Here are a couple photos of 8 Elm from Yonge Street this morning:
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isaidso said:
Extremely promising so far and it should partially block out AURA from some vantage points too.
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I agree that 8 Elm shows great promise for the area. The addition of colour and a break away from the ‘box’ mentality that dominated the conservative architecture of the last two decades is a real positive.

However, I’ve never quite understood the almost universal hatred for Aura on this forum. Its night lighting, regardless of the breaks in its continuity, act as an interesting beacon on the skyline; the top third is curtain wall, with, to me, an interesting curve to its facade; there is curtain wall running up both the north and south facing sides, and I like its top third slim profile from those directions and its roofline, especially from the west, is a welcome break from the monotony of horribly exposed mechanical boxes, so perfectly represented by buildings like aA’s Eight Cumberland, one of their blandest buildings as far as I’m concerned. Does it have design and material issues? Sure, this is Toronto. But in a city filled with grey spandrel boxes, Aura is, to me, far from the worst building in the city.

In the end, the Gerrard and Yonge area will see an interesting transformation in the next couple of years.
 
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^Bargain basement spandrel as far as the eye can see. Janky massing. Toronto grey. And a soulless imposing podium....

...now I get that the curving tower is outside the glass box thinking, but its execution in everything else makes it hard to look at and live with, IMO..
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
^Bargain basement spandrel as far as the eye can see. Janky massing. Toronto grey. And a soulless imposing podium....

...now I get that the curving tower is outside the glass box thinking, but its execution in everything else makes it hard to look at and live with, IMO..
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A complaint one could have with numerous Toronto towers, especially in the entertainment district and the various Concord messes in the city. I’m simply pointing out that, for me, there are positives to this tower and I don’t overlook them when analyzing the tower as a whole.

In general, there seems to be a move to a more interesting mix of styles in recent proposals and, hopefully, 8 Elm comes through on that front
 
Tarazet said:
However, I’ve never quite understood the almost universal hatred for Aura on this forum.
Click to expand...

Some of the hatred goes back to the construction phase, before we even saw the top third. For many of us, we were looking at the bottom two-thirds for a long time before the curving curtainwall showed up. And that was lots of time to really notice the clunky, busy, and cheap windowwall covering the lower portion.

And then the lighting, the pedestrian realm, the public facing spaces most of us actually interact with... we've all been on a journey to get to where we are with the thing.
 
Tarazet said:
A complaint one could have with numerous Toronto towers, especially in the entertainment district and the various Concord messes in the city.
Click to expand...
...but isn't that the point though? If it was an actually a good tower nobody would be really saying that. /shrug
 
Tarazet said:
I agree that 8 Elm shows great promise for the area. The addition of colour and a break away from the ‘box’ mentality that dominated the conservative architecture of the last two decades is a real positive.

However, I’ve never quite understood the almost universal hatred for Aura on this forum. Its night lighting, regardless of the breaks in its continuity, act as an interesting beacon on the skyline; the top third is curtain wall, with, to me, an interesting curve to its facade; there is curtain wall running up both the north and south facing sides, and I like its top third slim profile from those directions and its roofline, especially from the west, is a welcome break from the monotony of horribly exposed mechanical boxes, so perfectly represented by buildings like aA’s Eight Cumberland, one of their blandest buildings as far as I’m concerned. Does it have design and material issues? Sure, this is Toronto. But in a city filled with grey spandrel boxes, Aura is, to me, far from the worst building in the city.

In the end, the Gerrard and Yonge area will see an interesting transformation in the next couple of years.
Click to expand...
UtakataNoAnnex said:
^Bargain basement spandrel as far as the eye can see. Janky massing. Toronto grey. And a soulless imposing podium....

...now I get that the curving tower is outside the glass box thinking, but its execution in everything else makes it hard to look at and live with, IMO..
Click to expand...
whatever said:
Some of the hatred goes back to the construction phase, before we even saw the top third. For many of us, we were looking at the bottom two-thirds for a long time before the curving curtainwall showed up. And that was lots of time to really notice the clunky, busy, and cheap windowwall covering the lower portion.

And then the lighting, the pedestrian realm, the public facing spaces most of us actually interact with... we've all been on a journey to get to where we are with the thing.
Click to expand...
Recall the Aura we got had been well-massaged by KPMB as the three previous efforts by G+C were bad enough that the City strong-armed Canderel into getting someone with a modicum of design fluency to try to improve it.
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
^Bargain basement spandrel as far as the eye can see. Janky massing. Toronto grey. And a soulless imposing podium....

...now I get that the curving tower is outside the glass box thinking, but its execution in everything else makes it hard to look at and live with, IMO..
Click to expand...
Would A Nightmare on Elm Street be fitting for it? ;)
 
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