Toronto The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza | 92.05m | 31s | Camrost-Felcorp | WZMH COMPLETE
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AlbertC
Superstar
The remodelled podium with retail units looks good. I still would have preferred the redevelopment proposal but at least the street presence will be much improved.
Northern Magus
Active Member
Also, remember: Toronto of that era was a very, very different place run by a well-defined establishment of bigoted Orangemen.
Once Nathan Phillips came to power (yes, that Nathan Phillips) he essentially waged a crusade against them and their symbols, and changed the face of the city -- literally and symbolically -- forever, in the name of pursuing a modernization agenda.
From wikipedia:
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adma
Superstar
Unfortunately (and with apologies to Nate's ghost), substitute "Pink(o)" for "Orange(men)", and I can't help thinking of the present mayoral regime, in spite of everything...
Northern Magus
Active Member
Yep. Reading that made me realize that culture wars are nothing new.
urbandreamer
recession proof
I dunno, in some ways I wish the Orangemen had won. Tearing down so many nice old buildings for mediocre vulgar ones was a sad thing. NPS is really quite ugly compared to what it replaced....
Northern Magus
Active Member
I think your key phrase here is "nice old buildings", for it contains your post-hoc value judgment. Remember: at the time these brick heaps were reviled for being old and dilapidated, as well as the symbols of a past that was being rejected. And probably, to some extent, some of them were also associated with slums. Parents of the boomers, and the boomers too, were turning their backs on them more or less en masse in favour of new suburban developments.
Also, remember that majority probably weren't torn down for "mediocre vulgar ones" (note your value judgment again) but instead, parking lots. To me, that's the real crime. Although to be fair, with a newly constructed Gardiner, all those suburbanites had to have somewhere to park. Also, the effect of the clear-cutting was to turn the city, both literally and symbolically, into a tabula rasa -- that in turn became a source of its social strength.
But to say that you "wish the Orangemen had won" is insipid beyond belief. Praising the Battle of the Boyne, as they did, is essentially dog-whisting for the virulently aggressive form of ethnocultural and religious triumphalism and bigotry that kept Northern Ireland as a de facto warzone for the better part of a century. When you consider just how opposed Orangemen of the day were to bilingualism and Catholic immigration, it's not difficult to predict that, to a certain less radical extent, we would have had our form of troubles too.
And that's the kind of clan you wish had remained in power here, huh?
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Red October
Senior Member
Reading that article on Nathan Phillips always makes me depressed and angry that someone could do that..
Northern Magus
Active Member
If it's any consolation, I have mixed feelings about it too. His motivations and purpose were, I think, reasonably held views in the context of the time. Had fewer of the first-rate buildings been torn down, and had more of those razed lots turned into modernist buildings on par with the calibre of New City Hall, I think it would be much easier to forgive.
Yet, regarding the Ward, here is what went:
So to use today's terminology, the Ward was quite arguably a slum or de facto immigrant ghetto. It clearly was associated at the time with squalour.
Oh, and here's what Urbandelusional thinks shouldn't have been replaced by NPS:
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adma
Superstar
Certainly more so than the current mayoral regime (even by "suburban" standards).
Though we're really getting off topic re Yorkville Plaza. Though there *must* be some way of tying all these threads of discussion together relative to the retention/modification of the old Hyatt/Four Seasons, perhaps invoking Rem Koolhaas's "Cronocaos" if one wanted to be pretentious about it...
gregv
Active Member
Former Four Seasons ready for its next close-up
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life...s-ready-for-its-next-close-up/article2168168/
photos
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life...utalist-building/article2168167/?from=2168168
Former Four Seasons ready for its next close-up
DAVE LEBLANC Published Thursday, Sep. 15, 2011
Last summer, it was the conversion of the very ‘Mad Men’ 1950s Imperial Oil building at St. Clair Avenue West and Avenue Road into condominiums; this summer, it’s the Brutalist, late-1960s Four Seasons building at the corner of Yorkville Avenue and Avenue Road: is David Feldman on a one-man mission to save Toronto’s stock of mid-century modernism?
Perhaps not, but it’s worth noting that in 2007 Menkes Development Ltd. filed an application to demolish the building and replace it with two tall towers. One, at more than 50 storeys, would have popped up like a pimple on the Queen’s Park roofline when viewed from College Street; not surprisingly, this caused an outcry in the heritage community and a long discussion on the protection of view-corridors.
“I didn’t like the idea of tearing it down,†says Mr. Feldman, adding that Yorkvillers will now enjoy “two years less disruption.†Calling the building an “iconic structure,†his company, Camrost-Felcorp, firmed up the deal to purchase it earlier this year, and, if all goes according to plan, new owners will call the former hotel home sometime in 2014.
