This project more than most really gets my goat because it wouldn't have taken much for it to have turned out so much better. Just a few bad decisions on materials turned what could have been a decent building into a huge disappointment. Plus we lost the Uptown cinemas to this crapola.
 
48 storeys of ivy growing up one of the sides of the building might add some more appeal, or at least make it one of the "greenest" buildings in the city.
 
Uptown's windows are too wide and walls are too thin to fit into the true defination of its style. That's why it looks weird to people. But both thin walls and large windows are essentiailities for its designed functional use.

point of comparasion

LaSalle Wacker Builidng

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It's sad that something had to get knocked down for this monstrosity which looks like a good ole fashioned cash grab by the developer. If we want to become a world class city, this type of crap needs to stop. This building is a complete mess...and like someone said...just a couple of slight changes and this thing would have turned out much more appealing. Funny how just 1 block West we see a good example of what this should have looked like.
 
The condo looks good from afar and I like the massing, it`s just a shame it looks so poor up close. I like the decco style a lot and have no beef with recreating or borrowing from the past; I`m al for pippy poos if they look good. But they just seem to have done a shoddy job on this one- it`s as if they ran out of money.

Ah yes the Uptown theatre, I didn`t grow up in TO but I did have the opportunity to go there in the late 80`s when the first Batman movie came out.
 
Who's the builder? Saddlebrook? Not surprising regarding the exterior quality...
 
Can't get over how extremely unaesthetic this building is. It looks as if it's made out of cheap poster board.
 
It's amazing how this building, in missing the mark, didn't just turn out to be passably mediocre - it made itself a permanent shaft-o'-shame.
I thought maybe my sense of letdown about it was because my expectations were set too high. But having walked by it a lot now, I'm amazed to find it consistently disappoints in a curiously unsettling and qualmish way. It's hard to pinpoint any one reason why. But somehow, a lack of quality materials and nuance on this one materialized straight into a huge deco 'uncanny valley'.
I agree with you guys that it's massing looks good. Maybe a thorough recladding with real masonry, limestone, and a dab of nirosta might help.

I worry this might frighten future developers off from trying anything more risque than more glass boxes. I hope it doesn't. The city needs more well-done, quality unique architectural work.
 
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CanadianNational said:
It's amazing how this building, in missing the mark, didn't just turn out to be passably mediocre - it made itself a permanent shaft-o'-shame.
I thought maybe because a sense of letdown about it was because my expectations were set too high. But having walked by it a lot now, I'm amazed to find it consistently disappoints in a curiously unsettling and qualmish way. It's hard to pinpoint any one reason why. But somehow, a lack of quality materials and nuance on this one materialized straight into a huge deco 'uncanny valley'.

I worry this might frighten future developers off from trying anything more risque than more glass boxes. I hope it doesn't. The city needs more well-done, quality unique architectural work.
Click to expand...

On the contrary, I hope this frightens future developers from attempting anything even remotely similar. Now everybody is aware of just how devastating the results of an attempt at Deco are in the 21st century (and on a 21st century condo budget especially).

At least a cheap glass building fades gracefully into the background, and generally just reflects the sky and surrounding buildings.

Fake edit: I must add, the devastation stems largely from the gross oversight of material usage and detailing. We're obviously capable of recreating the Chrysler or Empire State to a tee nowadays, but it just wouldn't be right. It's like those AC Cobra replicas; they look and sound like the real thing, but they're in no way a real Cobra.
 
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okay guys. It's not the best example of its style but I really don't think it's as bad as some of you coins it; especially when you compare it with that's next door (Crystal Blu).

Not the best in Toronto, but certainlly not the worst. It simply adds to the massing.
 
With respect UD2, "simply adds to the massing" is not a way to inspire developers to do better. There's plenty of mediocrity in Toronto, we should be well past the point now toward the end of this incredible boom of having plenty of bragging rights for mid-rise & high-rise developments, but we don't have all that many when you consider how much has gone up in the last decade. To be sure, there certainly are some shining examples so it's not all gloom and doom.
 
I agree that this is pretty disappointing. I'm hoping that when some one eventually builds on top of the Stollery's building that Uptown will be largely covered up and only the top half (which in my opinion is at least the more attractive half) will be visible from Bloor street.
 
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