everydayhim
Active Member
the irony that the balloons in that unit appear to say 'welcome home'...
- Thread starter CityPainter
- Start date
CityPainter
Active Member
According to a building permit, there's a new Cosentino Toronto Showroom going in to one of the vacant retails units at 158 Front St East. Cosentino is a Spanish company that sells high-end "surfaces" such as stone for countertops, flooring, walls, etc. They have locations in Vaughan and North York already.
AlbertC
Superstar
The home furnishings district continues to grow!
Johnny Au
Superstar
April 17, 2025:
deerparker
Active Member
The exposed HVAC, drywall, etc. above the storefronts is unfortunate.
christiesplits
Senior Member
Everything about the street level is a mess.
CityPainter
Active Member
Cobs finally covered it. The rest of the businesses should follow suit.
ProjectEnd
Superstar
Natural outcome of having a low-ceiling use like a dentist's office, occupy a space with 5m+ ceiling heights. Folks don't want to get their teeth done in a school gym...
Dr. Snoot
Active Member
It's not the users' fault; its just incredibly bad design.
Streetwall of glass, no separation between retail units, no exterior space for signage, no delineation of entrances; unconcealed ducting and electrical work.
a-A created the single worst block of new retail that exists downtown, if you ask me. Well, until T&S is occupied.
Poor Front Street East.
ProjectEnd
Superstar
It's commodity retail. It does as little as possible to get the highest rates. This is mostly on Cityzen for being lazy, the City not pushing hard on what matters most, and the brokerage community for not caring about anything more than a commission on an easy lease. Sure aA drew it up, but they're just the conduit for the real forces at work. If you want to "blame" them, I can't stop you, but you're largely pointing ire in the wrong direction.
AlbertC
Superstar
Good to see there's no shortage of dental offices and nail salons!
Amare
Senior Member
I miss the days dental offices were largely located in medical office buildings.
Now unfortunately, they're abandoning this model and are sprouting up like dandelions across retail footage everywhere.
Now unfortunately, they're abandoning this model and are sprouting up like dandelions across retail footage everywhere.
Dr. Snoot
Active Member
I'm happy to blame others as well, but yes, I am going to indict a-A as the architect (i.e. the designer of the building) for bad ground floor treatment. a-A has a very mixed (largely subpar) history on retail across a variety of developers. See Alter, Pier 27, Yonge + Rich, Theatre Park, Form -- absolutely terrible. And you can see how it arises from their design "ethos" of austere minimalism, excessive use of glass, lack of detail. Where they have done decent ground treatment, it's often been in partnership with other architects, like Cobe, or on projects they took over. Track record speaks for itself.
DSCToronto
Superstar
True and they are not alone. It appears that those who develop retail spaces do not talk to those who rent them out (or sell them) and the street-level of many buildings looks like an afterthought in far too many cases. Sizing the retail spaces properly is clearly vital and hard to predict so obviously better to create large spaces that can be sub-divided based on the current demands. In the case of 158 Front the fact that they put the main residential entrance in the middle of the Front Street side meant there are no large spaces possible. Time and Space is not surprisingly, even worse as they not only have several residential entrances but have grading issues too.
UtakataNoAnnex
Senior Member
Somehow installing a set-backed mezzanine would of worked wonders here for those low ceiling retail renters.