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

[Mongo]

^Indeed. A 15 storey MOZO-style building would look a million times better than any thing by those mobsters!

Mobsters? Do you have any proof that they were involved in organized crime? If not, then STFU.

 

[urbandreamer]

Hmm. Well remember the ancient piece of equipment that was on site about a year ago? That looked like classic scam artist stuff. And then there's the weird stuff going on at their Kazakhstan banks--money laundering?

 

[Automation Gallery]

Hmm. And then there's the weird stuff going on at their Kazakhstan banks--money laundering?

Come-on... that is happening everywhere.

 

[fanoftoronto]

Does anyone know when GG is going to release renders of this building.

Thanks

 

[3Dementia]

Every time I read an "u-dreary" post, I feel bad about this great town we live in. In the spirit of giving, I give you dreary Toronto.

 

[auratic]

In a perfect world, the man who ultimately designed this building would have gown up in the area. He would have watched, as I did, Toronto grow from a gritty, industrial second city to a shining, thriving bustling destination metropolis. He would have explored the city streets as a child, wide-eyed at all the changes unfolding around him. Dreamt of gleaming towers soaring higher than this city had ever seen. Imagined the bold promising edifices that would one day grace clean, thriving streets. He would have appreciated the humble beginnings from which Toronto had spawned. He would love the architecture already in existence so much, that when he returned to Toronto after a couple of years away, he would actually, physically hug the towers at King and Bay, because he was that glad to be home. He would have striven to design a tower to impress not just the eyes or appease the masses, but one that would thrill the soul.

Such a man would be worthy of an intersection with such import.

Jesus man get a grip. No need to get your hair and scarf all windblown about it, they’re building a condo not Valhalla.

I know Roys’ Square had decent Indian, but really...Remember what used to be there?

Can you say ‘Vein Clinic’?

 

[Traynor]

Jesus man get a grip. No need to get your hair and scarf all windblown about it, they’re building a condo not Valhalla.


I know Roys’ Square had decent Indian, but really...Remember what used to be there?

Can you say ‘Vein Clinic’?

I was being facetious. I was waxing poetic in order to hit you with the humourous denouement: "We will get a boob." (The only part of my post you omitted.)

I'm sorry my humour was lost on you.

 

[Irishmonk]

I love how there is post after post, page after page of complaining about a design that has not even been shown publically yet. I fear the day the actual design is shown.

Indeed: the population of this city may briefly decline.

 

[XBOYZ]

Design complaints

Indeed: the population of this city may briefly decline.

Too bad so much focus on page after page of complaining about a design not shown yet..true. But remember Torontonians and Canadians in general do not like change nor anything too modern/too outstanding/too spectacular. Alot of people here still hang on to the architecture of the 70's...those concrete slabs you see throughout the city and/or boring non inspiring architecture/buildings. We like to tread lightly...safely...and yes..not in my backyard syndrome as Hume says constantly.
Knowing GGH's past and current projects (especially X) I think we may well be in for a very sharp building/project. Lets be positve before thinking negatively.

 

[yyzhyd]

I have not seen those new newspaper boxes around the city except in that photo.
When did those start showing up?

 

[marcus_a_j]

I have only seen those at Yonge/Bloor and Bay/Bloor. I first saw them around Sept. 2006, but were probably installed much earlier. My guess is they are a Bloor-Yorkville BIA thing, and I wish they were spread across more of the City. Was this newspaper box put back after the Bloor Street Improvements at Y&B?

 

[Tewder]

Is there anything that suggest to anyone here that the proposed building will be any less architecturally worthwhile than our slate of office buildings from the 60s to 80s, which, if you are honest with yourself, are fairly conventional by international standards and certainly NOT groundbreaking?

On the contrary, in their socio-historic context those buildings were indeed enormously 'groundbreaking', in scale and in design, transforming the city in an ambitious and spectacular way.

I love how there is post after post, page after page of complaining about a design that has not even been shown publically yet. I fear the day the actual design is shown.

