Toronto The One | 308.6m | 85s | Tridel | Foster + Partners

Lenser said:
Riiiiiight. The UT Short Building Defence Corps is always spoiling for a fight.
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Sure seems that way. Whenever someone here dares lament the inevitable Toronto Height Reduction™ , one or more members of the UT condescension brigade slithers out with some supercilious ridicule of us trivial vulgarians.
 
It does feel as though a number of UT members are pretty quick to put people down when someone states that they like the height of something. Sure it's just one contributing factor, and things should not solely be judged by height, but it's ok that some people get excited about tall buildings. I've often thought it a bit surprising that on a forum like this it sometimes feels like it's not ok to express that height is aw inspiring.

Anyways this is still going to be really tall, which is exciting. Nothing to be sad about in the long run.
 
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Strange Advance said:
Sure seems that way. Whenever someone here dares lament the inevitable Toronto Height Reduction™ , one or more members of the UT condescension brigade slithers out with some supercilious ridicule of us trivial vulgarians.
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I'm not as concerned. For some time now the build tall crowd has held the moral high ground, whereas the build small, think small crowd have been the frustrated minority.
 
If I have told you these details about the asteroid, and made a note of its number for you, it is on account of the grown-ups and their ways. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. T hey never say to you, "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?" Instead, they demand: "How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?" Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.

If you were to say to the grown-ups: "I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick, with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof," they would not be able to get any idea of that house at all. You would have to say to them: "I saw a house that cost $ 20,000." Then they would exclaim: "Oh, what a pretty house that is!"

They are like that. One must not hold it against them. Children should always show great forbearance toward grown-up people.

But certainly, for us who understand life, figures are a matter of indifference.

The Little Prince: Antoine de Saint-Exupery
 
Strange Advance said:
Sure seems that way. Whenever someone here dares lament the inevitable Toronto Height Reduction™ , one or more members of the UT condescension brigade slithers out with some supercilious ridicule of us trivial vulgarians.
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Perhaps growing a thicker skin would be in order?

And it seems to me that the condescension and hyperbole goes both ways. When a height reduction is announced, local gubbmint types get slagged for all sorts of imaginative reasons - you don't even have to care who was actually involved in the process! The horrible people opposing height are emblematic of the city's loser status in the world, Toronto is doomed to be a second-class burg, etc. etc.
 
There's a lot of silliness being bandied about. Very plainly, it is possible to be both awe inspired by the engineering feats required to enable a building to soar into the sky and to advocate for regulation that, in aggregate, enhances the quality of our city and neighbourhoods—which, in some but not all cases, mandates a reduction in proposed height.

There is a plethora of good reasons to not allow developers to build as high as they want in every single scenario—that's a concept so straightforward it's not even worth unpacking here. What is the only logical offshoot of that reality? It is the fact that there will be height reductions seen with many developments.

Development isn't a zero sum game—outcomes aren't plainly good or entirely bad. Characterizing the critical commentary around any development as falling into either "big thinking" or "small mindedness" is unhelpful and inaccurately reductionist. It also makes for bad discussions on forums.
 
Alas, the elephant in the room is that "bad discussions" often make for entertaining reading. Moreover, the place would be a whole lot sleepier if everyone were to act reasonable.

I wish The One was going to go up to its original proposed height; it would have made for a more dramatic statement. Will the new plan still offer drama? Of course it will. It's going to offer an interesting dichotomy with 1BE.
 
Re: elephant in the room, I'm sure you're right to say that many get a kick out of the ludicrousness when it pops up on the forum. I'd hazard to guess that there are other folks like myself, who'd much rather engage in and/or read thoughtful commentary and/or respectful and knowledgable debate. If I want a stupid, nonsensical debate, I'll watch a Trump stump speech and Fox News' "analysis" of it. (I also just an innate reaction to call out silly fables when I see them.) But I digress.

I just don't follow the argument that the minor height reduction in the case of this building somehow decreases its splendour or majesty. It's still gonna be a really, really tall building by any stretch. There are so many examples of dramatic buildings all over the world where the intrigue emanates from the actual architectural elements rather than purely from height. Frankly, I think if you're an architect trying to make a statement with your design and all you can do to help it in that regard is to make it taller, you should probably go back to the drawing board.
 
The real elephant in the room is an incredibly inexperienced developer who ridiculously overpaid for a project and is attempting to create one of the most complicated structures in the city on a postage size lot.

While you're debating floor counts on a digital model others are wagering if he's the next Urbancorp.
 
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From today.
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