Canadian City Proposals

[ericmacm]

I really want to love the design of these towers, but I feel that they are just too short and small to be where they are. This site has a lot of tall neighbours. These two need to be significantly taller at this location, around 50-75m taller for both buildings.

It's a significant improvement over the first iteration, but it's still not good enough. The Dominion Public Building deserves much better.

[905er]

Originally Posted by ericmacm

I really want to love the design of these towers, but I feel that they are just too short and small to be where they are. This site has a lot of tall neighbours. These two need to be significantly taller at this location, around 50-75m taller for both buildings.

It's a significant improvement over the first iteration, but it's still not good enough. The Dominion Public Building deserves much better.

The Dominion Public Building deserves to be left alone. That's what it needs. These two towers look so out of place.

[Zeej]

This is a terrible proposal. The DPB should remain undisturbed and dignified.

[TorontoDrew]

I don't mind having a single tower on the eastern end as shown, the centre tower takes away from the current building. One thing I do like is the re-purposing the south side as a hotel entrance. What has always been loading docks and now the current GO bus terminal will be a nice new pedestrian plaza.

source: https://cdn.skyrisecities.com



I've mentioned it before, very few pictures exist of the interior of this structure. It would be nice to have public access to what ever remains inside. From what I have heard though is most of the inside is dull utilitarian office space with little to no heritage features left to be saved aside from 3 marble clad lobbies.

That being said the dveloper who purchased this structure for over $275 million three years ago will need to go big to turn a profit here. One of the only ways this building would have remained as is in it's current state is if the federal government maintained their offices in it. The reality is that this building costs too much to maintain and unless people (tax payers) are willing to foot the bill keeping this as an empty showpiece the best we can hope for is a development that will help bring this into the 21st century while preserving the grandeur of the structure.

source: https://4.bp.blogspot.com

[isaidso]

If they're going to mess with the Dominion Building (wish they'd just leave it alone) it needs to be architecturally spectacular. This isn't. It's a nice office complex but not anything more.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by esquire

Agreed. But schlepping towers on top of old buildings, no matter how absurd the result, has become Toronto's architectural calling card. It's their thing. So on that basis I can accept it.

You have to draw the line somewhere. Do we add a tower on top of the Royal York because its in a prime spot? Do we re-clad the CN Tower in glass? Not every lots needs hyper density or 'updating'.

[TorontoDrew]

The Royal York is a successful and very large hotel. This is an old office structure that will be virtually impossible to find a tenant for who would want to spend the money to make it a usable space. It would cost around 300 million to just buy it now, and then the amount of money to upgrade and make it usable would be astronomical. Sadly this is how this structure is going to stay usable. If it were the 50's it would have just been demolished.

[TorontoDrew]

Revised pland for T3 Sterling Road in the Junction. It's nice to see some large office space proposed here. The area has a ton of old loft space and is home to Toronto's gaming industry so this will be a very popular space for gaming, FX, and tech companies looking to be near each other and not having to pay downtown lease prices.

source: urbantoronto.ca

Address 158 Sterling Road , Toronto , Ontario, M6R 2B2
Category Office, Retail
Status Pre-Construction
Number of Buildings 2
Height 128 ft / 39.01 m, 103 ft / 31.39 m
Storeys 8, 6
Developer Hines
Architect DLR Group , WZMH Architects
Interior Designer Partners by Design
Landscape Architect Janet Rosenberg + Studio
Engineering The Mitchell Partnership Inc., EQ Building Performance Inc., Vortex Fire Consulting Inc. , RJC Engineers, Grounded Engineering Inc.
Planning Urban Strategies Inc.















more renders here: https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2020/05/plans-refined-t3-sterling-road-office-complex


The funny thing about that last render is it would be around 6am in July, is this going to be a rooftop after hours?

[suburbanite]

Not sure if the residential is intentionally cut out of the render, but that looks a lot more scaled down than their previous versions. A lot more open space in the middle than I remember. Not a bad thing, but I'd hope they do something interesting with it.

[TorontoDrew]

The previous plan looked nice but I assume it was unfeasible cost wise. It still had the large open space but they spent time adding more artistic elements to the render. I'm assuming the large grass area will only stay like that until it's built on.

source: urbantoronto.ca

[yaletown_fella]

I think the new proposal fits the site better. Very sharp!

[ericmacm]

I was browsing 3Bridges' site for the proposal for the Loretto site in Niagara Falls. Turns out, there are actually multiple proposed designs for the site. The first design is the one that was posted here prior.

There are lots of images on their website.

Design 1:







Design 2:







Design 3:

[zahav]

Are these all condos? Who are they targetting? Ie.will these be vacation homes or primary residences? The scale seems way too big for a place like Niagara

[urbandreamer]

All garbage.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by zahav

Are these all condos? Who are they targetting? Ie.will these be vacation homes or primary residences? The scale seems way too big for a place like Niagara

In NF it's all about the view so the height isn't surprising. Besides, there are only so many spots with good views of the falls. They have to make good use of the ones that exist. Building 40 floors or less would be rather short sighted.

[yaletown_fella]

The last design looks like something out of Singapore or Macau

[J.OT13]

We need to stop placing historic designations to exterior of buildings only (façades) and designate THE BUILDING. Foundations, structure, anything original or reasonably long standing in the interior. If we designated the ENTIRE building, then maybe the prices for these structures would drop, making it possible to redevelop within the existing space.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by yaletown_fella

The last design looks like something out of Singapore or Macau

The first one gives off Miami or Dubai vibes. Looks odd in Niagara Falls.

[scryer]

I like the first and the third designs.

[craner]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

That being said the dveloper who purchased this structure for over $275 million three years ago will need to go big to turn a profit here. One of the only ways this building would have remained as is in it's current state is if the federal government maintained their offices in it. The reality is that this building costs too much to maintain and unless people (tax payers) are willing to foot the bill keeping this as an empty showpiece the best we can hope for is a development that will help bring this into the 21st century while preserving the grandeur of the structure.

This is key. It’s a fantasy to expect the owner to just “let the building be”.