Cookie Cutter Habitats for All.

Even when they try to make it look like different designs, as in the townhomes near Woodbine and Queen, they just end up getting a Stepford Wives feeling of fakery after you see the repeating pattern of 8 houses over and over.

Designing and building subdivisions with different houses to simulate your average Toronto innercity street that took 100 years to build would simply be too expensive I bet.

For those of us who prefer variety, we'll just have to save up and buy the real thing instead of a balsawood and tarpaper condo imitation!

Alas, it's becoming all too obvious that even the true Architects/Landscape artists of today have had the energy and spontaneity of creating ripped out of them by the need for efficiency/deadlines and financial limitation.

So much of the scenic backdrop seems so forced in Toronto. Down at cherry beach they put up a somewhat new path way and have tried to make it more family friendly, but if you turn your head north or NW all you see looming sentinel of industry only about what seems 100 meters away. Same goes for the entrance at Ashbridges bay, not to mention the stink they contribute to the surrounding area. Efficiency/necessity comes first, then esthetics. That's the formula for financial success and spiritual depravity of the western world.

The demolition business should be booming in this city in 35-40 years.

yeah, so these townhouses all look the same. my parents own a nice semi that's 70-80 years old, and guess what, it look exactly like all the other semi's on their street. in fact, most of those old neighbourhoods are like that to an extent.

these pre-fab houses are nothing new, and in 50 years the new ones will be old and "cool" just like the one my parents have now. you say the quality of the new houses is lower? any old house will have to have it's roof replaced, the wiring and plumbing redone .... quality is all relative. plus, these new ones sell for a lot less than the equivalent sized house in the same neighbourhood.

all in all, i don't think there's anything wrong with these new townhouses.. now, those big ugly condo skyscrapers are a different story.

The only thing that will force developers to put an emphasis on exterior design is if home buyers start to care. But the truth is they never have. The main concerns are price, location, and layout. The only other way is to have a design commitee at city hall approving new developments. But then why should they decide what looks good?

I have to agree with mn-l's comment about the quality of construction. All of the trendy areas of Toronto have houses that look almost exactly alike. My grandmother's home, built in the 50s in North York looks almost exactly like her neighbours'.

It's about costs. Builders can't afford to customize the look of each house, they can only throw in so much individuality before it slows them down too much.

You also have to consider the amount of skilled labour there is to do this. There are simply not enough brick layers around to do labour intensive jobs. As a result, brick layers charge ridiculous rates and this is why there is so much stucco going up (To do a few rows of brick on the chimneys at my parent's house, it cost 14-16k).

If you have the money to buy a well built, stylish house, go ahead and buy one. But the vast majority of people in Toronto can't afford that kind of quality. It is kind of pretentious to say it is not good enough for this city because it doesn't look "cool".

There is an additional factor that leads to 'cookie cutter' designs. Specifically, excessively restrictive municipal zoning bylaws. Their intent is to protect property values but the result is that designs have to conform to certain specifications, leading to a loss of creativity.

Unfortunately zoning bylaws are among the most boring/lenghthy/annoying things on earth to change, so only big developers bother to apply for variances....

hey mn-l pre-fab means something else entirely and can be a good (and diverse) way of building. pre-fab means the building is built in blocks off site.