Toronto First Canadian Place Rejuvenation | 298.08m | 72s | Brookfield | MdeAS Architects

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WhistlerinToronto

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First Canadian Place

I was on Lakeshore Today on my way in to do some work at school enjoying the sun and taste of spring. I was actually looking to see where the terminal for the new ferry was when I started thinking about how great a view the American Tourists will have as they cross the lake and approach our fair and prosperous city. I looked over at the skyline and that's when it hit me. I had seen the dirty tile before, and noticed the replaced one of a brighter white; but for some reason today with the sun shining on it, the First Canadian Place looked like crap. It looked like a checker board of old tiles and bright new ones drawing attention to itself with it's crown of antenna's. Shame!
The Bank of Montreal in my opinion has a duty to the city to make sure the entire structure remains well kept in appearance. If you plan on building the tallest office tower, you had better look after it. Perhaps it's time to replace the marble with another material all together. I think it would be better to invest and re-clad the structure all at one rather the tile by tile in a helter skelter pattern. And if they say the cost is to high to bad. We know how much the big five make each year and it's enough to re-clad all the old falling apart exteriors of any building that needs it in the GTA.
Don't get me wrong, the building is a great design, 8 corner offices on each floor; Brilliant! And the worlds first double decker high speed elevator system, Wow! But if your going to wear white you should expect to pay the large dry-cleaning costs that will come along with it. If any of you get a chance on a sunny day, have a look at the south side of the building from Queens Quay and tell me what you think.

The picture I am including is of it's west side which is nowhere near as bad as the south side.
FirstCanadianPlace.jpg
 
The Bank of Montreal in my opinion has a duty to the city to make sure the entire structure remains well kept in appearance.
Click to expand...

The Bank of Montreal doesn't own the building. If you have complaints contact the O&Y Corporation.

I agree the new tiles clash with the old ones, give it another year or two and they will be stained like the rest of them.
 
FCP has definitely aged poorly compared to the other 'scrapers in the core... it's a shame because it's the one that sticks out the most. Oh well, Trump and DTP will spice things up.
 
I don't mind the dirty marble on FCP. As long as I can tell that the exterior is white, it's good enough for me.

I'm guessing the big reason why the white on FCP is fading is because of air pollution- the soot that's coming out of our cars, our factories, our heating, etc. Unless you clad FCP in a colour that hides soot (a darker colour), you will never be able to get around that problem.

But why clad FCP in a different colour? I think Toronto has a really colourful skyline (fitting for a multicultural city). FCP is white, TD Centre is black, Scotia Plaza is dark red, Commerce Court is silver, RBC Plaza is gold, and Trump's tower will be blue-green. What makes FCP, and all the other skyscrapers in Toronto look interesting is that they contrast each other. Go look at New York... New York has tons of skyscraper gems, but only a few stand out on the skyline because most of them look almost the same and have the same colour scheme. This doesn't happen on the Toronto skyline.
 
Whistler, did you get any pics of what is going on at Cherry Beach and on the port facilities tarmac where they plan on putting the fast ferry facilities?
 
"give it another year or two and they will be stained like the rest of them"

But surely, in another year or two, the "rest of them" will be stained even more won't they? So the tiles will always be mismatched....

I had assumed the plan is to replace them all. Isn't it?
 
Sorry no pics of the Ferry Terminal. I like the terminology of calling the our skyscrapers multi-cultural. If they could come up with a creative way to replace the tiles be it the same colour or different, I would not miss them.
 
The stone is cleaned every six months, at the same time as the windows. The window cleaner cleans the stone too.
 
It would be nice if one day they could do something a little less jumbled with the communication towers up top.
 
I don't know what radio stations use those antennae - I know Classical 98 used to broadcast from First Canadian Place.

The other night I walked down Sheppard towards First Canadian Place and on the north side of the tower it looks like they've replaced more than a few of the marble panels with grey-painted metal. Looks like hell, actually.
 
I believe the cable companies get their signals from the top of FCP.
 
"on the north side of the tower it looks like they've replaced more than a few of the marble panels with grey-painted metal"

:wtf: ...are you serious?? Who's idea was that?
 
This is my problem with the building. Sure they need to maintain it, but as they do it bit by bit it looks jumbled and messy. It's almost impossible to keep white marble on a building that size looking perfect and uniform. It may be time to look for a long term solution. Just look at the CIBC Tower, built before the First Canadian Place, and thanks to the right choise of materials still looks great today. I'm sure they can come up with a creative way to replace the marble, because right now this patchwork being done looks awfull.
 
the costs of replacing all that marble would be astronomical.

we are lucky to have such big skyscrapers covered with marble, granite, etc. some cities are all glass.
they may be boxes but they wear great clothes.

they should use some kind of bleaching solution (environmentally friendly of course) to whiten the whole building and then seal it to prevent discoloration and moisture damage which causes the marble to deteriorate.

since we're on the subject of cladding, i wish the CN tower was covered with granite. some nice shiny black granite or the Burgundy - red stuff from the Canadian shield.
red Canadian granite, red maple leaf..... hmmm
 
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