Toronto East Harbour | 214.2m | 65s | Cadillac Fairview | Adamson

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Please make it looks nicer than this view, the bland grey towers it's very disappointing. We recently had sales people from Louisville & Texas come down for a recent trade show and they were excited to see Toronto and in the end most of them were disappointed in the look of the downtown, they said it looked very dreary and bland, same looking towers, no colour, they said it looked much better at night. This city desperately needs these projects to finish, The Well, Mirvish Village, St.Lawrence market & especially the Portlands area.
Everyone in the design review panel should be let go and new young people hired in their place. And the architects should be ashamed of what has been put up in the last 10 years. I wish UrbanToronto users had more pull.
View attachment 394204

Looks like a standard movie downtown. We need unified planning.

Hopefully this station looks nice and can handle crowds.

 

[abovegrade]

I'm sure CF will hire acclaimed architects to design the buildings - at least the offices. Isn't KPF doing the first office tower? The problem isn't who will design each building, more so that the overall site plan, proposed massing and public realm is very bad to begin with. Architecture can only do so much when the site plan is this flawed.

Aren't Adamson the architects though? Which, if you look at their portfolio, is basically just the same trash.

 

[Bjays92]

I'm sure CF will hire acclaimed architects to design the buildings - at least the offices. Isn't KPF doing the first office tower? The problem isn't who will design each building, more so that the overall site plan, proposed massing and public realm is very bad to begin with. Architecture can only do so much when the site plan is this flawed.

Even if this is the case, this development is literally Toronto's Hudson Yards. That means watered down like everything else in Toronto, and we all know how Hudson yards turned out to begin with.

 

[abovegrade]

Even if this is the case, this development is literally Toronto's Hudson Yards. That means watered down like everything else in Toronto, and we all know how Hudson yards turned out to begin with.

woof, I know. Even Canary wharf - which was also a CF development, everyone in London finds it soulless and not worth passing through - even with “events” there :/

 

[innsertnamehere]

Canary Wharf was Olympia & York, not CF. Also a Toronto company, but not CF.

It’s also evolved a lot over the years, Canary Wharf today is quite different than what it was originally built as in the 1980’s.

 

[abovegrade]

Canary Wharf was Olympia & York, not CF. Also a Toronto company, but not CF.

It’s also evolved a lot over the years, Canary Wharf today is quite different than what it was originally built as in the 1980’s.

oops, thanks for the correction.

 

[nstuch]

Please make it looks nicer than this view, the bland grey towers it's very disappointing. We recently had sales people from Louisville & Texas come down for a recent trade show and they were excited to see Toronto and in the end most of them were disappointed in the look of the downtown, they said it looked very dreary and bland, same looking towers, no colour, they said it looked much better at night. This city desperately needs these projects to finish, The Well, Mirvish Village, St.Lawrence market & especially the Portlands area.
Everyone in the design review panel should be let go and new young people hired in their place. And the architects should be ashamed of what has been put up in the last 10 years. I wish UrbanToronto users had more pull.
View attachment 394204

not to mention the street level public realm which is absolutely embarrassing, I was out and about in the downtown core for the first time in a couple of years recently and Adelaide, Richmond, King, John, Peter, Bremner, Wellington etc. all look like absolute trash. This for a city that thinks it belongs in the big leagues with London, Singapore etc.

 

[urbanexplorer]

not to mention the street level public realm which is absolutely embarrassing, I was out and about in the downtown core for the first time in a couple of years recently and Adelaide, Richmond, King, John, Peter, Bremner, Wellington etc. all look like absolute trash. This for a city that thinks it belongs in the big leagues with London, Singapore etc.

In the wise words of @smably , reminder that we have a Shabby Public Realm thread for this endlessly rehashed topic.

Personally, I think calling those streets in their entirety absolute trash is a bit hyperbolic but again, there' s a thread above to discuss more.

 

[Adjei]

not to mention the street level public realm which is absolutely embarrassing, I was out and about in the downtown core for the first time in a couple of years recently and Adelaide, Richmond, King, John, Peter, Bremner, Wellington etc. all look like absolute trash. This for a city that thinks it belongs in the big leagues with London, Singapore etc.

I agree, like absolute trash and no one seems bothered from politicians to residents. You can come back in 100 years and you will find it looking the same.

 

[torontologist]

not to mention the street level public realm which is absolutely embarrassing, I was out and about in the downtown core for the first time in a couple of years recently and Adelaide, Richmond, King, John, Peter, Bremner, Wellington etc. all look like absolute trash. This for a city that thinks it belongs in the big leagues with London, Singapore etc.

I respectfully disagree.... I think our problem is the exact opposite; no one thinks we belong in the big leagues. Most Torontonians I know talk about "how boring it is compared to New York" or "how uncultured it is compared to Montreal" etc etc, and it's this attitude that leads us citizens/voters/municipal politicians to not give a hoot about the public realm and other things that a city has to take pride and invest in. All we care about here is low taxes. You know what, Toronto is already pretty great, it can be greater, and you're going to have to pay higher property taxes to make it happen. To quote Fran Lebowitz, I'm asking us all.... "to pretend it's a city". Let's take ourselves seriously.

