Toronto Corus Quay | ?m | 8s | Waterfront Toronto | Diamond Schmitt

I love the wormy walkways suspended from the ceiling. I'd like to run through the wormy walkways and wave down at my moving reflection on the big bean below. I think the wormy walkways will turn out to be the iconic thing that everyone craves - we just don't know it yet. Does anywhere else in town have wormy walkways? I think not. The AGO will have spiralling staircases but not wormy walkways. The ROM has crisscrossing catwalks but not wormy walkways. The Four Seasons Centre has a glass staircase but not wormy walkways.
 
No. They're wormy walkways. The rendering shows white-clad wormy walkway wanderers walking on them. They're looking down at their reflections in the big shiny bean. They're wormy walkway beany babies. No other city anywhere in the world will have anything like this. It'll make us world class, not provincial.
 
Jdot said:
I am not terribly convinced that this one building, even though it is the first in the new development, should have to be dazzling. As long as it fits into the scale of the area, an OK building is fine with me.
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The point is, however, that people in Toronto *do* have expectations for this site and for the waterfront in general. What is wrong with that? Haven't we complained ad nauseum here that people in Toronto were apathetic with regards to urban issues and the built form, that low quality and uninspired buildings have been going up seemingly everywhere, that so many projects have proven to be wasted opportunities, and on and on?? I for one am encouraged that people - lay people and otherwise - are demanding the bar be raised higher; all the more so, considering this site in particular, along with Pier 27, are inaugural projects that are supposed to represent not just good, but 'spectacular' things to come for Toronto's waterfront. As it is, so far two prime parcels of waterfront land have quietly been appropriated for commercial use; not a crime, to be sure, even considering the relative merits of and problems with each of them, but definately not what the 'grand' vision for our long-ailing waterfront has been hoping for: a significant public space at the foot of Yonge and a reserved space for a landmark/public building where Symphony will now be budging its way in, would have fit the bill...beautiful and cutting-edge condos would no doubt then have been welcomed all around.
 
I completely disagree with the argument that this is just another office building. Anything is just another anything. Is this how we should treat all new projects which are to be built, regardless of the area? This is too often the case, and I agree with Tewder that people have been far too apathetic in the past and are now finally clueing in.

Its not just about this building either, or that Jack Diamond is designing it, but rather that this building, as with the next few, will be setting a precedent for what is to come- if you start low/mediocre, then expect to stay there. Set the bar high, and people will expect that standard for the what is to follow.

Naturally not every building needs to be built by a starchitect, or have an international competition decide its design fate, but we do and are finally realizing that we the general populous can influence the direction of projects and are also a part of the bigger picture. This is not a corporate waterfront, but a public watefront, and what we are seeing thus far as Tewder also mentioned, are squandered opportunities...

I think unfortunately, that this building is going to take the brunt of the debate and rightfully so- it is after all our tax dollars that are paying for a good portion of it, so lets get it right. I also don't condone just building condos down there either, even if they are from Clewes. There is a plan in place and it needs to be executed correctly, but as we are seeing this is not entirely the case..

p5
 
W/rt wormy walkways: yes, my first thought when I saw the rendering was that Diamond was as much thumbing his nose at his critics with these elements as anything else.
 
Daring the design review panel to turn down the Big Glass Box ( Modernity personified ) and the Post Modernist wormy walkways and the Neo-Starchitect Big Shiny Bean outright rather than simply coming out and telling Kuwabara to go teach his grandmother to suck eggs, you mean? How Jesuitical.
 
Corus Entertainment Office Project Renders

Hey, I've been a forum lurker forever, but I've seen the chance to make a contribution. Hopefully these renders are new material.

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^
Thanks so much for the links!
as for the building.. for the exception of that interior atrium.. its quite un-inspiring.. blah
 
The interior atrium looks very similar to the City Room.

It's a lot better than the previous plans - I'd say it's gone up from a D- to a B-.

I guess the beacon thingy was dropped.
 
Great site though. Going through the "news in pictures" only makes this development more depressing. Siberia has a project which blows this out of the water. I also think i saw a hospital expansion that was better than this. That new Manchester Civil Justice Center is a beauty.

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Diamond is possibly the least inspired architect in our city these days. If not for connections its hard to imagine he'd be designing anything but suburban strip malls with what he's been putting forth lately....

By the way, does anyone have a site plan that shows how this and Pier 27 relate to one another? In the renderings they look like they sit in the same spot... my apologies if this has been posted before.
 
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