TORONTO | 481 University Avenue | 184.5 M | 55 FLOORS
 

481 University Avenue, Toronto


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8085/8...8bb75cfe_b.jpg


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Not a bad start, let's see where this goes, could get interesting with the Icon Tower across the street.

Nice height, but boy is it ugly. It's like they've grabbed a few left over model designs, glued them together and decided, "hey, this is something."
I quite imagine that the design will change with time, so I'm not too worried yet.

It is a pastiche, but I don't mind it. It's very "Toronto".

Very true^

But that's the problem nowadays. Enough Toronto. More international please.

^As a box aficionado, I'm not sure I agree. I'll take a hundred of these mishmashes over some of the flamboyant crap that's going up in, for instance, London. No ridiculous Gherkins for me, thank you. That's just my preference.

Haven't you had enough of the 'International Style'? Toronto has done it to death for 60+ years. I'm a huge fan of the TD Centre, but enough already. Toronto is screaming out for designs that break with the never ending minimalist lines. Curves, texture, ornamentation, etc.

There's nothing more boring that having to look at mile upon mile of sameness for decade upon decade. It becomes insipid after awhile.

I like boxes in general, just not this proposal in its current design.
As for the Gherkin, I would love to see something like that in Toronto. I think the Gherkin would work in Toronto as it would match Royal Bank and ScotiaPlaza in being different from the "standard box", but also different in look to each other. I'm not a huge fan of the Shard, other than its height, but again wouldn't object to it being transplanted into Toronto.

I made a drawing for this one yesterday: http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=49855
I don't like this proposal in its current form, its too busy, the architect is trying too hard to do too much, it should be more simple IMO.

It's like the tower is trying to blend-in with the lowrise base and with the proposed 480 University tower across the street.

Oops, sorry. I didn't mean literally the "international style" architecture. In fact I was going for the total opposite. By international I meant globally recognizable or unique architecture like the proposals at oxford or 1 yonge. Of course we can't have that happening for every proposal but it would be nice to see some more creativity. Sorry for the mix up.

Reading the Application on the sign it appears the base is historic.

I thought it was just some 1960's blob thing. Wow!

Learn something new everyday.

I see Whippersnapper has posted this one to be about 190-195 Meter range.

Interesting.

There's mention that everything on Centre Avenue is coming down, but I hope and pray that 210 Dundas Street W (Maclean Hunter Printing Plant) is not touched. Then again, it is listed as a Heritage Property.

http://www.torontoofficespace.net/up...streetwest.jpg

yes it isn't being touched.

The estimated height is 185 metres.

No problem. The newer proposals do seem to be a step up from what we were getting fed even a year ago. This one isn't my cup of tea, but we are starting to see buildings that are more cosmopolitan and sophisticated: Oxford, Massey, Mirvish-Gehry, etc.

True but there is no guarantee that any of those proposals will go through. We need to see more towers that make an effort to look good from ground up but the ones that we do seem to get are mega projects that are risky in the eyes of the city. As long as we get some more towers that are architecturally sound but not a controversy (like 88 scott or Ice), I'll be happy :)

Some additional renderings courtesy of Urbantoronto.

http://urbantoronto.ca/sites/default...9140-31511.jpg

http://urbantoronto.ca/sites/default...9140-31522.jpg

http://urbantoronto.ca/sites/default...9140-31518.jpg

Toronto, were 55 floors can be nice filler.

I like the new look better, less cluttered...