maestro
Senior Member
There's room for both F+P (for whatever that means at this point in this firm's history) and aA in the city -- there are certainly enough projects to go around, and I'd love for both F+P and aA to get more work in the city.
The fact that we're not getting our own 30 St. Mary Axe here (for those who even wanted that sort of thing) doesn't necessarily mean the project isn't interesting.
I like that the design is unique for contemporary tower design in Toronto (and especially for Yorkville), and I especially like that the most interesting thing about watching this thing rise won't be how the window wall interacts with the curtain wall or how the seems in the brick precast look, etc. To me, it's different without being kitschy, and that's worth something right now.
30 St Mary Axe is a different era for Foster & Partners. The senior partner that designed it and most of the other world reknown towers is long gone . F+P is a massive design factory now with dozens upon dozens of projects in various stages at any time. There are a couple dozen senior partners with a hundred partners and hundreds more in associates. They are not all exceptional designers that put anything locally done to shame. They are pretty much indistinguishable from SOM or KPF.
Throw a couple dozen Foster towers in Toronto and almost everybody here would be complaining how similar they look. Quality be damned. It's all about being different.