Toronto Beyond The Sea | ?m | 44s | Empire | Richmond Architects

^You're right ... Star Tower has definitely ArriVed

The time is now for schizophrenic Etobicoke to finally mature and urbanize properly
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Have you not been to SCC and MCC and to a slightly lesser degree NYCC? Towers are rising and density is growing but the built form is hardly friendly to the pedestrian's prespective.
 
Towered: Scarborough Centre may have more 30+ storey towers than Etobicoke Centre, but they're surrounded by parking lots and Best Buy - there isn't even a hint of urbanity or streetlife in any form. If the number of tall towers is the only thing you're worried about, the Don Mills corridor would be a good urban development model...

Filip said:
Hmm I would argue that Etobicoke's 'downtown' is far more urban than towers in the park NYCC and MCC.
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You can argue that, but you're wrong :) North York Centre doesn't have towers in the park (well, it has one complex a block off Yonge). Yonge is fronted continuously by stores, restaurants, office buildings, and construction sites. You're right about Mississauga, though, as it isn't urban...not yet, anyway.
 
scarberiankhatru said:
Towered: Scarborough Centre may have more 30+ storey towers than Etobicoke Centre, but they're surrounded by parking lots and Best Buy - there isn't even a hint of urbanity or streetlife in any form. If the number of tall towers is the only thing you're worried about, the Don Mills corridor would be a good urban development model...



You can argue that, but you're wrong :) North York Centre doesn't have towers in the park (well, it has one complex a block off Yonge). Yonge is fronted continuously by stores, restaurants, office buildings, and construction sites. You're right about Mississauga, though, as it isn't urban...not yet, anyway.
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Yes, but how does that feel with a wide road like Yonge and very little streetlife?

Bloor in the Kingsway is a 2 lane road with 2 more lanes for parking. It has intimately scaled buildings, cute hip boutiques, restaurants, cafes and a great landscaped median. That's what I mean by urban, urban doesn't mean towers, urban to me means that the pedestrian is king, which in NYCC is not the case.
 
It all depends on what one considers urban. I don't think that Etobicoke even has a true city center, at least not in the traditional sense. Since it is an area which was founded on sprawl, it does not possess the traditional core which so many seem to be referring to. Don't forget, Etobicoke is huge, stretching all the way from the lake up to Steeles Ave and the nether-regions of Rexdale, Woodbridge and the like...

I live at Royal York and Bloor - the apparent epicenter of Etobicokian civic life, yet I never feel like I am in a 'downtown' when I walk those streets. The area certainly has vitality and street life, but lets not kid ourselves into thinking its 'downtown west.'

Furthermore, the Star Tower and the complex which surrounds it have to be some of the best examples of the sharply declining quality of condominium development to date. While 44 Stories does sound nice, but not when its little more than an upturned toilet-paper roll with a half-triangle affixed to the top. I absolutely LOVE reading the ways in which a company knowingly presents a sub-par building since, like in so many other advertisements, the words far outweigh the edifice.

"Star Tower’s 44-storey exceptional exterior has been designed by E.I. Richmond Architects, which has created some of the finest high-rise residential offerings in the GTA."

I can confidently say that there is not one building which this firm has produced which I would deem as acceptable much less exceptional.

Aesthetically, this whole development is atrocious.
 
Filip said:
Yes, but how does that feel with a wide road like Yonge and very little streetlife?

Bloor in the Kingsway is a 2 lane road with 2 more lanes for parking. It has intimately scaled buildings, cute hip boutiques, restaurants, cafes and a great landscaped median. That's what I mean by urban, urban doesn't mean towers, urban to me means that the pedestrian is king, which in NYCC is not the case.
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Yonge north of Sheppard has plenty of pedestrian traffic so I think you're wrong. NYCC may have towers but it also has boutiques, restaurants, cafes and a landscaped median. Hardly the sterility of SCC or MCC.
 
I think these towers will be a fine addition to the western waterfront... I just still cant get past the name of the project though - Beyond the Sea !?!?! Who are they paying to come up with these names? This has got to be a close second to The Star of Downtown for silly names... I think something like "Shoreview" sounds classier and I just thought that up a moment ago...! somebody pay me!
 
The urbanity of Bloor in the Kingsway is really more comparable to Bayview in Leaside, anyway. (And, this being Etobicoke, strangely more constipated--like, you don't find blog-promoted bagel and gelato joints here.)
 
adma said:
The urbanity of Bloor in the Kingsway is really more comparable to Bayview in Leaside, anyway. (And, this being Etobicoke, strangely more constipated--like, you don't find blog-promoted bagel and gelato joints here.)
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Because that part of Etobicoke is about 98% anglo-saxon?
 
Leaside's pretty Anglo, too. I think the point's more to do with a certain *repression*--like, from a grassroots retail culture standpoint, the Kingsway strip would rather be in a 70s/80s Golden Age of Adult Contemporary Radio era than now...
 
adma said:
Leaside's pretty Anglo, too. I think the point's more to do with a certain *repression*--like, from a grassroots retail culture standpoint, the Kingsway strip would rather be in a 70s/80s Golden Age of Adult Contemporary Radio era than now...
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Well, the Kingsway strip is mostly catering to a retired community living around it. However, it is very active streetwise, has a great street festival and the restaurants/cafes are very chic. The rich teens from central Etobicoke flock to it in the evenings (I'd know).
 
Filip said:
Yes, but how does that feel with a wide road like Yonge and very little streetlife?

Bloor in the Kingsway is a 2 lane road with 2 more lanes for parking. It has intimately scaled buildings, cute hip boutiques, restaurants, cafes and a great landscaped median. That's what I mean by urban, urban doesn't mean towers, urban to me means that the pedestrian is king, which in NYCC is not the case.
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Except Yonge isn't a "wide road with very little streetlife." Saying so doesn't make it true.

Yonge is also a two lane road with a landscaped median and another two lanes used for parking outside of rush hour. Actual Yonge frontage is still dominated by intimately scaled buildings filled with stuff like restaurants, except for the area around Mel Lastman Square, where skyscrapers meet the street. There's many thousands of pedestrians every day...for example, North York Centre sees over 20,000 riders a day and all of them walk to the station. The ROW on Yonge is a few metres wider than Bloor, but that has no impact on the kingliness of the pedestrians.
 
scar007 said:
technically, lake ontario is a sea....
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I have never heard the term 'Sea' applied to a body of fresh water. The cases where a landlocked body of water is called a Sea are always (as far as I know) salt water: Aral Sea, Dead Sea, Caspian Sea, Salton Sea, etc.

It is true that the Great Lakes are sometimes called 'inland seas', but I think that the term is not meant literally, instead being a metaphor for their large sizes, equal to that of some named Seas.
 
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