mysteryman
Active Member
^Interesting. So if we can switch buses and trucks to some sort of quieter fuel-cell system, they can turn down the volume even more. (I'm dreaming here.)
Toronto Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Toronto | 203.9m | 52s | Lifetime | a—A
ShonTron
Moderator
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This is starting to get really off-topic (this should get back to the Four Seasons), but I find that many of the fire engines here in Toronto have some 1940s-style air siren that starts loud, gets quieter, then after a minute starts a new cycle. I think it's neat.
The horns are much worse than the sirens.
The horns are much worse than the sirens.
Mongo
Senior Member
^no dream. Fuel cell buses have been operational in test programs for several years now, including production models such as the Mercedes Benz 0530BZ Citaro:
'Even though the usual Citaro models are powered by diesel or natural gas, there is also a hydrogen fuel cell-powered version, designated Citaro BZ or O530BZ. About 35 of these buses have been in service in a variety of different world cities in order to test the feasibility of hydrogen fuel cells in different operating circumstances and different conditions, especially weather conditions.' -- from Wikipedia
According to this link:
'According to bus driver Paul Wroblewski, "It seems the days of 'a bus is a bus' may be over. Passengers have been very keen to embrace the new fuel cell buses - and the quietness inside the bus has allowed the overhearing of some very lively discussion by passengers about the new technology and their new found knowledge..."'
Bill
'Even though the usual Citaro models are powered by diesel or natural gas, there is also a hydrogen fuel cell-powered version, designated Citaro BZ or O530BZ. About 35 of these buses have been in service in a variety of different world cities in order to test the feasibility of hydrogen fuel cells in different operating circumstances and different conditions, especially weather conditions.' -- from Wikipedia
According to this link:
'According to bus driver Paul Wroblewski, "It seems the days of 'a bus is a bus' may be over. Passengers have been very keen to embrace the new fuel cell buses - and the quietness inside the bus has allowed the overhearing of some very lively discussion by passengers about the new technology and their new found knowledge..."'
Bill
RJR123
Active Member
In today's "Nobody's Business" column in the ROB section of the Globe Patricia Best noted that the scuttlebut in the Toronto real estate industry is that sales have been phenomenal for the first week. Apparently all of the south-facing condos are already "spoken for" as she put it, and that overall the first week of sales has seen very strong demand for this project!
caltrane74
Senior Member
So maybe 25-50% sold out at this point?
alklay
Senior Member
I know some insiders and sales are nowhere near 50%. You have to realize that the units start at $1.6 million and there are over 425 of them. As of the beginning of the week, there were 40-60 units sold and there was still the 10 day grace period on most of them. At these price points, the developers do not expect the place to sell as quickly as some on the board seem to hope.
Even 10% in one week at these prices is impressive.
caltrane74
Senior Member
Still thats pretty good. And interest remains high as they did get the column in the Newspaper.
RJR123
Active Member
The article indicated 200 units in the project, with speculation of 40 sold. Is there 425 units?
alklay
Senior Member
There are two buildings but both will be built together (at the same time).
yyzer
Senior Member
ARCHITECTURE
John Bentley Mays
After a rocky start, Four Seasons finds clear sailing
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Last week's opening of the presentation centre at the Four Seasons Private Residences — a glittering event studded with Toronto's young, rich and beautiful — brought to market a skyscraper project that has been much embattled, but that's now found a peaceable place in the world.
"We are appalled by the height and density, and the rather mediocre design," area resident Mary-Helen Spence said last year, when the luxury condominium and hotel complex was unveiled. An offer made by the consortium of investors (the Toronto-based Four Seasons hotel and resort chain, Menkes Developments and the Boston company Halcyon Ventures) to improve a nearby schoolyard touched by the towers' shadow was deemed unacceptable by community groups opposed to the scheme. "It's simply buying the sunshine from generations of children," Ms. Spence said at the time.
At the end of the ensuing contest of wills between developers and residents, umpired by indefatigable city councillor Kyle Rae, an agreement was reached that cleared the way for approval by City Hall.
