Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbao58
I was actually kind of surprised (Though I shouldn’t have been. It’s happening everywhere) by all the luxury high rise condos now in Toronto. I remember in the early 70s when high rise apartments in Toronto were for people who couldn’t afford houses. North York was full of UGLY high rises.
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Tower blocks used to be for the working classes but now they're for everyone. SFHs are unattainable for the vast majority of the population.
As far as Toronto has come, it's going to be many more decades before all that 'ugly' gets stripped away. People seem to forget that for most of Toronto's history it was a blue collar industrial city. Luxury, design, refinement were a rarity. Even though Toronto has transformed into a largely white collar cosmopolitan place the culture hasn't caught up to that shift.
There's still a large swath of the population that view museums, galleries, luxury, embellishment to be frivolous and a waste of money. Many Torontonians cried bloody murder when the city spent a little extra on the Yonge subway extension to make the subway stations something more than utilitarian. They have no appreciation for good design and are infuriated that money was spent on it.
2005-2015 Toronto built a ton of new condo towers. They were shiny and new but in 90% of cases, the architecture was a total after thought. Once again, it was a product of the city's culture (pragmatic). People now had money but design wasn't something they'd ever thought about before. When they did, it invariably turned out crude, gaudy, or both. The culture is slowly catching up to the type of city Toronto is today. There's been a gradual uptick in standards, quality, and attention to architecture. So things are heading in the right direction.
It's been an exhilarating but frustrating journey with many more battles to be won. Don't get me stated on Toronto's public realm.