khris
Senior Member
They're sticking with the original plan. They won't be tearing down what is already built. I hope to see this start back up again soon!
Toronto MaRS Centre Phase 2 | 112.77m | 20s | Alexandria | B+H
taal
Senior Member
What are you basing this on? The fact they're sticking to the original plan that is.
Tewder
Senior Member
I agree with you and I would hope so too about the rethinking of this. This is one of very few non-grid street patterns in the entire city and whoever designed this ignores it (I shake my head in confusion), and not only ignores it but dismisses it most obnoxiously by offering a design that forces the circle into the grid! That this fact was completely overlooked by everybody responsible for planning and choosing this design is incomprehensible to me. It's like the very first thing I would have thought of - hey, how do we address our location in Queen's Park - and I'm not even trained in any of these things. What are they teaching in architecture school these days, i'd dearly like to know?
SP!RE
°°°°°°
Most likely they will re-use what they can, but I don't know how you can make this claim.
We don't even know when it will restart.
ProjectEnd
Superstar
Surely not the application of abstract forms, taken from older buildings and plonked down on a site which does not have the space to hold them, all in an effort to achieve some sort of limp, ostentatious symbolism over truly pressing matters like urbanism, scale, streetscape, pedestrianization, intensification, transit access and so on.
adma
Superstar
Besides, on that side of the street, there's already a half-circle (and a more contextually appropriate one) further north which probably renders one here redundant: the Frost Building. Indeed, Hydro's long been castigated for exactly the kind of "limp, ostentatious symbolism" ProjectEnd's referring to...
Sir Novelty Fashion
Senior Member
Well, here's an odd tidbit: I just walked past the site, and there were lights on and at least a couple of people visible working inside the PCL project offices, somewhere around 10 pm.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Not the original plan, surely? It's the supersized design, which switches horses in midstream from what's already been built in Phase 1 and tries to match the limp, ostentatious symbolism of the Hydro building across the street with something of equal visual heft:
Observer Walt
Senior Member
I wouldn't mind seeing this built as per this original (?) plan (? because I'm not aware of any other one to date). Along with the Hydro building, it would have made an attractive pair of bookends at the north end of University Ave. The design surely does not try to "match" the symbolism, limp or otherwise, of the Hydro building, nor would I want to see any such thing. There is admittedly a bit of similarity in the cladding, but that is more because the Hydro building was probably ahead of its time in the reliance on the all-glass cladding which is now much more common. In any case we know that cladding can certainly change subsequent to early renderings.
Nor do we need another curved building, given that the immediate vicinity already has two of them.
The bad news is that it is increasingly unlikely that this will be built soon, in any form. It was planned as a huge building, and the site certainly calls for one, but the demand just isn't there now or probably in the next several years.
I also wonder if the wind was taken out of the sails of this project, when Sick Kids came forward with their proposal for a new research building. I would have expected them to participate in Mars, but apparently not.
Nor do we need another curved building, given that the immediate vicinity already has two of them.
The bad news is that it is increasingly unlikely that this will be built soon, in any form. It was planned as a huge building, and the site certainly calls for one, but the demand just isn't there now or probably in the next several years.
I also wonder if the wind was taken out of the sails of this project, when Sick Kids came forward with their proposal for a new research building. I would have expected them to participate in Mars, but apparently not.
Last edited:
DarnDirtyApe
Active Member
Argh, why not just build the same damn thing as Phase 1?! Symmetry never hurt anybody...
Last edited by a moderator:
newuser2k9
Active Member
I really hope this gets built. Besides the L Tower (in its previous form), and One Bloor, one would be hard pressed to find a building that contributes so significantly to the urban fabric of the core. University is desperately lacking the visual grandness of its importance within the city. This would anchor it like it desperately needs.
marcus_a_j
Senior Member
What about Shangri-la? Looking south down Univ. Ave. from in front of the Legislature Building it will rise straight ahead. I would say it's more of an "anchor" than MaRS would be.
newuser2k9
Active Member
True, but the whole tunnel effect would greatly enhanced by a streetwall at the College St. corner. Shangri-La is a great terminus, though (just like Queen's Park from the south).
DSC
Superstar
Member Bio
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2008
- Messages
- 18,984
- Reaction score
- 26,362
- Location
- St Lawrence Market Area
Rather strangely the Public Art plan for MARS phase 2 is up for approval today. See http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-24725.pdf I guess they are getting prepared?
College Park
Active Member
There are large-sized tenants of MaRS, including the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), and Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) researchers who are piled on top of each other, and certainly, some of these groups are looking at Phase II to relieve the pressure.
Regarding an earlier comment about "lights on" in the construction office - there is a guy there who maintains the site, sweeping away water puddles and pumping accumulated water out of the garage. A boring job to be sure, but apparently reasonable pay.