Toronto Globe and Mail Headquarters: Never-Built | ?m | 18s | The Globe and Mail | KPMB

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But cities aren't like people. Buildings can last a lot longer than people. They can incorporate material like stone, which is millions of years old. Great cities can inspire with the sense of permanence that their buildings provide. Once you achieve something great, it could be there for centuries, if not millenia if managed by a culture which learned to value past achievements.

But let's be real--this building was a utilitarian car dealership, was it not? I doubt that anyone, including its builder, aspired for it to be permanent. But if a person has a connection to a building, it's understandable to feel uneasy when physical anchor of their story is wiped out. When heritage buildings are demolished, that's what happens to our culture, collectively.
 
The problem is none of the new glass buildings that are going up will survive even 200 years. They're beautiful, but they're utterly disposable from a long term cultural and historical perspective. There is no sense of permanence with any of them. They're just pretty, shiny things. We're not constructing 'hardware' buildings anymore (stone and steel), we're constructing 'software' buildings (glass) that can simply be re-flashed as we move on.
 
hawc said:
The problem is none of the new glass buildings that are going up will survive even 200 years. They're beautiful, but they're utterly disposable from a long term cultural and historical perspective.
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are you saying most of the glass condos near the lake are ..."beautiful“?
 
hawc:

It is the building envelope doesn't survive 200 years - and very few materials would actually last that long without maintenance when exposed to the elements.

AoD
 
hawc said:
The problem is none of the new glass buildings that are going up will survive even 200 years. They're beautiful, but they're utterly disposable from a long term cultural and historical perspective. There is no sense of permanence with any of them. They're just pretty, shiny things. We're not constructing 'hardware' buildings anymore (stone and steel), we're constructing 'software' buildings (glass) that can simply be re-flashed as we move on.
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They could survive 200 years. The cladding will be problematic in terms of longevity, but it can be replaced. I agree that many glass towers by the lake are beautiful. Even if the architecture is dull, glass, like stone, can be a redeeming material. (There are architecturally interesting buildings in the area that have glass cladding.) We have building techniques today that are tougher than ever. I have my doubts about the longevity of the wooden houses being built in the suburbs, though. Wooden construction hasn't proven to have good longevity in the past.
 
Just to chime in for a moment on the longevity of the buildings discussion...it raises a really interesting thought, to my mind: as we excitedly watch Toronto build, there is something to be said for the fact that many of the buildings being built will naturally deteriorate sooner than many of the major, iconic buildings built in, say, the Medieval era.

Makes one think about what Toronto will look like when some of these buildings start to come down again.

Not happy thoughts for urban density nerds, I must say. ;)
 
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Stone really doesnt have all that longevity;A huge chunk of what you see in major European cities was either rebuilt after WWI and II or painstakingly maintained with massive public budgets and renovations every 10 years.
 
I don't get it. Modern engineering means tougher buildings than ever. We can engineer buildings to withstand earthquakes. If our standards were lower than in medieval times, then we couldn't safely build high-rise buildings. Concrete and steel are tough materials. Yet over and over again, I keep hearing that these buildings aren't going to last that long. The only buildings we have from centuries ago are the ones that were maintained to high standards, restored, and typically modernized to some extent. Our buildings will last if properly maintained.

I think we're simply dealing with a modern attitude shared by most people that assumes that pretty much everything is disposable, particularly since we're so used to replacing our electronics with new technologies. But unlike a cell phone or computer, a modern building has a lineage of thousands of years of development in architecture and engineering. Not everything we build is up the highest standards, but how could high-rise buildings not be built to the highest structural standards?

These buildings can't just fail one day. Their residents can't be told that they would have to pack up and leave because the building would soon fall apart; people work to maintain and grow the value of their real estate as opposed using it for a few years, seeing it depreciate and then moving on, like a car. We've advanced over the past millenia. We have greater capabilities, and we apply them to the construction of buildings. It's maintenance--a factor of economics, law, and culture--that ultimately decides longevity with a well engineered building.
 
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Now you see it:
IMG_3008.JPG


Now you don't:

IMG_3011.JPG
 
I would really like to see updated, more detailed renderings of this building (did I miss them somewhere?).
 
Its going to be a nice addition to this intersection,
This and the addition of the proposed 415 King (@ Spadina), the re-development of Winners site, and the future proposed Cityplace Signature tower down the road, will definitely change this dead zone for good...
im also hoping for the elimination of the gas stations, and something nice for the north-east corner of Spadina and Front
 
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If you have ever looked through a condo Reserve Fund Study, you will see in the expenditure table approximately when cladding is expected to be replaced. Glazing systems are typically suggested to be replaced somewhere between 25 and 35 years after original installation, but that all depends on how well they do over the interim.
 
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