Toronto 60 Richmond Street East | ?m | 11s | TCHC | Teeple Architects

No more hunger and thirst
But first be a person
Who needs Teeple.

People who need Teeple
Are the luckiest people
In the world!
 
Yep, this one is a beauty. It's kind of hard to tell in the picture, but the second floor has some nice greenery on it. It adds a nice bit of colour, just like the fantastic yellow and orange.
 
greenleaf:

Yup, noticed that too - and it is something that was present in the original plan as well - I am very pleasantly surprised that they didn't cut these details out (though I am not sure whether the "green wall" at the atrium space got implemented)

AoD
 
At first when I saw the bright colour I thought the photos were of a building from another city. I'm so used to seeing the Diamond or KPMB grey expanse without any highlights. aA has sometimes delivered it as well. But the colour is just a wonderful finishing touch. It's a satisfying building because of the unusual setbacks and windows as well as the sophisticated pattern of panel cladding.
 
This appears to truly be one of the most interesting mid-rise developments this cycle, I can't wait to get over there and scope it out in the spring. A wide variety of apartment sizes, market & assisted housing mixed together, LEED certified, retail at the street level - it's amazing the giant leap that has been achieved from the old Regent Park blocks to this incredibly progressive style of design and living.
 
Will those who'll live here be permitted expressive colour choices for their blinds or curtains, I wonder?

Teeple isn't much different from any of our other better local architects in that he usually works with a neutral exterior colour palette. They add dashes of colour when needed - D+S's Algonquin College expansion, for instance, will include vertical exterior panels in several bright colours - I think that's done to emphasize that it's a "built" structure and a place for students of several construction trades. And the front of D+S's Southbrook Vineyards is dominated by a 200 metre indigo coloured wall. Graduate House, which Teeple worked on with Thom Mayne, also has walls of distinctive accent colour.
 
Parkdalian said:
It really is one of the best buildings built in the city in the last few years. Small can be beautiful.

I'm thinking of permanently reducing my income so I can live here.
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If you are applying for market rent I don't think your income matters. (Does it?) Someone should apply to move in there and take lots of pictures. I hope they put this one on Doors Open. Even if they did, the apartments would be off limits, like Regent Park was last year. That's why somebody needs to get into an apartment. I really want to see all the details. This building is great, the fact that it's government housing is amazing.
 
This building will be incorporated as a co-operative. It's not available to everyone. Besides the initial Regent Park replacement units, you have to be a member of the union managing the property to apply.

Umm, Anyone in Local 75?
 
bgd said:
i find this more attractive than one bedford.
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That's like comparing apples to eggplant, no comparison should be drawn between the two.
 
I'm a little surprised people are as gung-ho for this as they seem to be as it's clearly an unfortunate compromise of what could have been an excellent design. In particular, the base, with its cheap, blue spandrel panels bears no relation to what's above and the spartan hints of colour on the balconies seem like sad, out of place afterthoughts - too few to add poignant contrasting accents and therefore too muted by the sea of surrounding grey. Teeple would have been wise to emulate Holl at MIT and Beijing and include accents in each window bay or just abandon the crayons and leave the grey and white to play their own games with each other.

I'm most maddened because this could have been so good, and kudos to TCHC for trying something different. I just don't understand why they didn't commit and go for the gold, though it seems working within our 'design culture' means one has to accept some compromises. Shocker's post (perhaps intentionally) selects examples where colour has been fully embraced and brought in as an expressive element - Southbrook's massive purple wall, Algonquin's polychromatic exterior, X's distinctive slashes and OCAD's sexy legs all embrace colour and celebrate what it can do for passersby. Four balconies in two colours however, seems like a fifth-round-of-shop-drawings afterthought. Alas.
 
I agree and was going to post much the same critique. The form is fantastic but its awash in a bland sea of grey and white, with too little colour. And yes, the base looks like it was added from another project. The form and its materials do not extend themselves to ground level, and its less successful because of it.
 
Actually I didn't mind that sparing use of colour - it makes for an even stronger contrast with the monochrome form. Besides, the building has relatively few window bays - the only place they can have additional colour is the ceiling of the voids and that would pretty much overwhelm the building (IMO)

I do agree with the spandrels - but I guess overall I am just glad this building got built.

AoD
 
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