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

We all live in in a bit of a a la la land and seem to be wilfully blind to the fact that GG is a corporation who's main motivation is profit. Fancy non-box-like designs cost MONEY. If they can sell-out a building with a cheaper design, they're going to do it. Toronto builders aren't going to take a hit on potential profit to make chatty urbanphiles happy.
 
adma said:
I'm not a Great Gulf toady. And I'm not that deeply offended by the design. And I don't even find it all that "80s retro", either--no more so than, say, the Met...
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Well thats the problem. The designer did the best he could to hide another box - and it looks like he failed. Its a big hulking box - nothing too hideou, nothing exciting, nothing outrageous, nothing period.

they should build this thing somewhere that doesn't need or require "design" - not at Yonge and Bloor.
 
What's wrong with a box. Some of the nicest condos that have recieved praise in this forum....like casa, spire and x are boxes. I am not sure what some of you expect with this location. I think box like buildings serve their purpose quite well. Have you ever tried to decorate an interior of a curved buiding. Trust me it is not easy.
 
nobody is saying that the alternative to a box has to be curvy (and thus hard to furnish) Buildings can have set backs and taper as they get taller, they can have a non rectangular floor plate, they can have angular faces or notches, etc. This design for 1 Bloor appears to have both a rectangular floorplate and a rectangular silhouette with curvy balconies simply tacked on in some attempt to hide its boxy reality. Having said that, maybe the economics in Toronto demand maximum use of the real estate and thus dictate a box design. There are ways to do a box so that it looks classy... this aint one of them. I'm suspicious that some of the people who are fans of this design have never travelled outside the GTA. Either that or they are so blindly "home teamers" that they refuse to be critical of anything simply because its in Toronto. Have you not been to other cities and seen dozens of interesting yet refined and classy designs... ? This aint one of them.
 
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As if anyone on here knows what the full rendering will look like all there has been is a short video of one side of the building. The potential for people to eat one's own words is fairly high on this forum, although Im sure no one will admit it. We are so impatient and quick to judge. Jus sayin...
 
mckarisma said:
As if anyone on here knows what the full rendering will look like all there has been is a short video of one side of the building. The potential for people to eat one's own words is fairly high on this forum, although Im sure no one will admit it. We are so impatient and quick to judge. Jus sayin...
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That's right. Let's reserve criticism until a comprehensive rendering is available. I like what I see so far, aside from the compromised size, but complete details and multiple-angle views are needed for assessments to be fully credible.
 
"I'm suspicious that some of the people who are fans of this design have never travelled outside the GTA."

Oh please, I've travelled extensively, almost certainly more than you.
 
"please... do I really need to see more to realize that the design is a gimmick/tacky?"

It was you who implied precisely that - pleassseee.

Anyway, lets remember that some of these designs we prefer were built in countries with cheaper labour costs and much lower financing costs (Asia); or in cities with wealthier buyers - London, New York etc.
 
Wtf...

riley said:
Are YOU serious? God I hate it when people on this site accuse people who have different opinions to them of being 'undercover' employees or they must have a 'vested interest' just because they don't happen to share your view. Reading through this thread I would say your comments are far more emotionally loaded and reactive than most other people who have contributed. By your logic can we then assume you work for Daniels or some other developer?
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I was responding to someone who made a comment that suggested that some people only really wanted this to be built because they secrretly work for Great Gulf. That was the trust of my post.

Somehow you interpret this as me being the one accusing others of having some hidden agenda because they're undercover. I was posting to say I don't think this is the case at all.

My strongest comments have been about people condemning this tower on the basis it's a box and thus sucks, when it's clearly not your typical box and we've gotten some stellar box towers in the last few years.

My posts haven't hostile in the least and I'm not sure why you're pissed at me....
 
drewp... imo opinion, the box with applied waves. I've made my opinions clear on the last several pages of this thread. In any event I am not arguing individual tastes on this point. Merely reacting to previous comments saying that nobody can make up their mind without seeing the whole design. I disagree. I've seen all I need to see.

buildup... my comment about needing to see more was addressed to the previous comments that stated that it is impossible to critique the design at this point without seeing full elevations/ renders etc. my comment was not directed at you, you snuck in there while I was typing apparently. I would tend to agree with the second part of your comment though and actually that is precisely my point... we are getting second rate architecture becasue thats all Toronto can afford. Hey, you said it yourself...
 
tkip said:
Somehow you interpret this as me being the one accusing others of having some hidden agenda because they're undercover. I was posting to say I don't think this is the case at all. [...] My posts haven't hostile in the least and I'm not sure why you're pissed at me....
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Um, riley was clearly responding to Traynor's post. He had even quoted it in his own post. I have no idea why you think he was attacking YOU.
 
I messed up the stitching a little bit, but here's the full page ad that was in the star on Saturday. I'm liking it so far, but will hold out until I see more.

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