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The Tenor (10 Dundas St E, Ent Prop Trust, 10s, Baldwin & Franklin)

  • Thread starter billy corgan19982
  • Start date
Like honestly, the whole scheme was a bit misguided to start off with - instead of building a mall of a limited height (and limited financial viability, by itself), the city should have looked into a seriously multiuse complex for more or less the entire block south of Gould (except the heritage building at Yonge/Gould - and if the architecture is of high enough quality, even that can go). Tear down the Ryerson parking garage, HMV, etc - and have a strong, coherent podium structure that is slightly lower on the Victoria side, and tapers down northward, while a tower element (hotel/residential/office) can stand directly at the corner of Yonge and Dundas. It would have been a far better use of such a prime site - and likely more profitable. I don't know who came up with the current scheme, but it stinks of ye Olde Towne Toronto esp. on the Yonge facade - frankly, there is nothing worth being contextual over south of Sam's. Like think of a podium structure like 1BE, with a tower perhaps angled like Citygate - except the Yonge/Dundas facade can be devoted to a full height video screen or something on that order.
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You got my vote!
 
I think Metropolis is mostly fixable. My dream is that five or six years down the road someone else (Cadillac Fairview?) comes in and decides to do a revitalization project. The ideal fix would be to demo the Ryerson parking garage, excavate down three storeys to allow for a new underground garage, and then build new mall space where the existing garage is. It would greatly aid in reconfiguring the mall and rescuing some of the orphaned space (like the Future Shop staff room), plus it might create some more room for another anchor tenant.

If they got really ambitious they could even try to connect Metropolis internally to that nice old building at the SE corner of Yonge/Gould. I'm guessing most of the interior features have long since been removed, so gutting it and leaving the shell might be a nice way to retain the exterior built form. Would also add a Northern Dundas subway entrance, and simplify the PATH connection to Sam's/Ryerson.
 
alklay said:
They are also opening a full service resturant at Eglinton and Ave (don't expect too much folks. This is a chain restaurant after all).
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Where did you read this?

The WolfgangPuck.com web site cites Forest Hill and 33 Sheppard Ave. E. as "Coming Soon" for Wolfgang Puck Bistros. What happened to the one on Bloor?
 
samsonyuen said:
Where did you read this?

The WolfgangPuck.com web site cites Forest Hill and 33 Sheppard Ave. E. as "Coming Soon" for Wolfgang Puck Bistros. What happened to the one on Bloor?
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You dont need to read it. Its under construction and there is a big sign that says Wolfgang Puck Coming Soon!
 
I could see this building being demolished after three decades. Perhaps those future generations will look back at how garish Yonge was, in the same way the Yonge of the 1970s is remembered today as much different and "wilder". The location is so high profile. It was important as a first step, towards revitalization. Even if flawed, it will offer something more in the way of the retail and cinema.

Oh, and too bad nothing ever came out of the Yonge narrowing idea.
 
Some Letters to the Editor in the Star today in response to Hume's article:

The abominable building
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Jan 16, 2008 04:30 AM

We don't deserve this

horrorchitecture

Column, Jan. 14

If anyone is to blame for the mess at Toronto Life Square, it is the City of Toronto. City council selected the developer in 1997; it adopted the official plan, the community improvement plan and zoning bylaw amendments in 1997; it approved the site plan approval application; and it approved the limited terms of reference for the Dundas Square design competition of 1998.

No guiding urban-design scheme was ever prepared for the Downtown Yonge St. Regeneration Program, of which the Yonge-Dundas project is the centrepiece. The new official plan lacks detailed physical development rules, and even secondary plans and design guidelines offer equally spotty guidance.

City hall practice continues to favour ad-hoc approval processes where the weak existing regulatory limits are ignored or modified. As a result, any decent architecture gets lost in a cacophony of idiosyncratic designs and a chaotic rush to "intensification." Any sense of the city – where unlike elements are placed side by side or superimposed in unexpected but enriching and controlled ways – gets lost in such a policy vacuum.

Matthias Schlaepfer, Toronto

I couldn't agree more with Christopher Hume's assessment of the abomination that has risen at the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas Sts. Toronto Life Square demonstrates once again that the developer has no business (or vision) for buildings woven into the fabric of a thriving city centre.

