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

  • Thread starter billy corgan19982
  • Start date
caltrane74 said:
I don't understand the constant comparing to London, New York, Toyko, & Paris. Each one of those cities is 4 times bigger than Toronto at least. So say 10,000,000 people to Toronto's say 2,500,000. Get a Grip! Get a Life!

If you must compare Toronto's Dundas Square compare it to the media squares in Houston, Sydney, Melborone, Madrid, Philadelphia, Rome, Caracas, Atlanta, Milan, Zurich, Hong Kong or Singapore. Obviously for a city of our size we punch outside of our wieght class.
Click to expand...

Cal, I'm well aware that London and New York are much larger than Toronto but thanks for that, Captain Obvious. Let's see if I can put this in terms even you understand. London's Picadilly Circus has lots of pretty lights and people and flashing signs and traffic all the time, as does Times Square in New York. I wasn't comparing Toronto to those cities, I was merely saying that this square kind of resembles those. Got it? You can add Tokyo to the list of great cities with a similar public square. I also have a pretty good grip on reality and a life. By the way, It's "Melbourne", not "Melborone".

Also, just show me one picture of other "media squares" in any of those cities you mention because i've never seen one in any of those cities, hence my mentioning NYC and London.
 
Cancerous said:
Actually, what happened was that you simply lost the argument.

Anyways... I'll let your imagination run free, it's fun watching you try desperately to figure me out.
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Okay, let's get away from Toronto for a second.

800px-Boston_City_Hall.JPG


Would you tear this down?

And that's not a request. I'm just asking if you would...
 
adma:

Depends on what you consider as "this" - the city hall proper - no; the plaza right in front of it? Don't have the slightest hesitation in ripping it all up.

AoD
 
Cancerous said:
Absolutely not.
Just like I wouldn't tear down the Sears Building or Robarts Library.
Click to expand...

So, why are you bellyaching about Toronto's deficiencies relative to old European centres? If anything, that's an even more abject, pathological "failure" as a "physical urban heart" than anything Toronto can muster up, Yonge-Dundas not excluded. At least, if we go by how "average Bostonians" (at least, those motivated to spout off) feel.

But it's sure a sign of Toronto's present-day urban world-classness that the minds behind Concrete Toronto are advising the friends of Boston City Hall as to how to make the most of their not-bad-just-misunderstood architectural landmark...
 
went up to the patio last night and i gotta say that the view is awesome. everything about jack astor's was good. the food, the waitresses (and waiters) are all good looking as someone else already mentioned. the patio has heaters and trees as well. but the best part is probably the atmosphere of the city below and all around. you can hear people playing at yonge/dundas, the lights are constantly moving, etc.

anyway, i took some quick shots of the views from the patio.


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ps. the garlic bread is delicious. yum.
DSC07331.jpg
 
adma said:
So, why are you bellyaching about Toronto's deficiencies relative to old European centres?
Click to expand...

I believe that, where we run into conflict is when I think that public squares (when placed properly) matter, while you think that it’s rather only “the streets, the sidewalks, and the retail activity†that matter… that’s where I have to respectfully disagree.

Dismissing a monumental urban element such as the square (i.e. plaza, piazza, place, platz – call it what you please) is simply absurd. I suppose you could argue against it being suitable to Toronto’s climate during the winter (even though the ones in Montreal seem to be doing just fine), but to wholly reject it as a concept is against the very principles of urban planning.
 
carewser said:
Cal, I'm well aware that London and New York are much larger than Toronto but thanks for that, Captain Obvious. Let's see if I can put this in terms even you understand. London's Picadilly Circus has lots of pretty lights and people and flashing signs and traffic all the time, as does Times Square in New York. I wasn't comparing Toronto to those cities, I was merely saying that this square kind of resembles those. Got it? You can add Tokyo to the list of great cities with a similar public square. I also have a pretty good grip on reality and a life. By the way, It's "Melbourne", not "Melborone".

Also, just show me one picture of other "media squares" in any of those cities you mention because i've never seen one in any of those cities, hence my mentioning NYC and London.
Click to expand...

carewasar my friend,

As long as you understand that a media square in a city of 10 Million is probably going to be a lot more engaging than a media square in a city of 2.5 Million, I don't think I have a problem with this post.

As for the Media Squares in the other "World Cities", isn't it odd that cities like Hong Kong, Melborne, Sydney, Madrid, Milan or San Francisco some of which are larger than Toronto don't have media squares? Of course I'm pretty sure there are sections of all the cities i've mentioned above, with over the top advertising.

By the way carewasar don't take my post so personally, Instead just take it like a man. I have nothing against you: I'm just pointing out the obvious, as I have been known to do from time to time.
 
3Dementia said:
Now that we are oh so damn hip, diverse, wealthy and unbridled... what have we done (including starchitects) that remotely matches the daring of 40 years past?

Yes? No?
Click to expand...

Agreed. At some point Toronto became embarrassed by/self-conscious of its own ambition, and too 'cool' for it. Hopefully the pendulum will settle back somewhere a little closer to the middle of both extremes. The city will be better for it.
 
Cancerous said:
I believe that, where we run into conflict is when I think that public squares (when placed properly) matter, while you think that it’s rather only “the streets, the sidewalks, and the retail activity†that matter… that’s where I have to respectfully disagree.

Dismissing a monumental urban element such as the square (i.e. plaza, piazza, place, platz – call it what you please) is simply absurd. I suppose you could argue against it being suitable to Toronto’s climate during the winter (even though the ones in Montreal seem to be doing just fine), but to wholly reject it as a concept is against the very principles of urban planning.
Click to expand...

Where'd you get this idea that I'm simply rejecting/dismissing the concept of public squares outright and asserting that it's *only* said streets, sidewalks, and retail activity that matter? (After all, I'm *defending* Boston City Hall as a fait accompli, in spite of its not-all-of-its-own-making pitfalls.)

All I'm asserting is that given the complexity of our urban fabric and our collective relationship to it, it's folly, in 2008, to overjudge our "failure" for our lack thereof, or to force the issue through Haussmanian means--and at the same time, when the end result meets with mixed success (as at Dundas Square), it's not the urbanistic end of the world, either, and indeed can often be self-repairing.

The point is: in the end, Toronto really is too strong a city to be defined through "heart of downtown" logic. Even Jane Jacobs knew it; and she'd be horrified at "forcing the issue" in the way that you suggest.

Paradoxically, in your pretentiously overwrought assertion of "the very principles of urban planning", you'd probably be judged to be a pompous, insensitive, fascistic jerk within Toronto's urban planning circles--the equivalent of a parent with such self-professed high cultural standards that he abusively berates his daughter for hanging with a Hannah Montana-fan crowd...
 
^ Yea, birds rock!

I went to TLS yesterday for breakfast before an interview I had downtown... mmm cinnabon... and realized there is no seating in the lower levels. I had to go up 2 floors to eat my cinnabon. I know the food stores are small, but a couple of bench's on the lower level would be good enough. Hopefully they are on the way.

I noticed a steady flow of people walking in and out while waiting for my friend in the lobby. It wasn't as dead as people here made it out to be.
 
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