Canadian City Proposals

[caltrane74]

Originally Posted by Vaillant

166m +133m for the office tower

OMG !!!

Montreal HAS MADE it onto the top 25 proposals!

This is a good day.



Ramako, you've got some updating to do.

[Tone]

Montreal is literally on fire these days and its far from being over.

An article says theres 37 cranes in the sky right now and they are expecting that number to climb to 48 in a few weeks.

[caltrane74]

ROM meets its match
JOHN BENTLEY MAYS | Columnist profile | E-mail
Globe and Mail Update
Published Thursday, Mar. 31, 2011 11:52AM EDT

Ever since the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) switched its main entrance from Queens Park to Bloor Street West five years ago, the first thing a visitor has seen, when exiting architect Daniel Libeskind’s controversial extension of the venerable treasure house, is the McDonald’s across Bloor Street West.

It’s long been the wrong outlet in the wrong place. The visual punches thrown by Mr. Libeskind’s building, the handsome overhauls by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg of the Royal Conservatory next door and the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art around the corner, the establishment of this stretch of Bloor as the most upscale shopping district in Toronto: all these recent cultural transformations have made a dumpy fast-food joint in the midst of this high-style, refined activity increasingly irksome.

I’m happy to report, therefore, that the McDonald’s outlet will soon be gone. It is to be turfed out and bulldozed to make way for a new condominium tower that will, if we’re lucky, complement and further the ongoing renaissance of Bloor West.

Designed by Toronto architect Rosario Varacalli for a consortium of developers – Bazis, Metropia and Plazacorp – the 32-storey structure, called Exhibit, is the city’s first building to engage in an active architectural dialogue with Mr. Libeskind’s flamboyant monument across the street. (I mean creative dialogue, as opposed to the grumbling one still hears from local architects and the museum-going public about what Daniel Libeskind has visited upon the city.)

While the exterior of Mr. Libeskind’s ROM addition is black and grey and metallic, for example, Mr. Varacalli’s tower will be sheathed in white fritted glass. The Bloor Street façade of the ROM is all elbows and knees jazzily jutting out from the central volume. Mr. Varacalli expresses his personal futurism by stacking four big multi-storey slabs of architecture, one on top of the other, then smartly rotating each and sliding it sideways off the vertical axis of the composition. Exhibit, then, will totter and twist up into the sky, while the ROM, despite its angular commotion, hugs the ground.

In other words, Mr. Varacalli’s building will be a re-interpretation, in light of Mr. Libeskind’s various manipulations of space, of the tall-building form in an urban context. Instead of slipping politely into the surrounding city fabric, like a routine modernist skyscraper is supposed to do, Exhibit will stand out, assertively defining the streetscape just as the ROM does. And instead of retiring from the fray of big-city life behind dull, opaque cladding – the worst thing about Mr. Libeskind’s ROM exterior – Exhibit will show a bright, light and translucent face to the street.

Exhibit’s unusual shape dictates wide variety in the suite configurations: Mr. Varacalli told me that there are 40 different apartment layouts in this complex of just 200 condominium apartments. The size of units range from around 600 square feet to 1,500 square feet for two bedrooms and a den that can be converted into a third bedroom. Prices for available one-bedroom apartments start at $600,000, Mr. Varacalli said, while the largest suites are priced at around $2-million. The top two floors of Exhibit will be devoted to penthouses.

The views deserve special mention. The ones from the upper three rotating volumes will open, to the south, toward downtown and Lake Ontario over the low block of the ROM and the campus of the University of Toronto. To the north, they will open across the stable residential Annex neighbourhood. The building will present a set of protected views, that is – a rare asset in a city increasingly populated by view-blocking high-rises.

An adjoining garage structure will offer eight floors of parking. Because the subway runs directly beneath the building, there will be no underground parking or basement. On top of the garage, Mr. Varacalli will roll out a garden with trees and a reflecting pool. The garden will connect directly to standard high-rise interior amenities – a fitness centre, a private dining room and so on. The lowest two storeys of the tower will feature shops, as befits a building that fronts on to a retail street like Bloor West. The entrance to the residences, crafted by designers Diego Burdi and Paul Filek, will be a mere slot in the street-wall of retail.

