Toronto One Bloor East | 257.24m | 76s | Great Gulf | Hariri Pontarini

Aqua does have it's flaws (balcony rails, mechanical roof, etc...) but it's a more daring building than 1 Bloor. By that I mean each of it's balconies are designed and arranged very differently. They also stick out from one another giving the building the illusion of having a 3D skin. Perhaps it's a toned down version of Absolute World.

One Bloor is a better design imo, but if the two were side by side, I still think Aqua is the one your eyes would be more drawn to. (And from a constructability standpoint, Aqua is probably more challenging)

aqua-tower.jpg

Source: http://www.arch.utah.edu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/aqua-tower.jpg
 
Wow, Aqua is truly horrendous. How did these threads get derailed so much recently with comparisons with ugly projects in other cities? One Bloor will not be looking like this.
 
steveve said:
Aqua does have it's flaws (balcony rails, mechanical roof, etc...) but it's a more daring building than 1 Bloor. By that I mean each of it's balconies are designed and arranged very differently. They also stick out from one another giving the building the illusion of having a 3D skin. Perhaps it's a toned down version of Absolute World.

One Bloor is a better design imo, but if the two were side by side, I still think Aqua is the one your eyes would be more drawn to. (And from a constructability standpoint, Aqua is probably more challenging)
Click to expand...

Steveve...those pics are flattering for Aqua. In some pics it looks outright scary....lol
 
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It's a great building. From a distance, it looks more like a standard glass monolith. But since the architecture is just about ornamental balcony slabs, it's not that significant as architecture even if the building looks distinctive and eye-pleasing.

One thing that doesn't look good in my opinion about glass residential towers with balconies is that on summer days, many people open their balcony doors for fresh air. With the open doors, the buildings look like they're missing random panes of glass from a distance. You see it on the aA towers on the Queensway by High Park and even Absolute in Mississauga. It detracts from the minimalist sleekness of the buildings.
 
Can we also talk about how awful Aqua's podium is? It's like the lessons learnt from the last 50 years have all been forgotten for the sake of a gimmicky box.

View here:
http://goo.gl/maps/6B3kj
 
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junctionist said:
One thing that doesn't look good in my opinion about glass residential towers with balconies is that on summer days, many people open their balcony doors for fresh air. With the open doors, the buildings look like they're missing random panes of glass from a distance. You see it on the aA towers on the Queensway by High Park and even Absolute in Mississauga. It detracts from the minimalist sleekness of the buildings.
Click to expand...

Haha, I honestly died laughing while reading this! But then I revived myself just so I could write on here ;)

My place has a normal balcony and three juliet balconies, so when the temperature is just right, I will be opening up all of the doors to let fresh air in. As a human being I like to breathe, regardless of some architecture critic wanting me to keep my condo unit's doors closed lol. I see where you were going with your statement, I just had to comment from a person who lives in a condo. We have feelings, too :)
 
When I went by this morning they were removing a lot of the scaffolding from the lower floors of the podium. I think I read somewhere there will be about 100,000 sq. ft of retail in this building so it would be in their best interests to get the podium populated and open asap. A conservative revenue for the retail space I think would translate into about $10M a year.
 
It's interesting that Aqua's appearance really depends on your point of view - it looks more "aquay" the further up the building you go, and the more likely you will be seeing the underside of the balconies. This is probably why Market Wharf suffers, appearance-wise - most of the floors are pretty level with the viewer (particularly when you view it from King, which is higher than the Esplanade.) If you wanted an aesthetic argument for more height! more height!, this is it.
 
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