TORONTO | Highrise Developments Compilation Thread - Page 58

TOBoy · #1 Posted **Nov 27, 2007, 12:55 AM**

From the Post:

Aura aims to be tallest condo tower in city
Yonge-Gerrard
Will Tremain, National Post
Published: Saturday, November 17, 2007

An old-fashioned race to the skies may be under way in Toronto's condo tower market.

Condo developer Canderel Stoneridge Equity Group yesterday unveiled its Aura tower, which it plans to build next year at Yonge and Gerrard streets.

Aura, a slender knife-blade building, currently sits at 75 storeys and 243 metres in height. That would make it slightly short than Bazis International's planned condominium tower at One Bloor Street East, whose roof would sit at 248 metres. The Trump International Hotel and Tower on the southeast corner of Bay and Adelaide, which when first announced was described as Canada's tallest residential tower, was recently scaled back to about 274 metres.

But Michael La Brier, president of Canderel Stoneridge, said his company could add up to 10 more storeys -- provided the city blesses the plan. Aura would then be the city's highest condo building, at about 280 metres.

"When we had the building engineered, we had everything so we could add up to 10 more floors to the building," said Mr. La Brier. "So that's certainly part of the discussion we need to have ongoing with the city."

The new Aura skyscraper will boast at least 960 residential units, and more if the additional floors are added. Canderel Stoneridge says 5,000 people are on a waiting list to buy.

Mr. La Brier is clearly willing to barter with the city to win add the additional height for the new tower. "One of the the things we want to do is completely rebuild the [nearby] Barbara Ann Scott Park, and that's a price I'm certainly prepared to pay, especially in lieu of getting another 10 storeys of density on the building."

The local city councillor, Kyle Rae, said he's open to the possibility of 10 more storeys -- ''that would be something that would have to go through planning''-- but welcomes the new people drawn to the downtown core's "residential renaissance."

"I know there are people in the neighbourhood looking to move up," said Mr. Rae.

Riz Dhanji, vice-president of sales and marketing for Canderel Stoneridge, said the sale of Aura's units, starting next February or March, should be nothing like this week's sales for the Bazis tower.

Real estate agents lined up for eight days for the chance to buy a unit in the Bazis tower. On the morning the sale began, arguments broke out, and the base price on the units jumped by $200,000.

"We don't believe in that," Mr. Dhanji said.

"We want it to be more of a controlled process, and as easy a process as possible. But we can't control if people want to line up."

© National Post 2007

Big Daddy · #2 Posted **Nov 27, 2007, 5:11 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TOBoy

From the Post:

Aura aims to be tallest condo tower in city....

Thanks TOboy, Ive’ been looking everywhere for that. It will be interesting to see who wins. As for the Trump building I believe it is to be 281.9m but is a hotel/condo mix. Candarel is boasting a condo only building and as such can say they have the tallest condo only building - if they beat Bazis.

Canadian74 · #3 Posted **Nov 27, 2007, 4:10 AM**

274m for Trump? Wasn't it 281.9m?

caltrane74 · #4 Posted **Nov 27, 2007, 9:54 PM**

RBC Glass!!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike in TO

Glass is now being installed:

Courtesy of Mike in To ( UrbanToronto.ca)

caltrane74 · #5 Posted **Nov 29, 2007, 2:41 PM**

here are some updated Bay Adelaide shots.

courtesy of Geekaroo at UT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geekaroo

Some Heavy Metal Rockers

Pardon the dirty window

Xeelee · #6 Posted **Nov 29, 2007, 3:25 PM**

Interesting pics.

caltrane74 · #7 Posted **Nov 29, 2007, 3:42 PM**

I haven't seen a steel skyscraper go up in Toronto in almost 20 years.

BCE place & Wellington Tower in 1990-1991 were the last of the great Toronto skyscrapers constructed of steel.

Tom In Chicago · #8 Posted **Nov 29, 2007, 4:21 PM**

Maritime Life is the only one I can think of. . .

caltrane74 · #9 Posted **Nov 30, 2007, 3:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike in TO

A couple screen shots from the website:

1 Bloor East courtesy of Mike in TO

Big Daddy · #10 Posted **Dec 4, 2007, 3:41 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by caltrane74

1 Bloor East courtesy of Mike in TO

Wow, these photos really put this building in "perspective". It will really have a dramatic impact on this area. Thanks for the post Caltrane and Mike.

caltrane74 · #11 Posted **Nov 30, 2007, 6:52 PM**

Maldive's render of the South East from SSP

Here is the context for the updated rendering:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maldive

I actually believe the tower portion of Aura is even better looking than the render suggests.

Aura is always rendered looking northwest, however since the tower portion remains basically the same through 3 re-designs (with the exception of more of the curved glass on this latest version)... I believe the tower is even better looking than this one POV suggests.

What makes the design particularly interesting is the way the west facade spirals up to the east facade (the 2 little adjusted thumbs below show what's happening).

I did a quicky sketch to try and interpret the view looking north east. If they add the extra 10 floors pushing Aura around the 280 metre mark... it will surely be one of the most iconic buildings ever constructed in the country (particularly give the reports of very expensive curtainwall).

Sim B · #12 Posted **Dec 1, 2007, 9:50 PM**

Hey guys, is there anyone here who made some renderings of either the Aura Tower, the 1 Bloor East, the Trump International Hotel & Tower, the Ritz-Carlton Toronto, or the L tower?

To promote any of the towers on wikipedia, I need a permission of the author (which is impossible to get coming from the developpers), and a "Free-use Copyright". That is, anybody can use/reproduce the image, with proper credits.

So, anybody here can render any of those towers so I can promote them?

Credits will be given, naturally.

For the sake of Toronto

caltrane74 · #13 Posted **Dec 3, 2007, 4:38 PM**

Maldive made the renderings.. ( or at least updated the renderings)

why not private message him??

Sim B · #14 Posted **Dec 3, 2007, 8:20 PM**

Good idea thanks caltrane

caltrane74 · #15 Posted **Dec 7, 2007, 4:53 PM**

Have you guys seen this stuff that Ziggy (SSC) posted?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ziggy

From the international section:

The linked pdf's have some interesting information that I've been trying to make sense of. Based on the elevator configuration, it seems that the only way to get up to the residences on floors 34-57 is to change elevators in the 32nd floor "sky lobby". Is this typical? It seems a bit inconvenient to me. Although there are several private massage rooms on that level...perhaps there's time for a quick "stress-release" massage while you wait?

I'm also struck by how much of the ground level street frontage is taken up by vehicle access. A ramp to the below-grade loading docks from Bay street, and access to the upper parking levels from Adelaide: