Toronto 212 King Street West | 250m | 80s | Dream Office | SHoP

Why drag an internationally renowned architect into town for this? It's rather insultingly drab.

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interchange42 said:
Why drag an internationally renowned architect into town for this? It's rather insultingly drab.
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That's what Toronto developers do. Between the developers and the city, interesting ideas get haggled down into the most austere version of themselves.

I don't mind a simple tower, especially with some good facade detailing (terracotta sounds promising), but it does seem like SHoP could be leveraged to bring a more interesting idea to the site. Slapping an interesting soffit on it isn't going to cut it for me.

That said - this is an early take and we know that SHoP does a lot of work on the facade. So as more details emerge and it evolves, maybe it will become richer.
 
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@interchange42
You of all people should know that the devil is in the details (why hire Renzo Piano for a court building?) and even fairly slick early renderings are best viewed as placeholders for a while yet... ;)
 
interchange42 said:
Why drag an internationally renowned architect into town for this? It's rather insultingly drab.

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i know it's just a plain box but if you zoom into the facade of the tower, you will see twisted pattern on the columns. may be it's too early to say something.
 
The details, I am sure, will be great. It's the broad strokes I find rather unremarkable.

I have put a database file together, attached at the top of the page. Renderings include a proposal for the King Street West public realm with a significantly narrowed street.

Here's a little something interesting: the breakdown of uses:

212KingWUses867.jpg


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At the very least a mixed-use tower with 660,000 square feet of office space plus 588 residential rental units plus10,000 square feet of retail finally meets the kind of mix I've been harping about... a post pandemic live/work project that makes sense.

Also think that SHoP's quote may hint at architectural detailing that will be refined/improved:
"Mr. Pasquarelli explained that the design of the tower is broken up visually into two sections... He said details of the architecture, including the textured ceiling of the atrium, would be inspired by the existing buildings".
 
Northern Light said:
From the Globe and Mail Article by Alex B:

( link here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/bus...ith-biggest-development-proposal-since-covid/ )

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From the article, a note on the architecture:

"Mr. Pasquarelli explained that the design of the tower is broken up visually into two sections. The first, wider section would contain the office floors and be faced partly with white terracotta panels; the taller, narrower section, with predominantly black cladding, contains apartments. He said details of the architecture, including the textured ceiling of the atrium, would be inspired by the existing buildings, which once housed a factory where General Electric’s Canadian unit made turbines and motors."

Quick Facts list for the *Mods*, including those relevant to the Thread title.

310-metre office
79-storeys
660,000 square feet of office space
588 residential rental units
10,000 square feet of retail
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It seems as if that first rendering is completely misdone and false as the developments aren't on the same side as Roy Thomson.
 
interchange42 said:
The details, I am sure, will be great. It's the broad strokes I find rather unremarkable.

I have put a database file together, attached at the top of the page. Renderings include a proposal for the King Street West public realm with a significantly narrowed street.

Here's a little something interesting: the breakdown of uses:

View attachment 287938

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Ooh that restaurant bar rooftop terrace is just lovely idea, reminiscent of King Taps at First Canadian Place or the Milestones patio at 10 Dundas. Hope that it comes to fruition.
 
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