[SP!RE]

Well people often do, and should, care about what their buildings look like on the outside. The issue here isn't about whether a developer uses stone or not, because it's just not done on condos. Precast has replaced stone, almost entirely, in architecture.

 

[Mongo]

One (relatively) recent example of stone being used would be the Scotia Tower (1992), which uses Canadian red granite (from a quarry near Vermilion Bay, Ontario -- I've been there, in fact).

 

[Roy G Biv]

oh yes and the German banks are booming aren't they???

What?

 

[drum118]

Oct 03

 

[isaidso]

Thanks for the pics, but a lot of those are Crystal Blu, not Uptown.

 

[Solaris]

as others have noted, most condos nowadays are precast + spandrels ... the problem I have with Uptown is not so much with the precast itself, rather I'm turned off by the greyish off-white colour of the pale precast ... had Pemberton used some warmer cream colour it would be a lot better looking IMO (at least it would be similar to the rendering)

By seeing CrystalBlu + Uptown together, I would have to say that the spandrels on CrystalBlu (as typical as that is) makes that tower look a lot better than Uptown's pale and plain precast

 

[Roy G Biv]

Is it me, or does it look like the toward is crooked (the right and left-most windows look to be collapsing inward)?

 

[Solaris]

Is it me, or does it look like the toward is crooked (the right and left-most windows look to be collapsing inward)?

that is angular distortion caused when one uses a wide angle lens (generally anything wider than your typical 35mm P+S camera)

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Thanks for the pics, but a lot of those are Crystal Blu, not Uptown.

Have you actually tried to photograph Uptown from various angles without Blu getting into the shot or vice versa? Good grief....

 

[gristle]

So far, it looks like "blank and blu."

 

[drum118]

Have you actually tried to photograph Uptown from various angles without Blu getting into the shot or vice versa? Good grief....

The only way is to get Blu remove from the photo is to go into photoshop to do it in the first place and I don't have the time or need to do so.

If he wants the shot of Uptown shown here only, he needs to do it himself and see how much fun we have trying to do it.

Do we remove all the other builds while we are doing this shot????????????

 

[blago]

The west side of Yonge st. just south of Bloor to me is one of the most interesting streetscapes in Toronto. Something about the various retail store fronts (in both economic stratum target demographic and colour scheme, i.e. from garish to conservative) and the soaring modern towers called Uptown and sidekick Blu just off the street works for me. That being said - although it's probably too early to give the thumbs down on the Uptown, from what I've seen in the latest batch of pix (btw - thanks much drum118) I'm a bit concerned.

 

[whatever]

I think Uptown is one of those buildings where it's going to have to be mostly completed before it can really be judged. The massing and the setbacks are the best things the building has going for it, so until those take shape it's impossible to really get a feel for how it'll turn out

 

[barrytron3030]

all the talk on UTF about FCP has got me wondering: how will all these precast buildings age? the italian marble on FCP got very dirty; will uptown suffer the same fate?

 

[CityPlaceN1]

Everything gets dirty. The problem with FCP was the replacement pieces which were brand new and hence not dirty yet. As long as they don't replace any of the precast it should all age at the same pace.