In fact, Mr. Feldman is so convinced this building is an icon – the editors of the 2007 book Concrete Toronto affectionately call it “a mountain†– he’s hired the architecture firm originally responsible for its creation in 1969, WZMH Architects, to oversee its 21st-century transformation. “When David called, it was an amazing opportunity for us to be involved in the project,†says Brain Andrew, a 30-year veteran at WZMH and one of the firm’s principals. “We’ve been involved in the area in a certain sense for 40 years: we did Hazelton Lanes, our offices used to be at 99 Yorkville … and we’ve seen a lot of the transformation and coming of age of Yorkville.â€
This building, it could be argued, was the most visible face of that cultural shift from hippie hangout to tony shopping destination and film festival hotspot when it opened for business in 1971, but it didn’t start life as a Four Seasons.
Built originally as a Hyatt Regency, Four Seasons founder Isadore Sharp didn’t acquire the property until 1978: “To be able to have a hotel [in Yorkville] was important to us, so we were in the process at the same time of looking for a site to build a hotel and this one came to our attention,†he says. And, despite the emergence of his company into a global brand by the late-1970s, Mr. Sharp remembers hotel co-owners Ken Field and Dick Shiff (of Bramalea Ltd) had to convince the big boss, Jay Pritzker – creator of the Pritzker Architecture Prize – to let the Four Seasons rebrand it.
“Once we bought it we made major changes to try and get it as close to a Four Seasons as we could,†remembers Mr. Sharp. One major alteration was to increase room size, so the count went from 620 down to 338; his wife, Rosalie, handled the interior redesign of the rooms in addition to the ballroom.
Of course, the room count will change yet again to a number somewhere halfway between those two figures after it’s been determined how many two-bedroom units will be ordered over the smaller one-bedrooms and pieds-à -terre, notes David Feldman. What is certain is that prices will start in the pocketbook-friendly mid-$300,000s, like at Imperial Plaza, “which is incredible for Yorkville,†he offers.
Retail at the building’s base will change also, but Mr. Feldman hints it will be welcome, as he’s already been “approached by a number of world-class retail institutions†and “restaurants from New York.†Former Art Gallery of Ontario curator David Moos is working on the addition of a sculpture park for the Avenue Road side of the base.
So, with that much change, should those who enjoy the building’s muscular Brutalist lines be concerned? While early renderings by WZMH show much larger retail openings, the distinctive flared columns will remain visible in all their groovy bell-bottomed glory. And despite much of the second floor’s chunky ‘broken-rib’ concrete being covered by an “overlay†of large enameled glass screens, it will most likely be possible to glimpse it underneath, since the screens will feature a mixture of opaque and transparent sections with creative backlighting. This will give these original elements the look of being in “a vitrine†explains WZMH’s Mr. Andrew: “The trick is getting the balance right so you don’t lose the image and the presence of the building.†To that end, the tower itself will remain relatively untouched, with only the corner balconies being glassed-in to increase floor space inside the units.
While many consider Brutalism rather, well, brutal as compared to the much sleeker Mad Men style of Modernism, Isadore Sharp calls his former hotel “a very handsome building†and all indicators suggest that Mr. Feldman, Mr. Andrew and the Design Agency’s Matt Davis and Anwar Mekhayech (hired to handle the interior revamp) are of a similar mindset.
This is good news for those of us who appreciate Yorkville’s recent architectural past. The only thing that’s off the mark, in my humble opinion, is the decision to name the suites “Manhattan,†“Paris,†“Milan,†“London†and the like. While obviously meant to indicate the sorts of places from which potential buyers might hail, I’d argue that naming suites after the area’s legendary 1960s coffee houses – the Riverboat, the Penny Farthing, the Purple Onion, Chez Monique and the Mynah Bird to name but a few – would honour the neighbourhood’s cultural past as well.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life...s-ready-for-its-next-close-up/article2168168/
photos
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life...utalist-building/article2168167/?from=2168168
Former Four Seasons ready for its next close-up
DAVE LEBLANC Published Thursday, Sep. 15, 2011
Last summer, it was the conversion of the very ‘Mad Men’ 1950s Imperial Oil building at St. Clair Avenue West and Avenue Road into condominiums; this summer, it’s the Brutalist, late-1960s Four Seasons building at the corner of Yorkville Avenue and Avenue Road: is David Feldman on a one-man mission to save Toronto’s stock of mid-century modernism?
Perhaps not, but it’s worth noting that in 2007 Menkes Development Ltd. filed an application to demolish the building and replace it with two tall towers. One, at more than 50 storeys, would have popped up like a pimple on the Queen’s Park roofline when viewed from College Street; not surprisingly, this caused an outcry in the heritage community and a long discussion on the protection of view-corridors.
