Toronto Daniels Waterfront - City of the Arts | 156.05m | 45s | Daniels | RAW Design

isaidso said:
A lot of it has to do with the culture. People forget that for most of Toronto's history this was a blue collar industrial city. This is a city where tons of people view ramshackle buildings, a jumbled mess of overhead wires, and run down as character and/or endearing. Some will even argue that it's what gives a city vibrancy. Cities like Toronto are pragmatic to a fault and view design as frivolous, HSR as an absurd extravagance, and ugly buildings as fine as they're just filler.

Toronto has obviously transformed into a white collar global city but a culture takes many many generations to catch up. We're slowly turning our attention to things like beauty, the public realm, and architecture but it's still the exception rather than the minimum standard acceptable. We can blame developers all we want but it's really just a reflection on Torontonians. Developers wouldn't design this crap if we refused to buy units in them.

We will end up with a gorgeous city but it will take another 2-3 generations before the culture completely changes. 2060? Then another 40-50 years to fix the mistakes made in the past. It's best to think of these Daniels towers as temporary structures we're building till the city is ready for something nice.
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I like the argument you laid out, however, how do you excuse international developers coming to the city and matching the "Toronto standard"?

And even if we could excuse the architectural vision of the towers, there is really no excuse with the piss-poor podiums and way that these buildings meet the street level. In 2019, urban planners and architects alike should know better, both on the private and the public side of the industry.
 
WislaHD said:
I like the argument you laid out, however, how do you excuse international developers coming to the city and matching the "Toronto standard"?

And even if we could excuse the architectural vision of the towers, there is really no excuse with the piss-poor podiums and way that these buildings meet the street level. In 2019, urban planners and architects alike should know better, both on the private and the public side of the industry.
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Hmmm, I might be alone on this front, but I actually like how these buildings meet the street so far. I think it's too early to completely judge this as a write-off – it will still be another year or so until we see everything fully animated (the retail laneway, etc.).

The towers, that's another story...
 
TheSix said:
Hmmm, I might be alone on this front, but I actually like how these buildings meet the street so far. I think it's too early to completely judge this as a write-off – it will still be another year or so until we see everything fully animated (the retail laneway, etc.).

The towers, that's another story...
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Yeah actually. I was speaking more generally because I actually am more positive about these buildings' frontages. I think Daniels put a lot of effort in how their first building meets the street level and impact the public realm, so these towers won't be some mere afterthought that ruin the urban expression of the first.

They might not be particularly compelling additions to the public realm, but I feel safe enough to say that no pedestrian is going to feel out of place walking alongside them.
 
Today
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WislaHD said:
I like the argument you laid out, however, how do you excuse international developers coming to the city and matching the "Toronto standard"?

And even if we could excuse the architectural vision of the towers, there is really no excuse with the piss-poor podiums and way that these buildings meet the street level. In 2019, urban planners and architects alike should know better, both on the private and the public side of the industry.
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What do you think is wrong with the podium?
 
I agree, the podium level of this is its one asset.

Keep in mind that the public realm along Queens Quay is crap currently as it’s designed as a temporary measure until the Queens Quay streetcar can be built.
 
innsertnamehere said:
I agree, the podium level of this is its one asset.

Keep in mind that the public realm along Queens Quay is crap currently as it’s designed as a temporary measure until the Queens Quay streetcar can be built.
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Haha...In this day and age we live in cant they bury the LRT and make Queens Quay a grand avenue from Bay/Yonge to Parliament?
 
TheSix said:
Hmmm, I might be alone on this front, but I actually like how these buildings meet the street so far. I think it's too early to completely judge this as a write-off – it will still be another year or so until we see everything fully animated (the retail laneway, etc.).

The towers, that's another story...
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And why did the towers have to be the colour of wet concrete ?
 
I do like how freaking skinny the west tower is when catching it from "directly" north of it…

but here they are, yesterday, from The Esplanade between Backstage and 25:

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