Toronto clearly doesn’t need striking tall buildings of this kind on every street corner. The city still requires much patient, gentle care, if its basic texture is to be spared and conserved. But a theatrical gesture like Exhibit every now and then, especially in a high-pressure cultural zone such as Bloor West, is and should be welcome.

from the globe and mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home...mays/rom-meets-its-match/article1964897/

[-Harlington-]

Clayton Park proposal in suburban Halifax :

four twelve floor buildings near a highway and retail park

[Coldrsx]

^good lord don't people learn.

[rapid_business]

Originally Posted by Tone

Montreal is literally on fire these days and its far from being over.

.....

[someone123]

Yeah, that development in Halifax is awful. It's not even good by local suburban standards.

[1ajs]

yea could use more towers that are taller

[The_Architect]

Originally Posted by onishenko

.....

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by onishenko

.....

Kinda like Whyte ave was Oni?


(http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/7810/shoppingcart5wg.jpg)

[Tone]

^

So, it seems that i didnt used the word literally properly or whatever, big fuckin deal.

It dosen't matter, im sure my english is better than your french.

[rapid_business]

Originally Posted by The_Architect

well, only when the Habs lose.... or win for that matter.

Cold, I believe the picture you are looking for is this one:

from: http://i.imgur.com/jdODjl.jpg

Not my proudest moment.... or maybe it was?

[1ajs]

u seariously crowed surfed in a shoping cart thats a new one!

[caltrane74]

While back in toronto another new proposal!!!
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An Early Look At The New Cityzen Condos at 154 Front East

UrbanToronto has received early images of a new condo project being developed by Cityzen at 154 Front Street East. The design concept, by Peter Clewes of architectsAlliance, features a pair of towers sprouting from an 8-storey podium, rising to 24 and 34 storeys, and joined by a skybridge at the 25th floor. The proposal, which will replace the Greyhound Bus Parcel Express depot, is working its way through community meetings at the beginning of the approval process.

More info and pictures at www.urbantoronto.ca

[Martin Mtl]

That one is nice.

[caltrane74]

This design has been done to death in Europe, but the materials as they are being presented in this render look fantastic. This will make or break the project.

[Coldrsx]

Thats the one Oni, man you are my hero. I was simply on Jasper waving a flag.

Starting to get sick of box after box and I like squares.

[caltrane74]

Tomorrow is a new day. 50/50 odds we get one tomorrow that is not a box.

[Dmajackson]

Revised proposal for 1595 Barrington Street in Halifax. This proposal has been around for years but was recently downgraded to increase the chances of approval. It currently stands at 50.4m (12 floors office/14 residential) and will retain the heritage facade at the base.


Photo hosted by Someone123

[caltrane74]

Originally Posted by caltrane74

Tomorrow is a new day. 50/50 odds we get one tomorrow that is not a box.

Casa Loma Revitalization Takes A New Twist



UrbanToronto was recently alerted to stirrings at the house on the hill, so we have news on long-gestating plans to turn around Casa Loma, the famous but under-capitalized attraction perched high over Spadina Road. The Kiwanis, which manages Casa Loma for the City of Toronto, has been looking into ways to generate the funds needed to restore more of the building, and to complete more of Sir Henry Pellatt’s dreams.

