21 December 2013:
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Hello blandcouver:
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What's missing from this INSTAnabe?

The **** that matters: intimate scale, gorgeous street furniture, variety of textures, "on foot by the foot" urban streetwall, etc
 
Ha funny enough this area actually has quite a bit of nice touches at street level ... the sidewalks by all these buildings (firstly is huge) secondly is clad with a purple stone ... it looks great !
 
Ha funny enough this area actually has quite a bit of nice touches at street level ... the sidewalks by all these buildings (firstly is huge) secondly is clad with a purple stone ... it looks great !

There are indeed some nice touches around the area, but it certainly lacks an "intimate" neighbourhood feel. Some people would argue that's not necessary. I do agree with urbandreamer that it might be nicer to have some more diversity and human scale here.

That said, this hotel I am a fan of so far!
 
I'll diverge from the usual sentiment; I love the geometry and minimalism in the office towers. I'm not a big fan of the bulky dimensions, but that's a minor complaint.
 
I don't usually like to prescribe here what I think should be done in a particular neighbourhood because it's just fantasy conjecture, but I think something like The Red Apple (in Rotterdam) would be a really refreshing break from all the fully-glazed towers in the area.
 
The inimate scale and pedestrian features would be the last items built. Surround TD Centre in scaffolding and hoardings and you'd wonder where the intimate scale is too.

But you're automatically limited in the amount of ground floor retail space when the ground floors are high traffic/volume office lobbies built to impress rather than low traffic/volume condo lobbies.
 
I support diversity of urban form and context so I don't mind this district and it's uniformity. I wouldn't personally like to live or work there but for all the talk about uniformity and banality of our contemporary architecture I would point out that this is one of the few areas of the city where the entire context is uniformily this kind of architecture.

I do find it a bit funny though that this area has such a high tourist exposure and to speculate what outsiders think about it. Some will come to the conclusion that Toronto is this modern dynamic booming city, others will feel this is an ugly boring bland corporate realm. Either way it would be a humorously incomplete map. Toronto can be intimate and charming in one area or devoid of life and economically stagnant in another and these same tourists will never get a sense of that.
 
Great shots guys, I look at the South Core, and am still in bewildered awe that in less then 15 years, most of this was all abandoned railway tracks, amazing how fast this city continues to grow.
 

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