Derivative? I think every design they do is fresh and uniquely aA. I guess we all have different opinions though.
I dunno, I'm looking at PDFs here, but I still think that this is a thoughtless mishmash of the base of the Pure Spirit tower coupled with the point tower of Casa without its trademark hat.
The best aA buildings to date have been Twenty Niagara, the Pond Road residence at York University, District Lofts and the villas at 18 Yorkville. Midrise buildings that were designed to integrate, rather than dominate their surroundings. These were mostly built when the firm had some humility to their name, which I will get into below.
Recently, though, they have come out with a bunch of snoozers like 22 Wellesley, and also have retreated to recycling designs. For example, upon closer inspection, the proposed condo for the foot of Peter and Front street looks similar to Burano which is itself just a taller version of Spire. Pier 27 looks very uninspired to me. It takes cues from two better Toronto landmarks: Thom Mayne's Grad house and Alsop's OCAD. It basically props a tabletop slab (a la OCAD) on top of two run of the mill modernist boxes and then twists it at a funny angle and lets it hang over to one side (a la Grad House). On that note, is it just me, or is aA in the business of making epigones of better-known Toronto buildings? I'm thinking about X condos here.
I will also admit that part of my sour outlook toward aA has to do with the fact that they always get saddled to do the most controversial condo projects. There's PureSpirit and the St. Michael's condo redevelopment. This one is pretty intrusive, too. There used to be a fantastic staggering of Victorian spires in the St. Lawrence market area with St. Lawrence hall, St. James cathedral and the low-slung bulk of the market building dominating the vista. Passing by on the Gardiner, the neighbourhood looked like a Merian drawing, or a bustling mercantile metropolis seen in old bird's eye view maps. Now this glassy thing will block the view looking north and dominate the view looking south. It is kind of annoying that aA's buildings will dominate the city's skyline from so many vantage points, as if that architectural firm alone can command a presence not felt since Sir Christopher Wren began dotting London with his creations. And Peter Clewes, good as he is, ain't no Christopher Wren.