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

From a Toronto Star Dec 8 2007 article, they only have a foundation permit, the city has yet to approve the site plan.

New designs must impress

Group pulls funding, says best parts of building plans gone

Dec 08, 2007 04:30 AM
Christopher Hume
Urban issues columnist

...But time is short; excavation has started and TEDCO wants to begin construction as soon as possible. Though the city has granted TEDCO a foundation permit, it has yet to approve the site plan. Given the mayor is on the waterfront board, that's unlikely to happen until the panel likes what it sees....

http://www.thestar.com/article/283743
 
adma said:
Aside from the merits (however understood or misunderstood) of Corus + 4SC, how is Diamond "underwhelming"? Stuff like the Central YMCA definitely marks him as one of the more important Toronto architects of his time. I can't picture many expert professionals knocking him a significant beyond-quibbling stage below Zeidler, Moriyama, Parkin, et al. Besides, what's apparently most "underwhelming" about Diamond merely reflects a natural contextualist sensibility that, perhaps, is less fashionable now than in the 70s and 80s--but when push comes to shove, to knock something like, say, Innis College as 30-year-old barren banality is as amateurishly idiotic as knocking some 50s International Style opus like Union Carbide on such grounds a generation ago.

Don't trump up Jack Diamond's overall architectural failures simply in light of Corus. Believe me, he *is* a figure of merit...
Click to expand...

You're right. After looking through a lot of his portfolio, and reading some essays on the philosophy I'm admitting that's he's done some amazing work. With this Corus project, and the Museum redesign I overreacted. 4SC despite its limited funds is also amazingly functional, elegant, and the attention to the details is good too.
 
And besides, it isn't like recent Zeidler (cf. Ryerson Best Buy Crappy Tire Biz) isn't questionable on similar grounds to Diamond...
 
Diamond and Ziedler do fall within the race for biggest "fall from grace" amongst Toronto architects - Eb Zeidler hasn't done much noteworthy in the last decade, and opinions are certainly mixed about the Four Seasons - almost nobody holds it up as a good example of exterior architecture (apart from the University side) though the interior is worthy.

Diamond + low budget = trash.
(Diamond + entire budget allocated for interior stuff on a cramped site)*(opera fans / cynics) = big UT debate.
 
TEDCO tower's latest revisions submitted to design panel
January 21, 2008

Will the gloves come off again over the latest revisions, due today, to architectural plans for the first major development on Toronto's waterfront?

The answer will come quickly when a blue-ribbon design panel meets this morning to review the latest look of a $160-million office building at the foot of Jarvis Street.

Last December, with strong political backing from the board of Waterfront Toronto, the 13-member panel balked at what they saw as a watered-down design for the building, under development by city agency Toronto Economic Development Corporation for Corus Entertainment.

Waterfront advocates are rooting for the panel - led by Toronto architect Bruce Kuwabara and other strong-minded members - to do its job and keep TEDCO's feet to the fire so the project meets high standards for design and environmental quality.

The see-saw battle over the Corus building dates to June, 2007, when the panel gave conditional approval to a design that included an egg-shaped auditorium in an atrium linking two wings of the low-rise glass building. By November, the "egg" and other features had disappeared, many believe to keep down costs, prompting an infuriated panel to rethink its support.

In December, backing up the panel, the waterfront board held back on a $9-million payment to prod project architects to fix the flaws. Whatever the panel decides, its advice will be given to the waterfront board when it meets later this month.

Much is riding on the outcome - not least the reputation of the panel (faced with its first project) and the clout of the government-funded waterfront agency (facing public demands for a clean, green, accessible water's edge).
 
Not to be too 'legalistic" but I think that if you quote whole articles from somewhere you need to give proper credit for them. (If one were legalisatic I think the copying of whole articles contravenes copyright!) This one was in the Globe and Mail today.
 
Let's hope that Jack Diamond went all out, but pardon the pun, I don't expect jack $hit from him and his team considering how they've watered this down from suburban office with some interesting features to suburban cookie cutter office building.
 
wow, this debate is really getting heated up! some people seemed to indicate that we were past the point of no return, but these latest articles seem to indicate otherwise... hold your breath everyone!
 
I hope you're right Redroom. I hope that Jack Diamond was humiliated enough by getting his design rejected twice to completely rethink the building he's proposing this third time around.

If the panel crinkles their noses again, Jack Diamond will have to go curl up in a corner somewhere.
 
The fact that a project is at risk of being held up on the basis of demands for improvement in its design is a rather novel idea.

I like it.
 
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