are still people who want balconies, on any building that gets them, care needs to be taken to make sure that the balconies add to the architectural integrity of the whole.
Do a slipshod job on designing or executing the balconies? You can wreck the whole building. However…
Balcony design makes lots of buildings. I could name any good-looking building in the city to defend my point (assuming we find the same buildings good-looking) but naturally there are some where the balcony design is more integral to what makes particular buildings stand apart from others. One Bloor East, Harbour Plaza, Monde, Parc, Exhibit, 1Thousand Bay, SmartHouse, River City 3, Lago, X/X2, Tableau, Massey Tower… you may agree with some of those. There are also lots of buildings still to come where the balcony design is front-and-centre: The Waves, BIG King West, Yonge+Rich, and this one to name a few.
Don't get me wrong, I also want other architectural elements to distinguish buildings from their neighbours. I want to see more variety in cladding: more brick, more stone, more cementitious panels, more precast, more anodized aluminum. I want to see more and bolder colour on buildings, less reflected gray on blue on gray on green glass. But I also want to continue to see inventive balcony designs which add to the variety of architectural expression and hopefully to the enjoyment of the residents… and I probably will; it's not going away.
Anyway, I'm biased—I like balconies and I spend lots of time on mine—so take my comments for what they're worth.
42
Yes, there is certainly lots of cheap and lazy building design, but when that's the case, it's not the fault of the balconies, it's the fault of the architect and developer.
There is nothing inherently cheap and lazy to using balconies to add architectural features to the design of the building. Any feature of a building exterior is, however, inherently part of the design: it has to be—it's not there unless it's designed to be there. As there are still people who want balconies, on any building that gets them, care needs to be taken to make sure that the balconies add to the architectural integrity of the whole.
Do a slipshod job on designing or executing the balconies? You can wreck the whole building. However…
Balcony design makes lots of buildings. I could name any good-looking building in the city to defend my point (assuming we find the same buildings good-looking) but naturally there are some where the balcony design is more integral to what makes particular buildings stand apart from others. One Bloor East, Harbour Plaza, Monde, Parc, Exhibit, 1Thousand Bay, SmartHouse, River City 3, Lago, X/X2, Tableau, Massey Tower… you may agree with some of those. There are also lots of buildings still to come where the balcony design is front-and-centre: The Waves, BIG King West, Yonge+Rich, and this one to name a few.
Don't get me wrong, I also want other architectural elements to distinguish buildings from their neighbours. I want to see more variety in cladding: more brick, more stone, more cementitious panels, more precast, more anodized aluminum. I want to see more and bolder colour on buildings, less reflected gray on blue on gray on green glass. But I also want to continue to see inventive balcony designs which add to the variety of architectural expression and hopefully to the enjoyment of the residents… and I probably will; it's not going away.
Anyway, I'm biased—I like balconies and I spend lots of time on mine—so take my comments for what they're worth.
42
LUVIT!
Senior Member
When and if I downsize to a condo from my house the first thing I will look for in my purchase (besides the unit size+layout or the geographical location) will be the balcony. As much as I love design and architecture One of the the last things I will be looking for is the exterior architecture of the building itself.
Lenser
Senior Member
The tower component has a nice shape. I'd dispense with the podium altogether (the whole podium thing feels over-baked by now) and add a few floors to the tower in place of it.