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

The Manchester Civil Justice Center looks horrible IMO. I'd much rather have the Diamond building.
 
Wow...the atrium looks nice but otherwise it appears to be quite a dull building.
 
How can an office building be dull when such an illustrious design review panel has reviewed the design three or four times and swear they've improved it? Under those exacting circumstances how can it be anything but the most exciting and thrilling office building in Canada in which to sit at a desk and move a mouse around, or change the cartridge in the photocopier, or gaze out the windows all day?

Exile-friendly Siberia may well have a project that "blows this out of the water" but our city is steppes ahead of any of theirs as somewhere to live, work and play.
 
Sorry. One can't blame this mess on the design review panel. They tried their best to make this a better project than first submitted and thank goodness for that. And more power to them.

Is it all the panel hoped and wished it could be? They have been very clear: no!
 
They're a toothless advisory panel, not the designer of the project. And, despite the fact that some of them publicly complain about the design that they've approved, they've approved it several times nonetheless. If they didn't like the design they should have rejected it. Their public statements make it appear that they want to have it both ways, which clouds the general perception of the purpose and effectiveness of the design review process.
 
Urban Shocker said:
How can an office building be dull when such an illustrious design review panel has reviewed the design three or four times and swear they've improved it? Under those exacting circumstances how can it be anything but the most exciting and thrilling office building in Canada in which to sit at a desk and move a mouse around, or change the cartridge in the photocopier, or gaze out the windows all day?

Exile-friendly Siberia may well have a project that "blows this out of the water" but our city is steppes ahead of any of theirs as somewhere to live, work and play.
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It looks better than it did before...the fact that it's still a dull design is a testament to how bad the first iteration was, not the panel's ineffectiveness.
 
Exile-friendly Siberia may well have a project that "blows this out of the water" but our city is steppes ahead of any of theirs as somewhere to live, work and play.
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Oh my mistake. I guess because we are a developed nation with an abundance of creativity, we only deserve something that belongs along side Highway 7 out in Markham somewhere.
 
It has improved from something worthy of 400 and Rutherford Road to something worthy of 401 and Mississauga Road. It is a few steps up. The problem really is that this is the wrong location for a low-rise, mediocre office building that happens to have a fairly nice atrium.
 
I think well-designed office buildings are just as appropriate for Markham and Missisauga as they are for Toronto and I've never understood the condescending attitude that classifies them as design-free zones.

Council has approved the Corus office building; one way or another the Mayor gets some built legacy for his next re-election campaign; Toronto's first go at design review looks messy, contradictory and toothless; and the public sees something finally happening down on the waterfront.
 
I'm a big fan of some Markham office buildings...of course, I love 80s corporate aesthetics. Project Symphony is still looking like a very suburban office building.
 
It is interesting that Jack Diamond being hired to design this city building isn't the least bit controversial even though he was a senior member of the mayor's campaign team. I don't really think there's a conflict, but I know most people would have pounced on such a connection in the Lastman era.
 
Canuck said:
The Manchester Civil Justice Center looks horrible IMO. I'd much rather have the Diamond building.
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Not so much "horrible" as, well...what does "Civil Justice Center" imply? It's *supposed* to be a touch penitential, I presume...
 
The City Council report on this Corus project explains that its location (and part of the building's purpose) is to buffer the effects of the Redpath heavy industrial use on one side from the future residential on the other. That is why the building is quite large (large floor plate). It is the TWRC precinct plan that limits what architectural "sculpturing" that can be done; the building is only allowed to be 4-7 stories tall, thus it appears a bit squat.

I think a lot of people, not all, equate impressive architecture with height. That is not allowed on the Toronto waterfront site.

The renderings linked above are a great improvement, especially given the height restrictions. The MT27 (aA) project nearby seems to be some 12 stories or more.
 
^^ Height restrictions are no excuse for poor imagination in design.

Right off the top of my head, since Diamond is already ripping off Kapoor's Cloudgate (Chicago bean) and Foster's Pharmacy Building (pods), why not build a large bean shaped building to replace the uninspired Markham worthy main building and clad it in reflective glass.

The atrium could stay the same, but add a couple more suspended pods for additional studio spaces and there you go: we have a beautiful building that doesn't need to be an engineering marvel, nor a skyscraper...
 
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