[TOBoy]

WL's towers are mediocre I admit, but I really like the podium/retail area. Nice combination of brick and glass. You don't see too many like this in a urban condo. I have high hopes that the retail "avenue" will turn out great. It looks wide enough anyways.

 

[Filip]

Stand still on the Gardiner for an hour and you'll quickly realize how devastatingly ugly the Humber Bay Shores condos are, WL included.

No offense, UD, but the vast bulk (including Aagh econotecture) of Toronto's condos are hideous. Don't single out HBS.

 

[urbandreamer]

No offense Filip, but you're biased. On aesthetics alone, aA's towers are light years better. The HBS area--minus perhaps the original twin towers at Palace Pier--are dreary vertical suburbs of the ilk they're building around Mayfield Road and #10.

Imagine the difference if HBS had consisted of X, X2, Casa I-III, Murano 1 & 2, Yonge & Rich, Picasso, Tableau etc.

 

[Filip]

No offense Filip, but you're biased. On aesthetics alone, aA's towers are light years better. The HBS area--minus perhaps the original twin towers at Palace Pier--are dreary vertical suburbs of the ilk they're building around Mayfield Road and #10.

Imagine the difference if HBS had consisted of X, X2, Casa I-III, Murano 1 & 2, Yonge & Rich, Picasso, Tableau etc.

You do realize all those towers are in different parts of downtown, right? What surrounds them? Mounds and mounds of garbage, some by Aagh, some by others...

Btw, Casa is garbage (also happens to look like some of the new condos going up in HBS), Murano is still shedding glass, Yonge & Rich has horrible proportions and Picasso is hideously coloured dreck (novel for the sake of being novel).

I don't know what you're expecting from a condo community.. All others examples in Toronto (CityPlace, Bay St Corridor, NYCC) are just as bad, if not worse. Those areas don't have a lake to fall back on.

 

[interchange42]

Murano is not "still shedding glass". It's not a great idea to mix opinion and fact like that.

42

 

[Ramako]

I lived in Palace Pier for several years, and I've seen Humber Bay Shore's architecture up close. It's about on par with North York and Mississauga's residential highrise architecture. Most of the towers lack any coherent design motif. Each one is just an asymmetrical mish-mash of balconies and spandrel reminiscent of classic Page+Steele shlock. For the most part the designs of the newer towers are cleaner and simpler, which is refreshing.

 

[Automation Gallery]

It's not a great idea to mix opinion and fact like that.
42

I agree, but then again Murano is no gem

 

[Filip]

Murano is not "still shedding glass". It's not a great idea to mix opinion and fact like that.

42

Didn't a balcony pane fall again a few months ago? That's pretty embarrassing for a building that has been clad and topped off for the better part of 5 years. Then again, what do you expect from Aagh econotecture. It translates into shitty workmanship.

 

[modernizt]

Then again, what do you expect from Aagh econotecture. It translates into shitty workmanship.

That doesn't make any sense. From within the industry, let me tell you that a simplified, neo-modernist aesthetic does not equate to shoddy workmanship. In fact, having well-designed, simple details makes construction easier because it doesn't require special training in order for contractors to get details right.

 

[Josef]

I'm grateful of the entire Westlake project, especially the retail aspect.

 

[Southcore]

I lived in Palace Pier for several years, and I've seen Humber Bay Shore's architecture up close. It's about on par with North York and Mississauga's residential highrise architecture. Most of the towers lack any coherent design motif. Each one is just an asymmetrical mish-mash of balconies and spandrel reminiscent of classic Page+Steele shlock. For the most part the designs of the newer towers are cleaner and simpler, which is refreshing.

I lived in HBS for a year and also spent a few years working in the area which had me in every single building in the area that was built prior to 2007 and agree with this statement. I do have a little bit of hope for the newer towers, particularly Eau Du Soleil (which will be curtain wall if I am not mistaken).

 

[salsa]

No offense Filip, but you're biased. On aesthetics alone, aA's towers are light years better.

No you're biased. All that you like are aA towers.

 

[interchange42]

Didn't a balcony pane fall again a few months ago?.

If it did, then no one has posted about that in either Murano thread. If there were hoarding around the building, it would be an indication of current trouble or repairs, but there isn't any.

As far as I know, there is still an unresolved class action lawsuit by the residents against the builders in regard to the balcony glass, but the action against aA was dismissed.

As biased as UD is in favour of aA, you seem to be the equal and opposite reaction to that. The blanket trashing of projects no matter where they are in town, Humber Bay Shores or elsewhere, or of all projects by one architectural firm, seems pretty useless to me.

42

 

[interchange42]

Another boatload of photos, from yesterday (other than the first one from Friday evening), with the last ones from the Islington Avenue bridge over the Willowbrook yards:

42

 

[yyzer]

Great pics, 42!