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

[grey]

You're previous post said when one gets to the centre of all the glowing action at Yonge and Dundas Square there will be disappointment. It won't be disappointment to what was there before. That's for sure.


Could something better have been built there? That is a purely subjective question.

Agreed, but that's a defeatist attitude if I've ever seen one, Caltrane!

 

[caltrane74]

Maybe.. but I'm not lying when I say a completed Metropolis is better than a whole in the ground & hoarding for another 10 years. This place will come alive when the movie theatre opens up. And if you think there are too many people hanging out in Dundas square, dont go there next year when the place is a complete madhouse.

Which gets me to thinking..if you look at the latest rendering of Metropolis..you'll notice that the advertising signs for the upcoming movies is not there. I'm thinking maybe Pen Equity is not taking responsiblity for those signs and will instead pass over that project's creatative design and construction to AMC.....its just my thought. The reason it's not in the latest render is because Pen Equity does not know exactly how they will look.

 

[grey]

That's sounds about right. There's no movie advertising on the rendering, and that doesn't seem realistic at all. Hopefully AMC's signage will cover up more of this big gray box.

 

[interchange42]

But the whole point of this exercise is the tacked on thingy's and flashing lights and garish-overlit excess! Hell, I want the long-lost Union Station redo render-piano decked out in LED's and spinning like a blender blade placed way up top. It's supposed to be excessive, so Toronto Half-Life should get with the program and ditch the subdued approach to this. Give us over-stimulation, not a square to sleep in. Let's see lighting that can induce a seizure, dammit.

There is no such things as muted-garishness. That's so old Toronto thinking.

I am so with you on that.

the thing is barely half put together, and yet still - driving down the DVP onto the gardiner going west, with all the tall buildings and spotlights and UFO floating lights emanating from the CN Tower, the one thing you can see more prominently than anything is the big flood of light that is yonge and dundas.

subdued it is not. and if 6 months from now, when it's all put together and flashing brilliant, if anyone can take a nap in that square after dusk I would call 911 ASAP. they're probably dead.

Great line, but I'm still with Hydro on this - over-the-top is the only way to go on this fugly, horrible heap. Festooning it with every electrically tweaked doodad possible is the only way to distract peoples' attention from the vile pile of non-architecture underneath. This new rendering has me considering taking an internet make-your-own-bomb course.

...something better that could have been built there?

Seriously, where were you going with that? I guess this could be taken to an "it's better than nothing" argument, or was it just the unfortunate Torontonian tendancy to compare itself to things?

Torontonians compare Toronto to other cities less than happens in other places... like that grasping Calgary for example.

Okay, all non-funny joking aside, every city gets compared by its proud citizens to other cities. Every one! This is not a Torontonian thing - it's a human thing - we compare constantly. We compare items we are about to pick up and eat, we compare clothes at GotStyle for Men (then we compare the prices and resign ourselves to Winners again), and we compare destinations when choosing where to go on vacation, so we're certainly not going to stop at cities, and neither are people in those crappy holes like London, Paris, Rome, or Sydney (Austrailia - not Nova Scotia) that don't hold a candle to our magnificence. People compare, and it shouldn't bug you.

42

 

[alklay]

Most AMCs (and most new movie houses) do not have posters or anything outside and I would be surprised if this AMC is any different. At most, there will be a ticker canopy (with movie information) but I suspect that will be inside the complex.

 

[caltrane74]

Most AMCs (and most new movie houses) do not have posters or anything outside and I would be surprised if this AMC is any different. At most, there will be a ticker canopy (with movie information) but I suspect that will be inside the complex.

You're probably right. So let's hope they at least use very bright, or decorative lighting for the AMC and IMAX logos when they do eventually move in.

 

[notyouagain]

What annoys me the most about this buidling is that the city used its extraordinary power to expropriate the land for penequity and had all the leverage it needed to extract binding design guidelines (and how about a firm completion deadline?). In my opinion, the city dropped the ball here. Who negotiated the sale to penequity?

 

[caltrane74]

What annoys me the most about this buidling is that the city used its extraordinary power to expropriate the land for penequity and had all the leverage it needed to extract binding design guidelines (and how about a firm completion deadline?). In my opinion, the city dropped the ball here. Who negotiated the sale to penequity?

