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

ksun said:
haha. There will always be people who prefer Toronto remaining a village kind of city, even at Yonge/Bloor. That's their right but the city will be moving forward nevertheless. Nobody is gonna spend $300M and build a few three story narrow houses on top of two subway lines.
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Since the comment you're replying to was in response to my comment a few pages back, I feel the need to respond. I have no issue with height here. In fact, I would love to see them build as tall as they can, provided the design is good. My problem is with the street level. Too many recent projects dominate whole blocks and create dead streetscapes.

Here is what I said specifically:

"Also my concerns about monolithic structures dominating single blocks has very little to do with height. Many of the new supertalls being built in Manhattan take up single lots much smaller than much shorter structures in toronto (and many other cities to be sure). I think this is a better model to follow than the large-footprint development we see here, but maybe that sentiment isn't echoed by others here."

So, for example, the entertainment district is full of 40-something story towers. Not overly tall. However the podiums often take up a footprint significantly larger than the tower on top. For example the Bell Lightbox, which takes up a whole block despite the fact that you could probably fit several similarly sized buildings on the same lot if they were arranged differently. An example of a development that I think got it right is theatre park. The footprint of the podium fits nicely into the urban fabric and has a much better relationship with the street as a result.

So by all means, build tall. But I do not agree that huge podiums with sterile street levels are necessary for "bold visual statements."
 
^ no disagreement here. Bay st has plenty of towers with large podium at the base equipped with nothing but boredom! I hope all the podiums regardless if size can open to the streets with well designed Window displays or outward looking restaurant, not some generic retail that only serves the building residents. Toronto seems to be terrible in achieving that.
 
They have bought other lots in the area beside this one and they are going into the mid to high rise market now. He is Iranian, they do things on a big scale lol. You have no clue how many lots they have bought in Downtown Toronto that no body knows about yet.
 
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That Money mart is pretty amazing. It's really bizzare that a Money Mart survives just 20 meters from the nation's premier shopping district and one of the highest street rental rates on the planet.
 
david-realtor said:
They have bought other lots in the area beside this one and they are going into the mid to high rise market now. He is Iranian, they do things on a big scale lol. You have no clue how many lots they have bought in Downtown Toronto that no body knows about yet.
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Feel free to tell us.
 
I like the small footprint tall tower designs for Yonge aswell but for this intersection corner plot id like sonethong on a large scale. Theres a lot of crappy businesses in small ugly buildings on Yonge that I would love to see be replaced with better retail.
 
I believe the owner has been quoted as saying the land assembled is equal in size to One Bloor.
With Uptown in the way, it will most definitely a L shape plot that include Scotia to the West and Cash money to the south to make up the size of One Bloor's Plot, or it must extend further south of hayden to make up the size
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AlvinofDiaspar said:
Not sure if you can get adequate separation. If the site is L-shaped, they can always go for a larger tower rotated 45 degrees to the street grid - it would make for a visually interesting arrangement too.

AoD
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A curved, Bow-like structure would be delightful.
 
With such a large building/development frontage, they need to mix up the retail frontage materials. having a monotonous frontage, whether brick glass or what have you, will be a detriment to street life and vitality of the Bloor street shopping corridor. Someone else in another thread made a similar comment: smaller frontages in exchange for higher towers can contribute to a more varied streetwall texture, with the example being made to New York.

God help us if we get some glazed block long pos frontage designed to look modern but really just cold and repulsive.
 
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