I don't see this as 'complaining' so much as apprehension. Yonge/Dundas was also considered 'important' and look what happened to it...

I agree with some that there is no need for 'icons' everywhere, and that the many excellent smaller infill projects around town are having a transformative effect that is far more significant, creating new neighbourhoods and expanding existing ones in very promising ways.

Yonge/Bloor however is a site that comes with expectations, as with Yonge/Dundas and as with the Waterfront and several other notable sites. This is where people want to see something stirring, something ambitious, and something of the monumental that ultimately will make a statement about us and about now, even if the statement itself is nothing other than an affirmation of ambition, optimism, innovation or creativity. In fact, find me another significant architectural landmark in the city that isn't a statement of one of those things... and where's the harm? As long as the bulk of what we build is of the kind of high quality, functional and sustainable type of design that makes our city liveable and makes our city 'work' what's wrong with an occassional flourish? As with the Arts or any other cultural expression good design is not always only about function and bottom-line, and thank God this is so, otherwise all of our civic and public buildings and spaces end up looking like the new Canada Pavilian at the Vancouver Olympics. This might please a small minority of the most practical amongst us but will hardly capture the imagination of the rest.

Lets face it, the endless grumblings over a design that hasn't yet been revealed are less gratuitous than one may think, a sign of the frustration we feel that projects at prominent sites are not fulfilling the expectations of these opportunities, but wasting them as we read here time and again: When we look for tall we never get spectacularly tall; When we look for innovation we get little more than a twist on a box; When we look for quality materials we get boring glass, green or otherwise; When we look to our urban realm we get leaning hydro poles, broken sidewalks and weeds; When we look for a modern sustainable city we get a broken and compromised transit infrastructure. The image of the city that is being built in this generation is in many ways lagging behind the optimistic and ambitious image this generation of people in Toronto have of themselves and it is this disconnect that leeds us to feel apprehensive about the pending design of One Bloor. Just which or whose image will it come to fulfill, the former or the latter?

 

[Traynor]

Here! Here! Tewder.

Thank you for that dose of reality.

I am personally tired of all the posts that complain about the complaining. You have shown the just cause for all our trepidations and have voiced it eloquently.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

On the contrary, in their socio-historic context those buildings were indeed enormously 'groundbreaking', in scale and in design, transforming the city in an ambitious and spectacular way.

Yes, and are there any suggestion so far that this project won't be transforming the city in an ambitious and spectacular way ike X, etc, etc)? And just how did the Bazis proposal (or heck, even the Kolter one) do so, in spite of the clearly inferior architectural qualities? I didn't hear anyone wax poetic about the lackings of those two, even though their inferiority it is clear to trained eyes.

Lets face it, the endless grumblings over a design that hasn't yet been revealed are less gratuitous than one may think, a sign of the frustration we feel that projects at prominent sites are not fulfilling the expectations of these opportunities, but wasting them as we read here time and again: When we look for tall we never get spectacularly tall; When we look for innovation we get little more than a twist on a box; When we look for quality materials we get boring glass, green or otherwise; When we look to our urban realm we get leaning hydro poles, broken sidewalks and weeds; When we look for a modern sustainable city we get a broken and compromised transit infrastructure. The image of the city that is being built in this generation is in many ways lagging behind the optimistic and ambitious image this generation of people in Toronto have of themselves and it is this disconnect that leeds us to feel apprehensive about the pending design of One Bloor. Just which or whose image will it come to fulfill, the former or the latter?

Are this "we" going to get involved in the private business and dictate to them the expectations on them, beyond what is legitimately within the capacity of the local planning authority, that they were to build higher than what makes business sense? Are this "we" going to pay the increased taxes required to fund these ventures, empower the authories to intrude on domains it never have jurisdiction over?

AoD

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

So Traynor, here is a dose of reality - why don't you write to Great Gulf and implore them to build taller, keep in mind that THEY are the ones who have to get the loans to construct this tower? Would you be so glib about "visioning" if your neighbour ask you to do something similiar just to satisify his need to turn the little avenue he live on into the next Champs d'elysees?

AoD