Thank you for compiling all of those images Solaris! It would have been quite the over-the-top PoMo creation.

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The Safdie Opera House always had a monument to Saddam Hussein quality to it. It's down there with I.M. Pei's City Hall proposal in the "thank God it didn't get built" category.
 
To give some people a sense of how big this downtown site is, I took a snapshot of the property bounderies from the City of Toronto website map tool.
 

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further to musters note above ... this MSN Maps view further solidifies what great potential this property has ... height + density just waiting to happen :D

BayWellesley.jpg
 
Thanks for posting the aerial shot, Solaris.

I'd rather see a collection of modest-sized buildings on this site, that step down from Bay Street to Yonge but each have their own frontage. The key would be to enhance the streetwall along Wellesley and attempt to extend its vibrance all the way to Bay.

I'd love it if they extended St. Nicholas further south the Breadalbane, leaving a small track of land for lowrise live-work studios along St.Nicholas, backing onto that rat-infested alley. The Breadalbane frontage should address the YMCA and hopefully have some business or institutional usages.
 
I've always thought that this site could make for a really beautiful, unique greenspace.

Just grass for soccer or a dog park (skating rink in the winter), and treelined and bench lined on the outer edges. A small park could be added at the southside near the YMCA.
 
So what is being built on this property?

Glad that proposal isn't going to be built. It was hideous.
 
Daaaaaamn, that proposal was creepy. It looks like the world headquarters and communication centre for scientology.
 
khristopher - the property is supposed to have more condos/rental units built on it at some point, but it seems to have pretty much been abandoned.
 
yup ... the western portion of the site (abutting Bay Street) is now occupied by two residential towers, being Allegro @ Opera Place (south) and The Bay Club (rental - north) ... these are shown in the aerial shot above

Morguard had an application on the remaining eastern portion of the site (including portions with Wellesley frontage) for proposed "NEW 9-STOREY MIXED-USE RESIDENTIAL-COMMERCIAL BUILDING WITH 318 DWELLING UNITS AND RETAIL USES AT GRADE FRONTING WELLESLEY" in August 2007 ... but it's gone completely quiet since that time
 
I would prefer to see all of the towers currently proposed built and occupied before we are tempted by any more. In the next cycle, something really cool (and big) could go here.
 

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