At one point the city threatened to take the land back from Pen Equity, because construction was taking so long to begin.

Of course the cost involved there would have been enormous.

 

[interchange42]

You're probably right. So let's hope they at least use very bright, or decorative lighting for the AMC and IMAX logos when they do eventually move in.

IMAX? Who said IMAX? AMC doesn't do IMAX.

42

 

[caltrane74]

IMAX? Who said IMAX? AMC doesn't do IMAX.

42

I didn't know that. They do provide IMAX theatres in the States

 

[interchange42]

Ooo. Giant popcorn!

Yeah, they don't do IMAX north of the border. I think Famous Players had an exclusive deal with them (for non-museum type locations), which I will assume has passed on to Cineplex now.

42

 

[St. Even]

That's my point. - A building that was very bland, became somewhat interesting with modifications made over time.

I'm pretty sure the same will happen to Metropolis.

I can see the Atrium's media tower and Toronto Life's both growing and possibly creeping over Yonge St to the point where it will look like one big media blitz, maybe touching over the street. Once the theatre's in, it will be a huge difference in pedestrian flow.

And on the subject of ads, i think it's unfortunate that the City doesn't have a fixed spot in such a prominence place to advertise the city or city events. I'm not familiar with how that wheeling/dealing process works, but I would like to see the City negotiate advertising space in development deals like this one. And I realize this is getting off topic, but I was also disappointed that the City wasn't able to get any ad space with their street furniture deal. Yes, yes, I know a slightly different topic, but related. It seems less than efficient that we would sell advertising space that we couldn't afford to use at a later date.

 

[299 bloor call control.]

There's quite a bit of exposure for TO events and such at the Dundas ticket office I find.. I think it'd be even worse if the City was advertising in one of the ad slots at TLS -- there could be the perception that they couldn't even sell the ad space and the only taker was the City

 

[St. Even]

There's quite a bit of exposure for TO events and such at the Dundas ticket office I find.. I think it'd be even worse if the City was advertising in one of the ad slots at TLS -- there could be the perception that they couldn't even sell the ad space and the only taker was the City

That's a good point. But could you mitigate that effect by giving it a permanent spot, maybe like a signature in the corner? We could tart it up so it fits in. And if it's part of a bigger overall advertising effort across the city (incl. street furniture) then it might look less like a desperate fill ad and part of a bigger thing.

And by advertising I'm thinking of events like Pride and Caribana, and the bazillion festivals we host. Maybe something very simple like "Parkdale Book Festival, June 6, www.toronto.com or whatever URL." Gives it a distinct Toronto feel that no other advertising wall in any other city will have and raises profile of cultural events in a place where lots of people could see it. (This may be a bit radical, but I don't think the City should be paying to advertise in public space that it allowed to be created.)

Perhaps I'm thinking more of the practicality and the opportunity than of the aesthetic. I make that mistake often when I dress in the morning.

 

[interchange42]

That's a good point. But could you mitigate that effect by giving it a permanent spot, maybe like a signature in the corner? We could tart it up so it fits in. And if it's part of a bigger overall advertising effort across the city (incl. street furniture) then it might look less like a desperate fill ad and part of a bigger thing.

And by advertising I'm thinking of events like Pride and Caribana, and the bazillion festivals we host. Maybe something very simple like "Parkdale Book Festival, June 6, www.toronto.com or whatever URL." Gives it a distinct Toronto feel that no other advertising wall in any other city will have and raises profile of cultural events in a place where lots of people could see it. (This may be a bit radical, but I don't think the City should be paying to advertise in public space that it allowed to be created.)

Perhaps I'm thinking more of the practicality and the opportunity than of the aesthetic. I make that mistake often when I dress in the morning.

You make'a me laugh.

You're right though, there should be some free ad space for the city worked into these contracts. Do we know for sure that there isn't with the street-furniture deal? As that's on publicly owned land, the case is even stronger. Adorning the walls of Metropolis/TLS however? I'd be surprised if we'd even get free LED-screen time.

42