“I didn’t like the idea of tearing it down,†says Mr. Feldman, adding that Yorkvillers will now enjoy “two years less disruption.†Calling the building an “iconic structure,†his company, Camrost-Felcorp, firmed up the deal to purchase it earlier this year, and, if all goes according to plan, new owners will call the former hotel home sometime in 2014.
In fact, Mr. Feldman is so convinced this building is an icon – the editors of the 2007 book Concrete Toronto affectionately call it “a mountain†– he’s hired the architecture firm originally responsible for its creation in 1969, WZMH Architects, to oversee its 21st-century transformation. “When David called, it was an amazing opportunity for us to be involved in the project,†says Brain Andrew, a 30-year veteran at WZMH and one of the firm’s principals. “We’ve been involved in the area in a certain sense for 40 years: we did Hazelton Lanes, our offices used to be at 99 Yorkville … and we’ve seen a lot of the transformation and coming of age of Yorkville.â€
This building, it could be argued, was the most visible face of that cultural shift from hippie hangout to tony shopping destination and film festival hotspot when it opened for business in 1971, but it didn’t start life as a Four Seasons.
Built originally as a Hyatt Regency, Four Seasons founder Isadore Sharp didn’t acquire the property until 1978: “To be able to have a hotel [in Yorkville] was important to us, so we were in the process at the same time of looking for a site to build a hotel and this one came to our attention,†he says. And, despite the emergence of his company into a global brand by the late-1970s, Mr. Sharp remembers hotel co-owners Ken Field and Dick Shiff (of Bramalea Ltd) had to convince the big boss, Jay Pritzker – creator of the Pritzker Architecture Prize – to let the Four Seasons rebrand it.
“Once we bought it we made major changes to try and get it as close to a Four Seasons as we could,†remembers Mr. Sharp. One major alteration was to increase room size, so the count went from 620 down to 338; his wife, Rosalie, handled the interior redesign of the rooms in addition to the ballroom.
Of course, the room count will change yet again to a number somewhere halfway between those two figures after it’s been determined how many two-bedroom units will be ordered over the smaller one-bedrooms and pieds-à -terre, notes David Feldman. What is certain is that prices will start in the pocketbook-friendly mid-$300,000s, like at Imperial Plaza, “which is incredible for Yorkville,†he offers.
Retail at the building’s base will change also, but Mr. Feldman hints it will be welcome, as he’s already been “approached by a number of world-class retail institutions†and “restaurants from New York.†Former Art Gallery of Ontario curator David Moos is working on the addition of a sculpture park for the Avenue Road side of the base.
So, with that much change, should those who enjoy the building’s muscular Brutalist lines be concerned? While early renderings by WZMH show much larger retail openings, the distinctive flared columns will remain visible in all their groovy bell-bottomed glory. And despite much of the second floor’s chunky ‘broken-rib’ concrete being covered by an “overlay†of large enameled glass screens, it will most likely be possible to glimpse it underneath, since the screens will feature a mixture of opaque and transparent sections with creative backlighting. This will give these original elements the look of being in “a vitrine†explains WZMH’s Mr. Andrew: “The trick is getting the balance right so you don’t lose the image and the presence of the building.†To that end, the tower itself will remain relatively untouched, with only the corner balconies being glassed-in to increase floor space inside the units.
While many consider Brutalism rather, well, brutal as compared to the much sleeker Mad Men style of Modernism, Isadore Sharp calls his former hotel “a very handsome building†and all indicators suggest that Mr. Feldman, Mr. Andrew and the Design Agency’s Matt Davis and Anwar Mekhayech (hired to handle the interior revamp) are of a similar mindset.
This is good news for those of us who appreciate Yorkville’s recent architectural past. The only thing that’s off the mark, in my humble opinion, is the decision to name the suites “Manhattan,†“Paris,†“Milan,†“London†and the like. While obviously meant to indicate the sorts of places from which potential buyers might hail, I’d argue that naming suites after the area’s legendary 1960s coffee houses – the Riverboat, the Penny Farthing, the Purple Onion, Chez Monique and the Mynah Bird to name but a few – would honour the neighbourhood’s cultural past as well.
ScottHanton
New Member
Excellent article, thank you for posting.
The dataBase page has been updated with a bunch of new renderings!
jje1000
Senior Member
I don't know why they'd make renderings of the tower when it's barely changed at all. We need more podium shots instead!
MatthewK
New Member
They're really going to butcher that podium. It's as though we have an attractive, elegant older woman, and we make her wear uggs and tna pants. Judging by the renderings this will be regretted 30 years from now when we look at old pictures of this building. Also, if they at camrost-felcorp really think it is an "iconic building" then why are they going to make it unrecognizable?