However, there's one building detail that must be added to Hume's list of offences. Future Shop, which occupies the second floor, has positioned its staff room – with its bland, grey lockers and fold-out lunch table – overlooking the square. Beside the staff room is a long, bleak, white hallway stretching to the store itself. These details are the guts of a building. They're not supposed to be on display.

This contradicts the developer's assertion that other corporations should spend major dollars to advertise on this building because of its prime exposure to the square. If I was a corporation, I'd see no value in advertising on this building. And they're right. This building is of no value. What a lost opportunity.

Michael Sparaga, Toronto

Christopher Hume argues that the ugly new Toronto Life Square sins chiefly by being sited out of context, inappropriately abutting what he calls the "genuine civic space" of Yonge-Dundas Square. Huh?

There is nothing "civic" about the experience – save those rare days when there's something worth viewing on the square itself. The moment you enter the YD Square orbit, your mental environment is hijacked by the shrillest of advertising, which encloses you on all sides and from above. And in that moment, you exist not as a citizen but as a consumer – a passive recipient of commercial messages.

Toronto Life Square is, at least, without any of the excruciating civitas pretension of YD Square; for its honest brutality and championing of commercial function over nightmarish form, I accord it some grudging credit.

Alex MacLean, Toronto

While I agree wholeheartedly that post-apocalyptic military bunkers like Toronto Life Square are inappropriate adornments of public space, I disagree that covering them in video ads is an improvement – much less one guaranteed to create "civic space." When I visit Yonge-Dundas Square, I feel nauseated by the continuous assault of building-sized ads.

As an alternative to corporate advertising, how about covering the building in murals by local artists?

Leslie Jermyn, Toronto
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While I agree wholeheartedly that post-apocalyptic military bunkers like Toronto Life Square are inappropriate adornments of public space, I disagree that covering them in video ads is an improvement – much less one guaranteed to create "civic space." When I visit Yonge-Dundas Square, I feel nauseated by the continuous assault of building-sized ads.

As an alternative to corporate advertising, how about covering the building in murals by local artists?

Leslie Jermyn, Toronto
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Wouldn't it make more sense then to cover the new Art Gallary Building in murals by local artist?


Christopher Hume argues that the ugly new Toronto Life Square sins chiefly by being sited out of context, inappropriately abutting what he calls the "genuine civic space" of Yonge-Dundas Square. Huh?

There is nothing "civic" about the experience – save those rare days when there's something worth viewing on the square itself. The moment you enter the YD Square orbit, your mental environment is hijacked by the shrillest of advertising, which encloses you on all sides and from above. And in that moment, you exist not as a citizen but as a consumer – a passive recipient of commercial messages.

Toronto Life Square is, at least, without any of the excruciating civitas pretension of YD Square; for its honest brutality and championing of commercial function over nightmarish form, I accord it some grudging credit.

Alex MacLean, Toronto
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Wow!! Someone who understands the meaning of context....
 
Tuscani01 said:
I just found something in the TLS media kit regarding ad space that makes me happy:

"Capability to customize and develop unique signage, i.e. 3D or electronic"

The cheapness of the ads currently up are a result of the corporations putting them up, not PenEquity. I imagine that once the building is complete, companies will start coming up with better ads to try and capture the attention of everyone in the area.
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Tuscani posted this over at SSC.

(Did the fear of being attacked by rabid and whiney dogs stop you from posting it here Tuscani?)

So, let's see what happens.
 
alklay said:
The ads are what they are. The building is shite. That's the arguement.
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Then I could make another arguement that the shite building fits in perfectly with the "mish-mash" that is Yonge street. So long as we don't have any delusions of grandeour for the street on which it has been built...
 
ProjectEnd said:
/\ You sound like a disgruntled 1BE employee who has realized that Yonge and Bloor just ain't what you thought it was...
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The last thing anyone would ever call me is disgruntled...and I'm perfertly satisfied with the way Yonge Street looks and works. There is absolutely no need to try and change the character of the street into something which it is not, nor will ever be.
Case point: TLS (Metropolis)
 
Oh, Caltrane. You're just so upbeat and chipper (to say nothing of blue and fuzzy), I can't bring myself to be foul with you, no matter how much I hate TLS.
 
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