the 3 towers here turned out beautiful ... unfortunately the podium base (what pedestrians see most) is simply butt ugly and was not designed properly
 
Solaris said:
the 3 towers here turned out beautiful ... unfortunately the podium base (what pedestrians see most) is simply butt ugly and was not designed properly
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Assuming you're referring to the south-facing podium, the reasoning for that is that the planning occurred before the Gardiner off-ramp plans had been finalized -- it wouldn't have made sense to spend a whole bunch more money and include a bunch of glass at the time it was conceived. The planned tenant was also a big box retailer, so that presumably affected the design, too.

Even post-ramp rebuild, that stretch will still be home to loads of very fast-moving traffic, so I'm not sure it's really a huge missed opportunity.
 
ADRM said:
Assuming you're referring to the south-facing podium, the reasoning for that is that the planning occurred before the Gardiner off-ramp plans had been finalized -- it wouldn't have made sense to spend a whole bunch more money and include a bunch of glass at the time it was conceived. The planned tenant was also a big box retailer, so that presumably affected the design, too.

Even post-ramp rebuild, that stretch will still be home to loads of very fast-moving traffic, so I'm not sure it's really a huge missed opportunity.
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Perhaps they can find some kind of lighting/holographic technology to animate that bunker-like wall (which is really quite cool as-is). Would be cool if they could project holograms of people climbing/rappelling up/down the side of the wall, or a giant vertical chess game. I would not be surprised if such technology already exists (prob. with the military).
 
Light said:
Perhaps they can find some kind of lighting/holographic technology to animate that bunker-like wall (which is really quite cool as-is). Would be cool if they could project holograms of people climbing/rappelling up/down the side of the wall, or a giant vertical chess game. I would not be surprised if such technology already exists (prob. with the military).
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That's a great idea, especially post-ramp teardown and park completion. There are some very cool iterations of exactly what you're referring to on the Sydney Opera House:

Vivid-Sydney-2013-new-look-Opera-House.jpg
 
ADRM said:
That's a great idea, especially post-ramp teardown and park completion. There are some very cool iterations of exactly what you're referring to on the Sydney Opera House:

Vivid-Sydney-2013-new-look-Opera-House.jpg
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Wow, that is really cool!! I had no idea they were lighting up the Sydney Opera House in such spectacular fashion! Thanks ADRM! Hopefully, someone at that development will be inspired to pursue something similar.
 
Light said:
Wow, that is really cool!! I had no idea they were lighting up the Sydney Opera House in such spectacular fashion! Thanks ADRM! Hopefully, someone at that development will be inspired to pursue something similar.
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Sydney has a light festival called Vivid:


Not restricted to the Opera House either:


http://www.vividsydney.com/

We can't even light our heritage district, much less our best architecture properly - we have a long, long way to go.

AoD
 
We can't even light our heritage district, much less our best architecture properly - we have a long, long way to go.

AoD
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Exactly! Toronto indeed has a long (too long) way to go in making itself attractive this way (in addition to improving its shabby public realm reasonable, especially the inner-core).

We don't even have sufficient street-lights for our major downtown arteries (Yonge Street from Bloor down to just south of Wellesley) and neither do we have attractive or distinguished streetlights for our only boulevard - University Avenue - which should be lit up and feel inviting to stroll along during the evenings instead of it being so dark/dimly lit. Yes, Uni. Ave is institutional but the wide sidewalks and some of the views one can take in from this boulevard make it a great place to walk in the evenings and there's no reason why it should not be well-lit right from Union Station to past Bloor!
 
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hmm... well I agree improvements can and should be made to the public realm. However I think many already have/ have begun, and think the city has been hard at work on this since a certain unnamed bag of trash left office.
As someone who often walks both Yonge north of wellesley and university, I have not personally felt a concern with street lighting. Maybe I will pay closer attention, perhaps as a country kid who knows what night time looks like... I just don't comprehend this concern.
 
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