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Into the Mist
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1 Bloor East, DEAD AND BURIED (Bazis, -2s, Varacalli)

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me, i also fairly new to form and also not like how building look like whore and not nice lady. buildings should dress up in finery and lace and not wear hot pant all day.
this is what i believe.
 
lawsond said:
me, i also fairly new to form and also not like how building look like whore and not nice lady. buildings should dress up in finery and lace and not wear hot pant all day.
this is what i believe.
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I like how Chris Hume said on this weekend's condo critic for 169 John Street, "In fact, there's an honesty to this structure that's easier to relate to than the glitzy kitsch associated with so many condos. "
 
Are you going to join the Doom & Gloom Chorus if they don't announce tomorrow? These things are always predictions. "We'll announce sometime this month" means "we're working on it and we don't have the details sown up yet, so wait a bit."

I'm hoping for a Sofitel. With a couple of Novotels in the GTA, Accor Group might just want to bring another of their brands to town, and this location has the upscale bones to work as a Sofitel.

Once it opens, I want a free room during the FilmFest if I'm right.

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interchange42 said:
Are you going to join the Doom & Gloom Chorus if they don't announce tomorrow? These things are always predictions. "We'll announce sometime this month" means "we're working on it and we don't have the details sown up yet, so wait a bit."

I'm hoping for a Sofitel. With a couple of Novotels in the GTA, Accor Group might just want to bring another of their brands to town, and this location has the upscale bones to work as a Sofitel.

Once it opens, I want a free room during the FilmFest if I'm right.

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Nah, I'm not that pessimistic about this project.

I'm personally hoping for a Swissotel since it's part of the Fairmont Group of Hotels.
 
Hmm. Also an interesting possibility. I predict this will not be the 'W'.

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The more they demolish, the more I desperately wish this thing would never get built, that some far-sighted philanthropist might somehow have magically have bought the square, stuck a parking garage below it and something green and watery on top, and held a competition to name the whole thing after a local hero of some kind. Stephen Lewis. Shiela Brasrur. Ed Mirvish, I don't care.

As much as I was attached to Roy Square and wouldn't have advocated its demolition in the first place, it's so refreshing to see sky there. It's like the breath of fresh air we got when they first knocked down Varsity Stadium, which, mercifully, was resurrected in an open form that allows us to take in the cityscape.

It's funny. Back when I wasn't thinking much about cities, I had a SimCity idea that the best way to improve city life was just to stick parks and green things in downtown spaces. Then I got into urbanism, and became quite fixated on the romance of concrete and the hard-edged wisdom of Dundas square. Now I'm getting old, and maybe a little bit cranky, even as I scoot around the city, surveying construction sites. Screw the skyscrapers. Make it green.

People look at dense transfer nodes like this and say, "What better place for a supertall?". I think the argument cuts both ways. At the densest intersection, in the deepest thicket of point towers and unaffordable retail, is there anywhere that needs a place to breathe more?
 
I have played simcity since its earliest version. It's easy to say stick some green spaces or parks in the middle of a city to improve it's urban quality. However, modern cities are very much engined by the riches who believes in profits and fame. For centuries, a nation or city's glory is being measured by how much is constructed, and this notion of development hasn't changed.

I am not against development because at this point of time, attracting citizens and increasing population is still one of the methods to put income to our local government. However, I strongly dislike the fact that every building in our city is trying to be a landmark. We should know our place in our society. A building is to serve the people who occupy it. Let public buildings be the landmark, like they have been in history.
 
Sir Novelty Fashion said:
The more they demolish, the more I desperately wish this thing would never get built, that some far-sighted philanthropist might somehow have magically have bought the square, stuck a parking garage below it and something green and watery on top, and held a competition to name the whole thing after a local hero of some kind. Stephen Lewis. Shiela Brasrur. Ed Mirvish, I don't care.

...

People look at dense transfer nodes like this and say, "What better place for a supertall?". I think the argument cuts both ways. At the densest intersection, in the deepest thicket of point towers and unaffordable retail, is there anywhere that needs a place to breathe more?
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Every part of the city needs a bit of green. Some parts of Toronto are deficient in this regard, although I would suggest that this is not one of them. Queen's Park, Ramsden Park, that space on the south side of Yorkville Ave. with the transplanted Canadian Shield granite, and a good chunk of the Rosedale Ravine are located within 10 minutes walk. Lots of other green space is within a 20 minute walk, or a couple of subway stops. That's pretty good for an area which is, and should be, one of the densest districts.

I am still waiting to see the final form of 1BE, but I actually like what I see so far. I think we may see further changes. I do tend to agree with Urban Frog, that not every building in the private sector especially needs to be a "landmark". Let it fit the context, and be respectful of the street especially.

The "context" here is high-end residential, high-end retail, and a preponderance of mixed use buildings. That's the character of the Bloor Street strip, Yorkville, and adjacent streets to the north especially.
 
interchange42 said:
Hmm. Also an interesting possibility. I predict this will not be the 'W'.

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If the European hotel chain holds true, then it certainly isn't a W.

However, does that count with ownership? Technically Fairmont owns Swissotel, so does it make it European?:D I'm willing to agree on the Sofitel.
 
Feels very barren now. As much as I love green space... it should definitely not be here.



The Casa tower crane and its 9th and 10th floors are poking up in the last pic... and that vehicle looks like it's entered into the YongeBloor timewarp machine we keep seeing evidence of.

Or maybe it's those 1Bloor marketing lips?
 
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