Quote:
Originally Posted by officedweller
If the mullions are spaced at a consistent grid, then the layouts of the penthouses could be built within that grid. For example - mullion spacing of 3 or 4 feet and interior walls laid out in accordance with that grid. When Bing Thom designed the unbuilt crystral tower for the Hotel Georgia site, the facade was based on a repeat of 8ft cubes, so interior layouts were based on that measurement. That's how office floorplans are designed - to match the mullion spacing. the fact that there are 10 ft sections of spandrel between columns (as shown in the pic) on an exterior wall means there must be a closet or a bathroom behind there, which to me, is lazy design. It also takes away window frontage.
It also used to be that buildings were well designed up top, such as the Sun Tower, Dominiion Building, Marine Building and others in older cities like Toronto - not only for the pride of the occupants of those upper floors (think boardrooms and executive offices), but because the other people who could see those floors clearly were their peers. You wouldn't want your competitors / peers looking across at a substandard penthouse corporate head office. I would think the same would apply to condos - because so much of that market caters to the superficial.
Would someone still buy perfectly engineered and interior-appointed car is it looked awful on the outside?
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The reverse of that question could also be valid.
Would you buy a car that looked sleek, elegant, like a sublime work of art on the outside,....
....but was cramped, uncomfortable on the inside and broke down every 10 miles thanks to poor engineering?
(but hey, you'd look great standing next to it on the side of the road waiting for AAA to come pick you up)
My take on it is that these luxury units (the typical penthouse and sub-penthouse) are usually designed first and foremost with the comfort, luxury and enjoyment of the eventual occupant in mind, before all other considerations - including whether that comfort and luxury gives someone else in a different building a great view or not.
You're going to sell those units for upwards of $2, 3 even 5 or 6 million a pop (depending on where the building is located).
They're paying a premium for those units and expect to get their money's worth, after all.
If they're going to get plenty of sunlight and eye-catching views from one side of their expansive unit in the (possibly double height) great room or living room facing at the mountains or downtown Vancouver, why would they care that the other side of their unit has a (large) walk-in closet or ensuite that requires spandrel panels and is blocking daylight (that they're already getting plenty of from the actual living areas of the unit) - and on a side of the unit that doesn't even have any great views anyway. Even if that takes away from the overall design.
And office buildings are normally designed to be flexile in terms of how the spaces will be subdivided internally (if at all) depending on who leases it.
They're also designed as a "take-it" or leave-it" proposition in terms of this is how the spandrel/mullions spacing works for all the floors.
So in that situation they can enforce a single design for the whole building exterior and not have to worry about what's happening on the interior (which will have it's own organization and logic....again, based on who leases the space).
Another way to think about it is, (if you're considering that these people are mostly concerned with the superficial) - if you're one of the people buying one of those units, why would I be paying that extra $2-3 million for that unit, if it's just going to end up looking like (and possibly even feeling like, .....on the inside, anyway) one of the lesser units on the floors below?
Those out-of-place spandrel panels that stand out (and stick out like a sore thumb) and which ultimately do that to add to my comfort are in and of themselves a statement of my distinction from the rest of the........hoi polloi...down below*.
If you will.
(* I can't say for a fact and without a shred of doubt that this is how rich people and the uber-wealthy think,...........but ,this is how rich people think)
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