Toronto Forma | 308m | 84s | Great Gulf | Gehry Partners

The article mentions 74 and 84 storey towers. The height on U.T. indicates 72 and 82. That would indicate the heights have changed, i.e. higher.
Not necessarily - you can always shorten the average floor height, keeping the overall tower heights the same. Residential towers tend to have lower floor heights, although with these being luxury towers, that general rule might not apply.
Or, if you're Renx, you can count mechanical penthouse floors in the total, which we don't do.

Because it will be built by humans. :) Seriously though, think of the logistics. It will take less than 7 to top-off and enclose, but think of how many square feet of interior space needs to be finished for occupancy. Millions of tons of concrete and steel for the structure, the acres of glass to install, the many miles of electrical, plumbing, ventilation and networking before crews can start installing offices/residences and the like. The hotel will probably take a year by itself to finish the interiors of a few floors. I think 1 Bloor East took 5 years, no?
As per our most recent front page story, there are no longer plans to put a hotel in the base of the west tower.

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Recent New York Times piece on Frank Gehry provides a look at the scale model of Gehry Toronto in his studio:
Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/arts/design/frank-gehry.html

From way at the bottom of the article:

One project retains a special pride of place: the pair of towers that are part of the King Street development in his native Toronto — the architect’s tallest project to date.

“New York has Rockefeller Center — it’s a coherent architectural piece and it lasts, it holds its own,” Gehry said, adding that he hoped his King Street effort “holds together like that.”

“My grandmother’s street is just up there,” Gehry said, pointing to a rendering on the wall. “My grandfather’s hardware store was here. So I hung out on this street.

“The city gave us extra height,” he added, “because it was me coming home.”


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This is taking too long. Is Gehry still going to be alive when it breaks ground?
From that article, he seems to be still very busy. I guess his punch clock won't stop till his ticker runs out...

But to answer your question more directly: Maybe?
 
If he dies before this breaks ground what does that mean for the project? Can his team see it through and remain true to the integrity of Gehry's design or does that typically mean the project is dead?
 
Because it will be built by humans. :) Seriously though, think of the logistics. It will take less than 7 to top-off and enclose, but think of how many square feet of interior space needs to be finished for occupancy. Millions of tons of concrete and steel for the structure, the acres of glass to install, the many miles of electrical, plumbing, ventilation and networking before crews can start installing offices/residences and the like. The hotel will probably take a year by itself to finish the interiors of a few floors. I think 1 Bloor East took 5 years, no?
Not sure I agree with this logic. China throws up whole city districts in less time. It is not physically impossible to be faster, we just do things very, very slowly.
 
Getting a closer look at the base is disappointing. I'm not sure if he didn't include some details on the model, but that's significantly scaled back from the previous iteration.

Overall though, I think this my favourite version. The towers are beautiful. We complain a lot about Toronto, but this is undoubtedly going to be an incredible landmark project, one that I'm sure will be a great symbol of the city internationally.
 
probably slower because we have human rights, worker unions, and thorough inspections and approval processes here
That may all be true, but there is a disheartening complacency in Canada about everything taking much longer and costing much more than it does in other jurisdictions. We should be thinking very critically about why other places are able to achieve things we cannot.
 
Getting a closer look at the base is disappointing. I'm not sure if he didn't include some details on the model, but that's significantly scaled back from the previous iteration.

Overall though, I think this my favourite version. The towers are beautiful. We complain a lot about Toronto, but this is undoubtedly going to be an incredible landmark project, one that I'm sure will be a great symbol of the city internationally.
I'm really hoping for a little more texture at the ground plane than we're seeing here. If we end up with a typical flat glass facade I might lose it.
 

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