[Marcanadian]

Toronto Harbourfront by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Toronto by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Toronto by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

 

[someMidTowner]

July 14:

 

[interchange42]

South side tour, starting with the view from the west:

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[Miscreant]

Pic 5 really shows how unforgiving this south-facing wall is going to be...That doesn't look promising. I don't know how that was approved.

 

[kris]

Looks like black construction paper...

 

[khris]

Oh no are we gonna have another 100 posts about the wall? It is what it is. I don't mind it that much really.

 

[kotsy]

Oh no are we gonna have another 100 posts about the wall? It is what it is. I don't mind it that much really.

Same. At least it isn't all the way plain and is a nice material, not grey concrete

 

[Miscreant]

But isn't it a regrettable design flaw--regrettable precisely because it's relatively easily avoidable--to have a monolithic wall facing a park? Even from the inside of the building, can't we assume residents and visitors would like to look out to the park?

It just seems to me to be the same mistake callously made with the Bloor st. Bay store.

 

[mdparker]

I was by a few days ago, it looks quite stark in a beautiful sorta way... +1...

 

[am29]

Hmmm I'm confused the renders showed this having balconies?

 

[ChesterCopperpot]

They showed the residential towers having balconies

 

[interchange42]

But isn't it a regrettable design flaw--regrettable precisely because it's relatively easily avoidable--to have a monolithic wall facing a park? Even from the inside of the building, can't we assume residents and visitors would like to look out to the park?

It just seems to me to be the same mistake callously made with the Bloor st. Bay store.

I'm not sure what you mean by "can't we assume residents and visitors would like to look out to a park?" People shopping aren't normally considered residents, nor visitors even, they're customers. Relatively few department stores, which this was going to be, go with the windows-for-the-walls look; usually it's only the older high-end downtown locations that do that, and many of those papered over their windows long ago. It's only recently that The Bay Queen Street began restoring its windows, and while I personally prefer that look (the Men's floor on 5 looks great now), most commercial windows end up getting plastered with displays pushed up against them, the way it was done at Future Shop at 10 Dundas East, and is still done with most of the windows at Marshall's and Bed, Bath and Beyond at Aura. This was going to be a Target, and I can't imagine that they wouldn't have covered their windows with displays too, so I'd rather have the interesting stone (or whatever the cladding is) than an ugly display behind the windows.

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[ChesterCopperpot]

But isn't it a regrettable design flaw--regrettable precisely because it's relatively easily avoidable--to have a monolithic wall facing a park? Even from the inside of the building, can't we assume residents and visitors would like to look out to the park?

It just seems to me to be the same mistake callously made with the Bloor st. Bay store.

Glass walls aren't the most ideal for retail spaces in the podium at those levels - look at the mess of Aura




edit: i42 explained it better than me

 

[modernizt]

i42 is falsely equating a critique of the "blank wall" facade treatment we got here with the opinion that it should be all glazing.

I think what most of us wanted here was something that is flexible for the retailers inside and serves their needs effectively while presenting a better face to the city. There would have been plenty of ways to achieve this (endless, essentially!) and what we got is a letdown. I can't even begin to imagine all the interesting facade treatments that would have made this otherwise blank wall visually engaging.

 

[interchange42]

Yes, it could easily have been more interesting. I was only addressing those who were asking for windows in store walls.

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