supercilious
New Member
I'm not sure that Yonge st. living is trying to cater to seniors or children
Toronto Aura at College Park | 271.87m | 78s | Canderel | Graziani + Corazza
AJ80
New Member
someMidTowner
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
8 curved floors down. Am I correct to assume that there are only 2 more before the eastern setback?
From the Aura Webcam*
From the Aura Webcam*
wmedia
Senior Member
I don't want to come across as being pedantic, but it can't possibly be objectively unpleasant. I'm a pedestrian. I don't find it unpleasant in any way.
Dangerous to move around for cyclists, I would agree with.
Polluted? I guess it's relative. I'm used to blowing black soot out of my nose from the London Underground (subway), so it seems fine to me.
I'm not quite sure what that means. Can you give me an example of how other vibrant but tattered neighbourhoods have lead to a type of culture that is corrosive and self-loathing?
RC8
Senior Member
Would you, under current conditions, pull a couple of chairs on a Yonge st sidewalk and have a conversation with your grandmother/mother? You would be on everyone's way, drowned by the noise of rushing cars, and be a victim of the hostility that people inevitably resort to in reduced spaces.
I understand that you can get past the unpleasantness and enjoy it, I do as well! But a lot of people don't have much of a choice where to live, and it's important that we design our central streets as public spaces that people can use to spend quality time by themselves, with friends, or with loved ones.
Yonge should be a street with cafés, patios, strip clubs, restaurants, ethnic retail, toy stores, clothing stores, everything. There's no reason why we can't accommodate everyone, and the only reason why we currently don't is because we are allocating a lot of space for a very small number of cars to rush through.
You can see it all over Toronto or even Manhattan, actually. People embrace 'the city' during their youth but wouldn't want to raise a family there and move out to the suburbs to settle down. This continues a cycle where people are constantly rejecting where they live for one reason or another, and strong neighbourhoods rarely form.
P.S. Welcome AJ! Thanks for the picture. The one thing I like about Aura is that it visually extends Toronto's skyline and fills the gap that would otherwise appear between Yorkville and the Financial District.
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kris
Senior Member
I think 3, I'm sure someone knows forsure. either way soon!
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Johnzz
Active Member
Correct, two more levels to go.
The westeren setback starts on the 49th floor (48th level) and the Eastern setback starts on the 59th floor (58th level).
DtTO
Active Member
Oh ok, I guess we should tell NYC that 5th Ave is completely useless, and that they should put a nice big set of lawn chairs where Time Square is. Also, Michigan Avenue in Chicago is a horrible place to sit with lawn chairs, so maybe they should get rid of it altogether?
I get what you're saying, but Yonge is a wrong example to use. We shouldn't be trying to make Yonge more quaint. If anything, we should be striving to demolish the old crap that's lining it right now and replace it with modern buildings, and place a minimum of 2s retail with double height first floors along the entire street, all the way up to Bloor. We should also allow developers to build really tall buildings in exchange for increasing sidewalk space.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
What's the point of demolishing "old crap" just to replace it with new ones?
AoD
AoD
DtTO
Active Member
What's wrong with modernization? We replace plenty of old things with newer items that accomplish the same task in our lives. Sure, some buildings should be saved, but overall, that same concept applies here. Most of the buildings along Yonge are dated, ugly, and just too small and unimportant to deserve a spot on our city's main street.
Critique
Active Member
No he means that there is no point replacing a dated, ugly and small building with an ugly, dated, big one.
Mike in TO
Senior Member
"Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings"
Toronto hasn't been terribly successful in creating vibrant new mixed use communities that foster the type of pedestrian rhythm that successfully replicates the urbanity of Queen West or Yonge.... Be careful what you wish for... Unless that wish is for a clean, sterile modern strip of banks, shoppers drug marts & Kelsey's that deserve a spot on our city's main street. Successful urban streets blend a mix of old and new, rather then a carte blanch knock down only to be replaced with everything from the same era.
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Uncle Teddy
Senior Member
Well said Mike!
wmedia
Senior Member
Indeed. Toronto's strong point is variety. Let's keep it that way.
The new Marshalls store in Aura was featured on Breakfast TV this morning. Looked a lot nicer finished than BB&B.
The new Marshalls store in Aura was featured on Breakfast TV this morning. Looked a lot nicer finished than BB&B.
Tewder
Senior Member
I agree with your points, though I think I understand what DtTO may be getting at in that the issue with Yonge Street between Dundas and Bloor - with respect to growth and development at least - is the relative low density and short height of much of the building stock. This works better on Queen Street West or along many of the 'main street'-type thoroughfares of Toronto's downtown neighbourhoods but poses a problem in the downtown core where there are huge pressures for greater intensification.
I like what has been done at 5ive and think there are many other opportunities where this can be achieved, preserving the sort of vibrant mix you talk about, but I also agree that there is a lot of dated 'crap' that probably needs to be sacrificed at the alter of evolution and growth.