First, a little history (a fuller history can be found here):

Sir Henry, a multi-millionaire financier with interests in the railway, mining, and hydroelectric power, built Casa Loma with architect E.J. Lennox, beginning work in 1911. Not all of Pellatt’s interior plans were completed when World War I broke out and construction halted in 1914. The results of the construction were the famous turreted ‘castle’ house we know today, including the Hunting Lodge and Stables which extend north along Walmer Road. The house was habitable, and Sir Henry and Lady Mary moved in, but soon enough the Pellatts ran into increasing financial difficulties, and by 1923 they were forced to move out of the grand estate. The late 1920s saw Casa Loma operating as a luxury hotel and a popular nightspot, and it was during this time that the great hall and billiard rooms were finished. The hotel failed in 1929, and the house subsequently sat vacant through the Great Depression, until the City of Toronto seized the property in 1933 for unpaid back taxes. Several schemes were considered to keep the massive property afloat financially, including making it a permanent home for the Dionne Quintuplets. All plans fell through however, and in 1936 the City considered demolishing the structure. It was then that the Kiwanis Club of West Toronto offered to run Casa Loma as a tourist attraction, and a year later after considerable refurbishment, the building opened to tours.

Original furnishings were sold off when Pellatt’s finances collapsed, and a slow restoration to period condition has continued at Casa Loma under the auspices of the Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma ever since. Tourism figures have not been as high as all involved would have liked, and other functions including dances, film and tv shoots and the like have not paid all of the bills over the years. The Kiwanis Club has come in for criticism from the City for not having put enough money back into the building, and for being too slow to respond to changes in tourism trends. Despite the criticism, following months of negotiations with the City, the Kiwanis’ management contract was extended in 2008 for another 20 years. As part of the agreement, Kiwanis was required to draw up plans to reinvigorate the attraction. Until now the has CIty rejected the plans for a visitor orientation centre, a centrepiece gift shop, galleries, community venues, a theatre, and possibly a five-start restaurant as inadequate.

Here’s the latest:

Kiwanis is floating a new plan now, and have been talking it up with community groups, hoping to gain support before going to the city with it. UrbanToronto caught up at a working group meeting held with the Russell Hill Residents Association this past Wednesday, where discussions about what is being called ‘Casa Loma 2’ were underway.









he tower would be post-modern in design, sensitively blending with the house’s famous turrets, with throwbacks to the neo-Gothic design of Casa Loma, and clad in sandstone precast and a lightly reflective gray glass so as to not overpower the landmark beside it.

At the base of the tower is a four-storey podium which would house the parking garage (both above and below-ground levels) plus amenities for the condominium residents. The podium would also contain space for the visitor orientation centre, a relocated ‘Castle Keep’ gift shop, and a cafe. 'Sir Henry’s Cafe' as well as the gift shop would move out of the lower level of the castle and into Casa Loma 2, allowing Pellatt’s never-completed bowling lanes, shooting range, gymnasium and swimming pool to finally be finished. A search to find an operator for a Fitness Club within those facilities is pending. It was also noted that vines will be encouraged around the hill-side of the podium to mitigate the impact of the new bulk from Davenport Road, and from Casa Loma’s gardens.










Avril Poisson, 71, a resident of the Annex who attended the meeting, had this to say, “My house is just up the street from where Jane Jacobs lived, and there’s no way she would have allowed anything taller than 18, maybe 19 storeys here. 28? You gotta be kidding!” John Knightly, 53, of Lyndhurst Avenue did not even want 18 storeys. “If we moved Giorgio Mammoliti’s Toronto Islands red light district into Casa Loma, we wouldn’t need a condo tower at all. Kiwanis would make all the money they need quickly. And it would be far more convenient!” “Set it up on a trial basis. Call it ‘Red Light Nights at the Castle’” added Trevor Rampallion, 19, a student at nearby George Brown College who boards on Davenport Road. Nina Hilton, 44, of Wells Hill Avenue, was in favour of Kiwanis’ previous plan to convert Casa Loma into a no-slots casino. “We could be another Monte Carlo. World class. I don’t know what the problem is. The place is perfect for roulette wheels.” “I’m just thankful it’s not another green-glass box. This is a very complimentary design” said Roy Croft, 85, of Glen Edyth Drive.

Discussions are ongoing. It will likely take time to build consensus on a plan, but for now Kiwanis’ scheme to build Toronto’s first 6-star luxury boutique resort hotel on the site of the stables is on hold until all of the details of Casa Loma 2 are worked out.


from urbantoronto.ca


a proposal that is not a box!

lol! - April 1st - lol!