[Red October]

^ +1

I still hate their existence but this at least makes it look better.

 

[Tuscani01]

I think these would have been a little more acceptable had there been setbacks like the buildings to the West of Spadina. Some greenery on the lake-facing side would have made them a little more pleasing to look at

 

[Parkdalian]

I'm so for this. I am surprised how much better they look with some thoughtful TLC. We are much too obsessed with demo/rebuild on this site - more creative adaptations of existing buildings is something Toronto should get better at, especially considering our aging stock of towers.

 

[modernizt]

I'm so for this. I am surprised how much better they look with some thoughtful TLC. We are much too obsessed with demo/rebuild on this site - more creative adaptations of existing buildings is something Toronto should get better at, especially considering our aging stock of towers.

I have a studio instructor who is always telling us that it's a shame we don't learn more about modifying existing buildings in architecture school, because he feels that my generation of architectural designers will be doing more of that than new builds. In a city like Toronto, I am apt to agree.

 

[Miscreant]

Yep, Tuscani01 is right on point there. Setbacks would improve this development considerably. With a far less lazy design of the ground-level building connecting both towers, this would be a development worth admiring.

That being said, though, I do agree that it looks better than before the recladding.

 

[maestro]

Yep, Tuscani01 is right on point there. Setbacks would improve this development considerably. With a far less lazy design of the ground-level building connecting both towers, this would be a development worth admiring.

That being said, though, I do agree that it looks better than before the recladding.

Hire Nouvel too. Unfortunately, the owner paid 300K a unit. There's no practical application in tearing down half the tower and relocating the service core. Just don't see a point to it. Lipstick on a pig is all we could expect. Thankfully, the lipstick is pretty good.

 

[agoraflaneur]

Great observation about adaptive reuse. The era of new builds is certainly not coming to an end in Toronto - still lots of land to develop around the rail corridors, the Port Lands, waterfront, hugely underutilized and under built avenues, etc - but the huge number of towers built in the 50s to 70s are going to be ripe for large scale revitalization. Lots of potential, lots of potential work for architects.

 

[Tuscani01]

Hire Nouvel too. Unfortunately, the owner paid 300K a unit. There's no practical application in tearing down half the tower and relocating the service core. Just don't see a point to it. Lipstick on a pig is all we could expect. Thankfully, the lipstick is pretty good.

From my understanding, the service core is on the North side of both towers, so you wouldnt have to move them at all. Water services and Heat/AC would be the only issue... but who knows. Perhaps converting to condo's when the condo market booms again would make this all worth it? Nothing like prime waterfront land!

 

[maestro]

Yeah, The 3 ugly sisters have their cores in the front. Still it's a ton of square footage to remove for improving aesthetics. How many storeys can you add on to the north side without a structural overhaul? How many months would the buildings be non-occupiable? Think you may as well start over and quadruple the sellable square footage and put parking and storage underground. Even this lipstick includes the creation of additional leaseable square footage.

 

[Kitsune]

... the cores are undergoing a massive redevelopment too, they are moving some of it to create more amenity space. The building for what ever reason though will only show the renders for 390, nothing, nada has come out for 350.

 

[salsa]

Isn't it odd that the towers are not facing the lake? If they were turned 90 degrees, way more residents would have had a view of the lake rather than staring at a slab. I don't get why it was built like this.

 

[Edward Skira]

Isn't it odd that the towers are not facing the lake? If they were turned 90 degrees, way more residents would have had a view of the lake rather than staring at a slab. I don't get why it was built like this

It was actually built so everyone gets a view of the lake. Otherwise the people facing north would only see the city.

 

[interchange42]

We've got a front page story up on the recladding here.

Here's the receding-evening-light-but-not-quite-sunset view of these buildings from Queens Quay a few evenings ago:

Here's the low-light-of-evening-from-the-Gardiner view of these buildings from a few evenings ago.

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[someMidTowner]

This morning:

 

[interchange42]

From the 11th:

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