Posted Feb 18, 2013, 1:20 PM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 52,983
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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013...onto_hume.html
Architect Frank Gehry and impresario David Mirvish would change face of Toronto
Combining art and architecture of the highest order, the David Mirvish-Frank Gehry project includes culture and condos in equal measure.
By:Christopher Hume
Feb 17 2013
Quote:
For a brief moment back in 2004, it looked as if the Art Gallery of Ontario might move into new a waterfront building designed by Toronto-born superstar architect Frank Gehry. That never happened. Instead, Gehry was commissioned to remake the AGO’s long-time premises at Dundas and McCaul Sts. That project turned out splendidly, but it wasn’t quite the triumphal homecoming one might have wanted for this city’s most celebrated architectural son.
But now Toronto has a second chance at a Gehry. Thanks to impresario David Mirvish, the Santa Monica-based architect could have another kick at the can. The two have hatched a scheme that would transform the north side of King east from John to just past Duncan St. Plans call for three 80-storey condo towers atop a five-floor podium filled with shops, restaurants, office and major new art galleries, one featuring Mirvish’s collection and the other work by staff and students of the Ontario College of Art and Design University.
The proposal was launched last October, and since then, the discussion has focused largely on the height of the towers and the fate of a handful of early 20th-century warehouses and the more recent Princess of Wales Theatre. The city is standing firm on the need to preserve heritage and, of course, the locals will take care of the height issue...
“The podium will be a single architectural expression,” Gehry’s associate and amanuensis, Craig Webb, said in Toronto last week. “Frank wants it to reinforce the cultural flavour of the neighbourhood and activate the space around the project. He also wants it to look like a cloud. Now we have to figure out how to make that.”
The tower-on-the-podium model is familiar to Torontonians; it has been the template for condo development for years. As well as looking like a cloud, the base of Mirvish’s complex will include a major cultural component, the Princess of Wales Centre for the Visual Arts. Mirvish’s intention is to display his large collection of abstract art, specifically Colour Field painting, and to create a place of study.
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" MY GOD! " ANOTHER skyscraper?.... Don't people, in Toronto, know how to build anything ' lowrise ' ? At this pace, Toronto's going to become North America's version of Dubai.
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