Toronto Pinnacle Centre Condos | 161.84m | 55s | Pinnacle | P + S / IBI

I'm with JayBee: although I've tried to appreciate the Pinnacle for how it built out the streetscape around Harbourfront, the little city looks bland and feels strangely suburban.

Suburban-sized living (priced correspondingly) in a prime downtown location. How much better can it get?
 
I find it interesting that people here are so concerned with how the Pinnacle complex impacts the T.O. skyline... and have little to no care about how the living conditions actually are for the people in them.

After going on a marathon tour of about 10 different buildings in the downtown core, I have to say that the Pinnacle condos are close to top in terms of internal quality and living conditions.

They're pretty much an order of magnitude better than that huge joke which is Concord CityPlace! Good grief, before actually visiting the buildings and checking out units I had no idea how horrible they must be to live in!

In fact, of all the "relatively new" buildings I visited (<5 years old), Pinnacle is tops. The other good buildings I've found were some of the ones greater than 10 years old.
 
I find it interesting that people here are so concerned with how the Pinnacle complex impacts the T.O. skyline... and have little to no care about how the living conditions actually are for the people in them.

I agree with you that they are the best bang for the buck in the area in terms of actually living in them. My brother has a condo in this complex and has no complaints.
The reason people complain on here though is because unless you live in these buildings, the only thing affecting you is how it looks from the outside. I see why my brother bought here but that doesn't stop me from wishing that the outside of these buildings were more pleasing to the eye because I have to see them so often.
 
I find it interesting that people here are so concerned with how the Pinnacle complex impacts the T.O. skyline... and have little to no care about how the living conditions actually are for the people in them.

After going on a marathon tour of about 10 different buildings in the downtown core, I have to say that the Pinnacle condos are close to top in terms of internal quality and living conditions.

They're pretty much an order of magnitude better than that huge joke which is Concord CityPlace! Good grief, before actually visiting the buildings and checking out units I had no idea how horrible they must be to live in!

In fact, of all the "relatively new" buildings I visited (<5 years old), Pinnacle is tops. The other good buildings I've found were some of the ones greater than 10 years old.
How horrible they must be to live in? I'm renting in Montage in cityplace and it's not horrible to live in at all. My girlfriend used to live in one of the original pinnacle towers and it was nothing special at all, in fact the finishes in Montage are much nicer than what she had. She lives in Waterplace now and I'd say it's nicer than the older pinnacle buildings.
 
Unlike the other 3 towers in this project, this isn't terrible building. It's much crisper and sharper in it's overall look, though as Hume would no doubt lament, it's nothing special. From the render it almost look like a slightly busier version of the Lightbox Festival Tower.
 
Its too bad 18 Yonge couldn't get the parking lot beside to build a 2nd phase

Thank God they didn't. There are plans to build a landmark 50+ storey office tower on that parking lot. It's one of the few empty lots left in the CBD and you'd just as soon drop another green-glassed cardboard condo there. I think you've wandered a little too far from the real estate board.
 
Thank God they didn't. There are plans to build a landmark 50+ storey office tower on that parking lot. It's one of the few empty lots left in the CBD and you'd just as soon drop another green-glassed cardboard condo there. I think you've wandered a little too far from the real estate board.

I second that.
That stretch of Yonge between Queen's Quay and the Gardiner is positively ghastly. It is such an anonymous, even a tragic beginning for what is Ontario's main street.
This city is built on diversity, yet our most famous street starts with the blandest, ugliest stretch of monotony.
 
I second that.
That stretch of Yonge between Queen's Quay and the Gardiner is positively ghastly. It is such an anonymous, even a tragic beginning for what is Ontario's main street.
This city is built on diversity, yet our most famous street starts with the blandest, ugliest stretch of monotony.

Well, it's been worse--from the 60s into the 80s, the lowermost block was semi-cut-off by LS/Gardiner rampage/configurations.

And in a way, for whatever reason lower Yonge always played second fiddle to lower York, Bay, Jarvis--even historically speaking. In fact, and paradoxically given the turn-its-back architecture, it isn't until the Toronto Star took advantage of a "One Yonge" address that the idea of the foot of Yonge started to attain its inherent mythos...
 
Drive by shot today.

4365060893_eff63c332a_b.jpg
 
As bad as the stretch of Yonge between QQ and the Gardiner is -- and I won't pretend it's anything but bad -- I have to give the city props for really making an effort over the past couple of years. A number of large granite-clad planters have been put in , as well as at lesat 30 or 40 trees (if you count both the trees in the sidewalk planters and the dozens of trees planted along the Gardiner off-ramp just south of the railroad tracks). I work in the area, and I have to say that, without a doubt, the improvement is quite noticeable. Once there is a large public promenade beside and in front of Pier 27/Waterlink, I hope that these changes will pay off. Of course, the area is still horribly barren, and there are absolutely no indications that the huge parking lot behind the Star building will be filled in in our lifetimes (which would deifnitely make the area a little less suburban feeling).
 
Of course, the area is still horribly barren, and there are absolutely no indications that the huge parking lot behind the Star building will be filled in in our lifetimes (which would deifnitely make the area a little less suburban feeling).

I think that would depend on the remaining years in one's lifetime. I am positive it will be filled in my lifetime. If I was 90 I would agree with you however.
 
Call me crazy. The podium finally has a point of interest but I find the tower the most unattractive of the lot. Those balconies off the corner are just brutal in a 1970s Tridel sort of way. Oh well, another 500 footer.
 
I think that would depend on the remaining years in one's lifetime. I am positive it will be filled in my lifetime. If I was 90 I would agree with you however.

I would hope that I have a solid 60 -70 years left. I just can't imagine the site being developed...hopefully I'm wrong. I'd love to see the area livened up a bit. While they're at it they could replace the light bulbs in the Toronto Star's ground-level signage, it looks horrendous.
 
Call me crazy. The podium finally has a point of interest but I find the tower the most unattractive of the lot. Those balconies off the corner are just brutal in a 1970s Tridel sort of way. Oh well, another 500 footer.

kind of hard to tell because from what I can see, tower #4 looks different in each image its depicted in. Have a look at the Globe and Mail ad on the previous page: The small b&w rendering seems to be the most realistic to me and this should make a nice "little brother" to Success Tower. No doubt this isnt the coziest part of downtown but I think this development is an improvement over parking lots. Lets give the trees 5 years to mature and I think it will be even more so... I think the fact of its location hemmed in on all sides by high volume thoroughfares makes it unlikely that any alternative plan could have done much better (enlivening the steetscape).
 

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