Anyway, back on topic: It's a shame that East Harbour wasn't divided into smaller plots and sold to different developers, because when a project this large is realized all at once by a single party, you get results like Hudson Yards or Canary Wharf (The Well is a happy exception). I don't think it's the end of the world- the mixed uses imposed by the MZO will provide both animation and variation in architectural expression (compared to the office/commercial builds). The table top effect in the approved massing isn't great, but maybe a decade or so into construction, one of the commercial sites will get a proposal that seeks extra height for architectural expression like what was done for Mirvish-Gehry. It's too early to condemn the plans, there's a lot of room for success here.

 

[isaidso]

Toronto absolutely is a world class city but it's also true that a ton of locals are blind to the city's shortcomings. They're so used to bland architecture, shabby buildings, and dreary streets that they think that's as good as it gets. When you dare point it out they accuse you of being a Toronto basher. Or they think a place can't be vibrant and good looking at the same time. Have they not been to Amsterdam, London, Melbourne? They couldn't possibly have.

Toronto's roots are industrial blue collar and the dominant culture of Torontonians reflects that. Up until very recently almost everything was bare bones functional with little or no consideration whatsoever given to aesthetics. It speaks volumes that locals think streets like Queen West, College, and Yonge look good. Narrow concrete sidewalks? A jumbled mess of overhead electrical, plastic garbage bins, wooden logs used as lamp poles? One can go on and on and on.

Spending on architecture, good design, or luxury was considered frivolous, a waste of money, and to be roundly mocked. The new subway stations on the Yonge Line is a prime example of the backlash that bubbles up any time the City makes an effort to build something a cut above. With Toronto's rising affluence and stature, criticism of this blue collar mentality has been steadily growing. We're finally seeing more refinement, emphasis on design, and sophistication. Berczy Park? Streets are being dug up and quality paving put in. Electrical is being buried. Landscape architects are being hired. Waterfront Promenade? Aqualuna? The evidence for this sea change in the culture is everywhere.

We're definitley heading in the right direction but people have blinders on if they think the City is where it needs to be. Toronto is being upgraded, restored, and rebuilt block by block but it's not just the buildings that need fixing. We've only gotten to 5-10 streets (Bloor Street Improvement Project, one block of Dundas directly west of Yonge, and a few more) out of 1000s, thus far. We'll get where we need to go but pretending things are fine isn't very helpful.

 

[syn]

Toronto absolutely is a world class city but it's also true that a ton of locals are blind to the city's shortcomings. They're so used to bland architecture, shabby buildings, and dreary streets that they think that's as good as it gets. When you dare point it out they accuse you of being a Toronto basher. Or they think a place can't be vibrant and good looking at the same time. Have they not been to Amsterdam, London, Melbourne? They couldn't possibly have.

Toronto's roots are industrial blue collar and the dominant culture of Torontonians reflects that. Up until very recently almost everything was bare bones functional with little or no consideration whatsoever given to aesthetics. It speaks volumes that locals think streets like Queen West, College, and Yonge look good. Narrow concrete sidewalks? A jumbled mess of overhead electrical, plastic garbage bins, wooden logs used as lamp poles? One can go on and on and on.

Spending on architecture, good design, or luxury was considered frivolous, a waste of money, and to be roundly mocked. The new subway stations on the Yonge Line is a prime example of the backlash that bubbles up any time the City makes an effort to build something a cut above. With Toronto's rising affluence and stature, criticism of this blue collar mentality has been steadily growing. We're finally seeing more refinement, emphasis on design, and sophistication. Berczy Park? Streets are being dug up and quality paving put in. Electrical is being buried. Landscape architects are being hired. Waterfront Promenade? Aqualuna? The evidence for this sea change in the culture is everywhere.

We're definitley heading in the right direction but people have blinders on if they think the City is where it needs to be. Toronto is being upgraded, restored, and rebuilt block by block but it's not just the buildings that need fixing. We've only gotten to 5-10 streets (Bloor Street Improvement Project, one block of Dundas directly west of Yonge, and a few more) out of 1000s, thus far. We'll get where we need to go but pretending things are fine isn't very helpful.

I don't disagree with much of this, however if Toronto had managed to retain much of its heritage instead of razing it I think we'd find the city much more attractive.

This is why integrating the Unilever plant is a must, IMO.

 

[Northern Light]

The Broadview and Eastern Flood Protection Landform is on the agenda for this week's FARM Ctte meeting at Waterfrontoronto.

https://waterfrontoronto.ca/sites/default/files/2022-05/Meeting%20Book%20-%20Finance%2C%20Audit%20%26%20Risk%20Management%20Committee%20Meeting%20-%20May%2026%2C%202022%20%28FINAL%29_0.pdf

See p. 112

From the above:

 

[cd concept]

Will East Harbour towers be divided into different blogs according to phases? Because this one has its storeys at 65 instead of 49 just a thought!

 

[HousingNowTO]

There's a new Change-dot-org petition being circulated by Architectural Conservancy Ontario (Toronto Branch) to retain the old Lever Soap-Plant building.

Like the "Save the Foundry" folks on the other side of the Don, I do NOT support this argument when the previous use was one that created a lot of environmental contamination.

An area like "The Distillery" can't be compared to what you will find at a Foundry or a Chemical Plant like the Lever building, the contamination is far worse from those previous uses. It is fine to tear it down old industrial buildings and cart away the soil underneath for a new neighbourhood.

Sign the Petition

Save Lever Brothers Plant No. 2

www.change.org