In the settlement, a 30-storey building in the original two-tower scheme — the one throwing the most offensive shadows — was chopped down to 25. (But the developers, in return, were allowed nine additional storeys for the taller tower, bringing it to 55 storeys from 46.) Also in the deal, $5.2-million was won for the city from the builders. This sum, Mr. Rae told me last week, will go toward the renovation of the nearby Toronto Reference Library and the adjacent Fire Station No. 10 (1876), improvements to surrounding parks and streetscapes, and a $2-million enhancement of the playground at Jesse Ketchum School across the street.
The cause of this scuffle is the largest development ever proposed for mid-town's historic Yorkville neighbourhood. Designed by Peter Clewes and Rudy Wallman of the Toronto firm architectsAlliance, the Four Seasons is a luxurious, large-scale expression of the architects' traditionally strict, austere modernism.
The taller of the two towers — more elegant and urbane at 55 storeys than it was at 46 — will rise boldly at the corner of Bay Street and Yorkville Avenue from a transparent podium containing a lobby, bar and restaurant. In this building, up to the 20th storey, will be a 253-room Four Seasons hotel, and, above that, 103 private residences. The shorter building will feature 101 residences.
Prices for units in both towers range between $1.2-million and $16-million. An eight-storey pavilion at the north corner of the two-acre site will house a grand ballroom and conference facilities, along with a 28,000-square-foot spa.
The towers of the complex will bring big-city sophistication to a Toronto street corner that has long needed it. But what's planned for the street level is perhaps the most attractive thing about the scheme. Though the glassy Bay Street facade is hard and somewhat chilly, around the corner on Yorkville the street wall gives way to a pleasant harbour framed by the towers and the fire hall next door. The churn of traffic through this courtyard, which is the main entrance of the hotel, will likely create a lively sense of to and fro, though the visual hum will be muted by the garden and other landscape features designed by the celebrated Montreal architect Claude Cormier. Dotting this garden will be art projects, now being co-ordinated by veteran Toronto art dealer Fela Grünwald.
We can only hope that the two architectural senior citizens on the block — the Victorian fire hall, and the stately little Yorkville Public Library (1906-1907) — will feel comfortable once they are marooned, as they will be, in the midst of all this high-style modernism. Be that as it may, architectsAlliance's Four Seasons will substantially advance the renewal of the once-forlorn stretch of Yorkville Avenue between Bay and Yonge streets — a process begun a few years ago by the erection of Peter Clewes' sleek, handsome 18 Yorkville residential complex, at the Yonge end of the block. One can hardly overestimate the role of Mr. Rae in bagging approval for the Four Seasons development.
With energy and dogged determination — "My prime directive is to get rid of parking lots," he told me — Mr. Rae has navigated the Four Seasons and several other notable residential tall-building schemes through political waters often made choppy by residents' opposition and a City Hall famously wary of height. These projects include 18 Yorkville and another new Peter Clewes tower at the corner of Jarvis and Charles streets, Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg's excellent Radio City, and Roy Varacalli's innovative 80-storey skyscraper slated for the landmark corner of Yonge and Bloor streets. With Mr. Rae steering the boat, Toronto can expect to see more tall residential buildings with high-calibre design, and more than a dash of sparkle.
John Bentley Mays
After a rocky start, Four Seasons finds clear sailing
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Last week's opening of the presentation centre at the Four Seasons Private Residences — a glittering event studded with Toronto's young, rich and beautiful — brought to market a skyscraper project that has been much embattled, but that's now found a peaceable place in the world.
"We are appalled by the height and density, and the rather mediocre design," area resident Mary-Helen Spence said last year, when the luxury condominium and hotel complex was unveiled. An offer made by the consortium of investors (the Toronto-based Four Seasons hotel and resort chain, Menkes Developments and the Boston company Halcyon Ventures) to improve a nearby schoolyard touched by the towers' shadow was deemed unacceptable by community groups opposed to the scheme. "It's simply buying the sunshine from generations of children," Ms. Spence said at the time.
