Canadian City Proposals

[TorontoDrew]

This dare I say it "🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵" proposal came out last week. It will replace the current handsome mid century office building with 2 boring boxes.

Source: urbantoronto.ca

Address: 123 Edward St, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 0A8
Category: Condo, Retail
Status: Pre-Construction
Number: of Buildings 2
Height: 748 ft / 228.00 m, 748 ft / 228.00 m
Storeys: 72, 72
Number of Units: 1110, 779
Developer: Crown Realty Partners
Architect: Turner Fleischer Architects










Here is the buiding proposed to be demolished, along with a multi-storey parking garage behind it. This houses many court office which might be moving out to the new Court building behind city hall. I've been in that building once and it's floor plate is very narrow and the office are small so it might be tough to lease out without some major internal updates.

[Maldive]

You don't have to dare to say it's 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵... but this will be filed under "Fantasy Projects" on the 12th floor of City Hall (Planning).

- zero heritage retention of the nice office building (+ puny office replacement)
- almost zero (and laughable) separation between the towers
- sorta invades the City Hall view corridors (big "no no")
- huge floorplates and a postage stamp park with no sunlight

The Good News: PARTISANS will be retained for the redesign that fixes this Turner Fleischer Ouchitects mess, as they did with 145 Wellington W.

[WhipperSnapper]

145 Wellington is a different developer. Partisan will mature but, right now the cheesy star architecture knock offs aren't doing it for me.

You are right. Hope it stays a fantasy

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by Maldive

22 Balliol Residences | 126m | 38s | Shiplake | gh3 l approved

A settlement offer was approved at OLT a couple of months ago with revisions such as smaller tower floor plates (now 750m2), increased setbacks and fewer units (down from 425 to 399 units).

UT

Finally something elegant, Toronto. More beautiful. More sustainable. More texture. More of this please. Less soulless glass towers.
I love it.

[cranes]

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...gets-green-light-from-land-tribunal.html

Two-tower, 403-unit development in Kitchener gets green light from land tribunal
Developer appealed to tribunal after city rejected its Highland Road West plan
By Brent Davis Record Reporter
Mon., July 11, 2022

KITCHENER — The Ontario Land Tribunal has ruled in favour of plans to build a two-tower, 403-unit condominium development on Highland Road West in Kitchener.

The tribunal has ordered the city to grant the planning and zoning amendments necessary for the $200-million project, by Burlington-based LJM Developments, to proceed.
...
LJM started its application with the city in 2019, conducting a public open house on the proposal and a statutory public meeting before the city rejected the plan and LJM appealed to the tribunal.

The site at 1593 and 1603 Highland Rd. W., between Trussler Road and Ira Needles Boulevard, now contains two single-detached homes. The two towers will sit atop a four-storey podium, reaching a total of 13 and 16 storeys.

There will be a total of 403 condominium units — roughly 70 per cent will be one-bedroom, 25 per cent two-bedroom, and five per cent three-bedroom units.
...
The Highland Road development will also have more than 11,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and office space, and more than 160,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenity space, including a patio on the roof of the podium.

The complex will have about 500 underground, surface and above-ground vehicle parking spots, and nearly 300 bicycle spaces.
...
The company hopes construction on the buildings can begin next year.

1 of 2Front rendering of LJM Developments’ planned condominium complex on Highland Road West in Kitchener.  COURTESY LJM DEVELOPMENTS


2 of 2Back rendering of LJM Developments’ planned condominium complex on Highland Road West in Kitchener.  COURTESY LJM DEVELOPMENTS

[advance62]

I really don't think we need to copy and paste the stamped out journalism from The Record...

But, this is a nice looking project in a weird location on the edge of the city. The massing looks better than 90% of the urban stuff in KW.

[Maldive]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

145 Wellington is a different developer.

You know that was a joke right? Often times they don't land of course... and I didn't expect you to chuckle anyway, but a developer "clarification"?

[WhipperSnapper]

No need to be offended over a clarification regardless if everyone else gleefully understood you were just joking. I'm green afterall.

[Coldrsx]

Not sure what to think of this 'thing'.

108m

[pegcityboy]

That’s a clunker ColdRX too busy design all over the place ,getting dizzy looking at it ! Lol

[HomeInMyShoes]

I thought it was two different proposal options and then I kept looking at it. It's a veritable buffet of flavour of the month in one building.

[JHikka]

Top five worst proposal i've ever seen in this country.

[trueviking]

They actually put an image of the building they are ham-fistedly ripping off on the presentation board? Who are these guys?

it looks like they couldnt decide which building to rip off so they just made two sides look like one and two sides look like the other.

also that Chicago building they are stealing from is widely known as a complete failure for energy loss...in fact it couldn't be built in the same way in Edmonton. You cant just extend the floor slabs to make those shapes here like they did in the states....each one of those horizontal fins would have to be supported with some kind of thermally broken detail....would be a nightmare.


are these guys architects?

[905er]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Not sure what to think of this 'thing'.

108m

This proposal is having a serious identity crisis. What a mess!

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by trueviking

They actually put an image of the building they are ham-fistedly ripping off on the presentation board? Who are these guys?

it looks like they couldnt decide which building to rip off so they just made two sides look like one and two sides look like the other.

also that Chicago building they are stealing from is widely known as a complete failure for energy loss...in fact it couldn't be built in the same way in Edmonton. You cant just extend the floor slabs to make those shapes here like they did in the states....each one of those horizontal fins would have to be supported with some kind of thermally broken detail....would be a nightmare.


are these guys architects?

Aren't floor slabs exposed to the elements without any thermal breaks all the time in Canada?

I thought the same. Posting image of the designs they're bastardizing is next level.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by trueviking

Finally something elegant, Toronto. More beautiful. More sustainable. More texture. More of this please. Less soulless glass towers.
I love it.

There are actually quiet a few like this currently u/c or in the works. But yes less glass please.

[Nouvellecosse]

I actually kind of admire their honesty. At least they have the integrity to cite their sources lol.

Though admittedly that doesn't make the final product any more attractive. I think I'd rather they just chose one inspiration or the other. Or at least meld the inspirations more seamlessly. In this case it seems like there's one inspiration for one half and another for the other.

[WhipperSnapper]

Honesty is nice. I just wonder about the legalities of admitting plagiarism. TBC stands for Tkalcic Bengert. Those are very experienced names in Edmonton architecture. They would know better about that.

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Honesty is nice. I just wonder about the legalities of admitting plagiarism. TBC stands for Tkalcic Bengert. Those are very experienced names in Edmonton architecture. They would know better about that.

'inspiration'

[esquire]

That looks like a pretty rough design... dollars to donuts the next iteration will look more polished, even if it keeps the "two buildings in one" vibe, which is not necessarily a terrible concept imo.