The podium design will be different... they showed a few different options at the meeting. More to come from me later; Interchange42 was there as well and took some snaps. I imagine the new podium design they will go with is one that presents two other facades with their own canopies... they do not imitate old buildings in their style, but they do in materiality (limestone or brick), creating a row of three separate facades, two at the base of this tower plus the Oddfellows Hall building.

Kristyn Wong-Tam is just amazing. She really set a great tone at the end of the meeting, made everyone feel heard, and comes across as very sincere and hard-working for the people in her neighbourhood. :)
 
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The crude rendering doesn't help.
The base/podium is a little brutal.
I don't like the pattern on the tower. Looks like a colon or smoke from a chimney.
The design has potential. It just needs some thought and substance in terms of how the balconies forms the graphics of the tower.
 
I think the problem is the organic look of the design. It doesn't work because the building's massing is very hard edged and geometric. So perhaps the design should be geometric as well instead of this river look.
 
buildup said:
I think the problem is the organic look of the design. It doesn't work because the building's massing is very hard edged and geometric. So perhaps the design should be geometric as well instead of this river look.
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The problem to me is that the design doesn't commit to the contrast. Never mind that the building directly apes a design approach of perhaps the most iconic current project in the city, or even that that more general idea of "traditional staid rectilinear modernist glass core softened by enveloping playful balconies" has popped up all over town -- the thing I most object to in this render is that the main contrast isn't even consistently realized. The balconies which wrap the solid staid rectilinear core are themselves hard edged and angled, even though they demarcate the sinuous design.

It's a sloppy instantiation of an already familiar (bordering on cliched) idea.
 
I like the idea that a redesigned podium (desperately needed) will use brick to tie it to its neighbours.

But as for the tower, the design just tries too hard...and fails in the process. Hopefully the design review board will help the architects out a bit.
 
It's a sloppy instantiation of an already familiar (bordering on cliched) idea.
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I hope that doesn't come as a surprise.

Toronto's bizarrely huge condo market is almost entirely sustained by cheap, market-driven products. Why would these developers not employ this concept?

They will stop when you stop buying them as fast as they can fart them out.
 
What a mess. There's so much wrong wit this thing I won't even get into it. The massing is absolutely ridiculous, but that seems to be the norm now.
 
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I can't wait for the wrapped balcony fad to die off. We need some more interesting facade treatments that are not in the form of balconies.
 
460 Yonge Street, Toronto

Here is a summary of the key notes from tonight's community consultation meeting:

The proposal is 60 storeys, 207 metres tall, with 599 units, and 6 levels of parking. The podium ranges from 4-7 storeys. Ground floor is entirely retail along Yonge and Grenville. Residence entrance will be on Grenville. Parking entrance and truck loading area will be along St. Luke Lane. Proposal to set back the podium 1 metre (more) from the existing Yonge and Grenville sidewalk to allow for greater pedestrian space. The 2nd floor will also be retail, and the 3rd floor for office space. The 4th floor is the amenities space. 5th floor and upwards will be entirely residential., with minor tower setbacks from the 5-7th floor. The tower (8th floor and upwards) will be 10 metres set back from Yonge Street, and 5 metres from Grenville. Approximately 38% of the 599 units are planned to be 2-3 bedroom units. There will be a panel option to accommodate any potential future connection to the PATH system as part of this project.

The podium design is still very preliminary with 4 different concepts under consideration. The first 2 floors of retail space will be 6 metres tall each. Massing of the podium lines up with Odd Fellows Hall. Possibility that the podium may be further set back to allow for restaurant patio usage. One of the podium concepts featured shifted angled boxes. Another looked very Aura-ish with horizontal bands. And the other one I remember looked more deco inspired. Limestone was stated as a possibility of material used for the podium.


6943774331_fc48915b66_b.jpg
 
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Not to repeat this again and again, but here's the pic without the yellowing.

460YongeP1260243.jpg



Ground floor and second floor plans (below).

460YongeP1260247.jpg



For the most part locals expressed what Kristyn Wong Tam characterized as development fatigue: they all want it shorter. Some would accept it at 45 storeys, others at 20 to 30, another man suggested 6 to 8 storeys. All but one person spoke approvingly of the design; that other person called it an eyesore. Wong Tam is planning a working group of locals to consult on the design process with the developers and the City. There was some suggestion that a working group would obviate the need to present this plan to the Design Review Panel, but that was not stated definitively.

As Travis and SP!RE have stated, the podium shown in the rendering is not what is currently being considered, but four other versions were presented, none of them final candidates. ERA Architects have suggested a stronger reveal separating the Oddfellows Hall from 460's podium. G+C are looking for ways to split up the Yonge Street frontage to make the experience of passing by the building along the sidewalk more humanized and less monumental.

My take is that the four podium options at the moment (sorry, no pics) do not resolve the lower end of the balcony squiggle yet… and speaking of the squiggle, it's a bit too random for my tastes. I want to see some evidence of pattern in it - hints of fractals, like in so much of nature - before I'm comfortable with it, but maybe that's just me!

42
 
Travis said:
One of the podium concepts featured shifted angled boxes. Another looked very Aura-ish with horizontal bands. And the other one I remember looked more deco inspired. Limestone was stated as a possibility of material used for the podium.
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I'm so glad they have a clear, decisive, coherent vision of the building as a whole.
 
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