At the end of the ensuing contest of wills between developers and residents, umpired by indefatigable city councillor Kyle Rae, an agreement was reached that cleared the way for approval by City Hall.
In the settlement, a 30-storey building in the original two-tower scheme — the one throwing the most offensive shadows — was chopped down to 25. (But the developers, in return, were allowed nine additional storeys for the taller tower, bringing it to 55 storeys from 46.) Also in the deal, $5.2-million was won for the city from the builders. This sum, Mr. Rae told me last week, will go toward the renovation of the nearby Toronto Reference Library and the adjacent Fire Station No. 10 (1876), improvements to surrounding parks and streetscapes, and a $2-million enhancement of the playground at Jesse Ketchum School across the street.
The cause of this scuffle is the largest development ever proposed for mid-town's historic Yorkville neighbourhood. Designed by Peter Clewes and Rudy Wallman of the Toronto firm architectsAlliance, the Four Seasons is a luxurious, large-scale expression of the architects' traditionally strict, austere modernism.
The taller of the two towers — more elegant and urbane at 55 storeys than it was at 46 — will rise boldly at the corner of Bay Street and Yorkville Avenue from a transparent podium containing a lobby, bar and restaurant. In this building, up to the 20th storey, will be a 253-room Four Seasons hotel, and, above that, 103 private residences. The shorter building will feature 101 residences.
Prices for units in both towers range between $1.2-million and $16-million. An eight-storey pavilion at the north corner of the two-acre site will house a grand ballroom and conference facilities, along with a 28,000-square-foot spa.
The towers of the complex will bring big-city sophistication to a Toronto street corner that has long needed it. But what's planned for the street level is perhaps the most attractive thing about the scheme. Though the glassy Bay Street facade is hard and somewhat chilly, around the corner on Yorkville the street wall gives way to a pleasant harbour framed by the towers and the fire hall next door. The churn of traffic through this courtyard, which is the main entrance of the hotel, will likely create a lively sense of to and fro, though the visual hum will be muted by the garden and other landscape features designed by the celebrated Montreal architect Claude Cormier. Dotting this garden will be art projects, now being co-ordinated by veteran Toronto art dealer Fela Grünwald.
We can only hope that the two architectural senior citizens on the block — the Victorian fire hall, and the stately little Yorkville Public Library (1906-1907) — will feel comfortable once they are marooned, as they will be, in the midst of all this high-style modernism. Be that as it may, architectsAlliance's Four Seasons will substantially advance the renewal of the once-forlorn stretch of Yorkville Avenue between Bay and Yonge streets — a process begun a few years ago by the erection of Peter Clewes' sleek, handsome 18 Yorkville residential complex, at the Yonge end of the block. One can hardly overestimate the role of Mr. Rae in bagging approval for the Four Seasons development.
With energy and dogged determination — "My prime directive is to get rid of parking lots," he told me — Mr. Rae has navigated the Four Seasons and several other notable residential tall-building schemes through political waters often made choppy by residents' opposition and a City Hall famously wary of height. These projects include 18 Yorkville and another new Peter Clewes tower at the corner of Jarvis and Charles streets, Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg's excellent Radio City, and Roy Varacalli's innovative 80-storey skyscraper slated for the landmark corner of Yonge and Bloor streets. With Mr. Rae steering the boat, Toronto can expect to see more tall residential buildings with high-calibre design, and more than a dash of sparkle.
Bogtrotter
Senior Member
"It's simply buying the sunshine from generations of children"
Oh brother, how melodramatic can you get"
Oh brother, how melodramatic can you get"
RJR123
Active Member
JBM's article in today's Globe Real Estate section confirmed that there are about 200 condos. With the 253 hotel rooms the total is over 400.
Sir Novelty Fashion
Senior Member
Which renderings was he looking at? The ones with the transparent lobby, or the ones designed to keep insurgents out of the Green Zone?
The rendering that accompanies JBM's article today, while tiny in the paper, is the latest one with the blast-deflecting base.
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