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CBC: Toronto Skyline Before and After

This is probably an odd position but I'd be happy if we stopped building stuff for a little while... well at least these massive condo projects. If everything gets built that's been announced thus far I'd be fine, and then I'd like to see the city focus on transforming itself from a messy, poorly maintained and ill-equiped construction zone of a place into a sophisticated and enlightened urban centre: beautiful landscaping and streetscaping, well-maintained parks, treed avenues and greened streets, bike lanes, transit, etc., etc. We need some time to breathe and catch up with this rampant boom-burg development, to catch up and gear ourselves up for future rounds. Growth is great but not if it is unsustainable... and I'm not so sure it has been.
 
Hmm, if we're just talking about skylines and not all the other things that the condo boom added to the city, I'd still prefer our current skyline but I see where Joe R. is coming from.

The skyline in 1998 was smaller but had more variety, since it wasn't all just glass box condo towers. If you came in from the east old Art Deco buildings like CCN were still visible and you still got that traditional MINT view with the Royal York front, row, centre from the Gardiner. We had a very American skyline back then, whereas now we basically have the vestiges of an American corporate skyline, unchanged since 1992, being crowded out by a slightly taller version of Vancouver. Philacouver.

The Bloor-Yorkville-Midtown skyline has improved dramatically, though.
 
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It's really Southcore (minus Telus House and PWC) and CityPlace that ruin the skyline, for me. I'd rather have brownfields than the banal crap that has filled these spaces. And yes, the midtown skyline definitely looks better now than it did in the 90s.
 
I really don't understand how city place ruined anything ... most of the city place towers are actually very impressive from the 2nd floor up, particularly from the south.

Regarding the notion to stop development and "catch up", I'm not sure how stopping development would help ? In theory the more development the more money available to pay for such projects, of course it doesn't work out that way (i.e. has the city directly imrpvoed any area ... sure there is Bloor but that was driven through the BIA and Queens Quay through waterfront Toronto).

I've never liked Toronto's skyline from the lake, it's much better viewed from the east or west.


The amount of development around King west is really the amazing part, same goes for King / Queen east, but the pictures don't do it justice as they're generally sub 20 floors.
 
The skyline can look stunning from certain vantages on the Island but for me it really depends on the time of day. During the mid-afternoon on a hot summer day the new 1995-now buildings just look so grey and washed out that they are almost depressing. Even PoMo crap from the 90's shines by comparison to our contemporary designs. On the other hand things can look great at dawn, dusk, and at night. However, I'm sure our photographer forumers would tell us that everything looks good at dawn, dusk, and night.
 
TrickyRicky said:
The skyline can look stunning from certain vantages on the Island but for me it really depends on the time of day. During the mid-afternoon on a hot summer day the new 1995-now buildings just look so grey and washed out that they are almost depressing. Even PoMo crap from the 90's shines by comparison to our contemporary designs. On the other hand things can look great at dawn, dusk, and at night. However, I'm sure our photographer forumers would tell us that everything looks good at dawn, dusk, and night.
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I'd say it looks even better from Leslie Split where you can see both the E-W and N-S extent of the skyline, and I think even Midtown.
 
taal said:
I really don't understand how city place ruined anything ... most of the city place towers are actually very impressive from the 2nd floor up, particularly from the south.

Regarding the notion to stop development and "catch up", I'm not sure how stopping development would help ? In theory the more development the more money available to pay for such projects, of course it doesn't work out that way (i.e. has the city directly imrpvoed any area ... sure there is Bloor but that was driven through the BIA and Queens Quay through waterfront Toronto).

I've never liked Toronto's skyline from the lake, it's much better viewed from the east or west.


The amount of development around King west is really the amazing part, same goes for King / Queen east, but the pictures don't do it justice as they're generally sub 20 floors.
Click to expand...

I can't think of a single CityPlace tower that is impressive.
 
Joe R. said:
I can't think of a single CityPlace tower that is impressive.
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You're kidding right ?
Luna (curtsey of urbantoronto.ca):
urbantoronto-2865-8173.jpg


Montage:
3822587854_268c9500ce_b.jpg


Harbourview Estates (curtsey of emporis)
704006-Large.jpg


Honestly I'd argue most city place buildings if built alone in other locations would stand out for the good.
 
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No matter how the new buildings like, what I find sad is, that they are mostly build on the few green areas that left.

I agree on the opinion of the day time thoughj, sometimes the old buildings in downtown much look like something you can see in the old movies situated in former Soviet Union.
 
The general skyline looks great, but the details are lacking. It's too bad that the character from Royal York and some of the older towers are now blocked by southcore buildings' glass.


Time to break out the LEDs. :p
 
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