- Thread starter Edward Skira
- Start date
Torontovibe
Senior Member
This city is slowly becoming a wall of flat glass, at street level. Our new retail has to be the blandest, most boring shopping streets in the world. I just can't imagine anything less artful than walls of flat glass. (no colour, no shape, no texture and no creativity at all) There is nothing of any visual interest at all. It's like a dead zone for your eyes. It's so disappointing and it's going up EVERYWHERE! What a huge mistake we are making.
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condovo
Senior Member
100% agreed. There's no detail, no texture, no rhythm, no scale, no in and out, no up and down, nothing to engage the eye, nothing to grab hold of passersby. There's also seemingly no flexibility and no adaptability to changing business formats. We're making a huge mistake, indeed.
TheKingEast
Senior Member
Agreed. I don't care anymore. It's so inexplicable I've stopped caring to keep my own sanity. This city had a golden opportunity to start over and right the wrongs of the past. They have failed and continue to fail. There's 0 imagination in this city from top down.
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taal
Senior Member
I'm really not seeing the issue; Moreover, having seen new condominium developments in many cities across North America (and the western world at that) they're all rather similar on a whole, of course there are exceptions, but the glass podium is by far and large a staple nowadays for retail.
I love the podium, quite a contrast to the rest of the city place towers, the way the retail glass wall protrudes from the podium, and finishing on the podium it self, I'm really liking the the matte dark charcoal look.
I love the podium, quite a contrast to the rest of the city place towers, the way the retail glass wall protrudes from the podium, and finishing on the podium it self, I'm really liking the the matte dark charcoal look.
Irishmonk
Senior Member
+1
I've been wanting to write a screed about this for some time, but you succinctly captured my major disappointments. For the most part TPTB in The Big Donut have no pride or long term vision for the city. New development seems to be dictated by myopic bureaucrats, bottom line bean counters, and flim flam artists. It doesn't seem to be in the Toronto DNA to strive for greatness or attractiveness. There's a distinct lack of pride for the city itself and the image and personality it projects to the world. Functional and cheap seem to be the operative principles driving everything.
Better than parking lots? Sure. The emergence of a great city? Not at this point.
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travis3000
Active Member
Gotta say Spectra is downright ugly. It will not age well at all.
Torontovibe
Senior Member
It pains me to have to agree with you. We have the fastest changing downtown in all of North America and all the opportunities that represents, yet we throw it all away by allowing developers to give us walls of glass. We could have created something very distinct, beautiful and unique to Toronto but nope, we just do what everyone else does. Where is the creativity in that? What kind of 2nd or third rate city are we trying to build?
Sometimes being a Torontonian with ambition and creativity, is a very frustrating and disheartening thing. It's all the missed opportunities that's most disappointing. We could have (and should have) had so much better. I'll never understand people who defend glass retail walls, grey spandrel, ubiquitous glass boxes and the absence of any creativity at all. From Ford Nation, I would expect that but from people on a site like this, it just really blows my mind.
Marcanadian
Moderator
arvelomcquaig
Active Member
Yes, exactly. It's tragic. There's nothing less vibrant and architecturally compelling at street level than a wall of glass (except, perhaps, parking lots), yet it keeps happening, over and over and over. Every new building's cladding seems to be 99% glass, and so much retail follows suit with these sterile, hostile walls of glass. It's so depressing.
TheKingEast
Senior Member
I couldn't have said it any better. A massive failure IMO. Cityplace and Liberty Village are the two biggest ones. This is a developer's city and that's about it. They do as they please as long as the height and shadowing is "OK". This building is a piece of turd. Keep letting these guys off the hook with this crap.
Waterloo_Guy
Active Member
I'm going to disagree with some of you. City Place and Liberty Village aren't a game of Sim City, they are residential developments for people who can't afford Yorkville. City Place and Liberty Village are a success. I don't love all of the design either, but it's about price. I have no desire to price people out of their homes just so that people on this forum can appreciate good architecture.
modernizt
Senior Member
You are suggesting that we need to choose between "affordable" (mid-range) condominiums and good architecture / well-designed neighbourhoods. That simply is not the case. The two are not mutually exclusive.
TheKingEast
Senior Member
This post is so off the mark I don't even know where to start. Which seems to be a common theme with many of your posts. There is no excuse for bad planning and architecture. Money has nothing to do with it. If TCHC can build quality buildings with limited budgets then what are Concorde, Plaza, etc. excuses?
Lets have a talk in 15 years and see how much of a success Cityplace and LV are.
Waterloo_Guy
Active Member
It's unfortunate that you lack the intelligence to appreciate my posts. If you lose the attitude, you could learn a lot from much of what I've posted.
We don't need to wait 15 years for anything--they are already a success.