Toronto 66 Wellesley East | 120.79m | 36s | MOD / Montez | DSAI

The new design feels more elegant, refined and timeless than the previous one. Love the manually-laid brick work on the podium and the arches. Very solid street presence and feels stablished like it’s always been there. Wishing for the retail to be community oriented with independent shops that add to the neighborhood’s character, not just lsrge corporate retailers
 
Ok....lets see what I can add here.

@Paclo

First, a higher quality render at-grade:

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Then will move on to some docs:

Revised Site Plan:

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Ground Floor Plan:

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Typical Floor in Tower:

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Typical Suite sizes vary, some are a bit small, but overall much better than what we have been seeing, most 1 beds are in/around the 600ft2 mark, 2 beds varying from ~650 to just shy of 800ft2.
The 3 bdrm is well over 1,200ft2.

Elevator Ration: 431 suites to 4 elevators is 1 elevator per 108 units.

Stats:

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Description:

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This looks eminently do-able, and is a relief after all the tortured forms of the previous proposals. It's nice to see the tower has some texture, and the fact that they're saying the red-brick base will be hand-laid is wonderful. It looks like a really positive addition to the street.
 
ComptoirGeneral said:
This is miles better than the last iteration. I love the ground level brick work, it feels very respectful of the neighbourhood. And I'm happy anytime a tower isn't plonked right on the corner.
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Totally agree. I’m just confused as to why this is a trend in Toronto where Buildings have beautiful brick bases and then the rest of the building be sterile white facades😭. Can they not continue the brick throughout the rest of the building???
 
Spooderman said:
Totally agree. I’m just confused as to why this is a trend in Toronto where Buildings have beautiful brick bases and then the rest of the building be sterile white facades😭. Can they not continue the brick throughout the rest of the building???
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It's likely because the tower is overtop the buff heritage building and less so the red brick building. So the colour is intended to match that as opposed to the part of the podium that it's not really part of 'visually'.
 
Hamiltonian said:
It's likely because the tower is overtop the buff heritage building and less so the red brick building. So the colour is intended to match that as opposed to the part of the podium that it's not really part of 'visually'.
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Ok, that doesn’t explain why it has to be boxy and colourless though. Why is white black and grey the default palette for contemporary buildings???

Personally, I think there are WAY bigger targets for criticism than this building — the base looks good and the tower looks OK — but the fact that the tower might be considered well-designed (it’s literally a white brick, not much to it) shows how far our society has fallen in terms of architectural expression, in my opinion.
 
NY99 said:
Ok, that doesn’t explain why it has to be boxy and colourless though. Why is white black and grey the default palette for contemporary buildings???

Personally, I think there are WAY bigger targets for criticism than this building — the base looks good and the tower looks OK — but the fact that the tower might be considered well-designed (it’s literally a white brick, not much to it) shows how far our society has fallen in terms of architectural expression, in my opinion.
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There is something to be said about this being the default architectural expression of our times; I would call it austere referentialism. This type of construction is common in Toronto developments of the last 15 years, where the podium makes reference to the historic character of the neighbourhood and city (i.e. facadism, heavy use of brick, etc), but dramatically shifts to an austere utilitarianism for the tower itself.

One could argue it may stem from the cultural shift towards having our faces buried downwards at our devices. People aren't looking upwards in awe of the city like they used to, so why bother creating a visually compelling (and more expensive) design?
 
NY99 said:
Ok, that doesn’t explain why it has to be boxy and colourless though. Why is white black and grey the default palette for contemporary buildings???

Personally, I think there are WAY bigger targets for criticism than this building — the base looks good and the tower looks OK — but the fact that the tower might be considered well-designed (it’s literally a white brick, not much to it) shows how far our society has fallen in terms of architectural expression, in my opinion.
Click to expand...
It's not white brick. I'd also like to think this is a placeholder of sorts while MOD and DSAI sort out the expression. Diamond has used this previously at 185 Balloil and Macmaster Graduate Residence (among others):

urbantoronto.ca

185 Balliol | UrbanToronto

185 Balliol, Toronto by 1, Diamond Schmitt Architects
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca

urbantoronto.ca

McMaster Graduate Student Residence | UrbanToronto

McMaster Graduate Student Residence, Toronto by 1, Diamond Schmitt Architects
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca
 
ProjectEnd said:
It's not white brick. I'd also like to think this is a placeholder of sorts while MOD and DSAI sort out the expression. Diamond has used this previously at 185 Balloil and Macmaster Graduate Residence (among others):

urbantoronto.ca

185 Balliol | UrbanToronto

185 Balliol, Toronto by 1, Diamond Schmitt Architects
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca

urbantoronto.ca

McMaster Graduate Student Residence | UrbanToronto

McMaster Graduate Student Residence, Toronto by 1, Diamond Schmitt Architects
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca
Click to expand...

Poor choice of words. The shape of the building is brick-like.
 
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