City
Queen Richmond Centre West inspiring or eyesore?
One of Toronto's newest commercial developments happens to be slated for one of its busiest (and on weekends — drunkest) junctions, right at the corner of Peter and Richmond streets in the heart of the Entertainment District. The Queen Richmond Centre West (QRC) will be mixed-use office and retail space, rising a total of 17 storeys with a heritage structure facade at its base. Developed by Allied Properties REIT, QRC will, essentially, be a new proposed LEED Gold structure set atop an old warehouse. Awesome? Or a little bit too ROM Crystal take two? First, more on the structure:
WHAT'S INSIDE
Retail on the ground floor, fronting onto Queen and Peter streets. The ground floor will also host QRC's 70' high atrium with room for six high-speed elevators. Above will be mostly office space with floor plates totaling 23,604 square feet, designed to accommodate varied tenant layouts. Plus, a sky lobby for those hard-earned coffee breaks. Intended occupancy is the end of 2014.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Obviously, the big feature of this development is the repurposing of the four-storey warehouse base. Or, in marketing speak, "the juxtaposition of old and new." &Co Architects has designed the new structure to sit somewhat suspended over the old; a cantilever design that juts out slightly to one side. I believe it's the sort of thing that makes engineers squeal.
WHY HERE?
All those fresh new homeowners need to find a way to keep up with the mortgage, right? The area is certainly ripe with potential office workers, many of whom will be more than happy to cross the street from their new condo to their new workplace. And you pretty much can't go wrong with retail on Queen (and to a lesser extent, Peter). The heritage base certainly works with the facade of neighbouring structures, but I'm not so sure about the starkly modern addition.
Inspired, or eyesore?
Discussion
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Also, why do people keep hating on the ROM crystal? People complain when something is a bland, rectangular, glass building, but then when someone tries to do something different (what everyone seems to want), everyone complains that it looks too weird. Pathetic.
And I personally love the Crystal. I think it's spectacular and just what the ROM needed.
The article probably needs a few corrections because there is no "Retail on the ground floor, fronting onto Queen and Peter streets." Shouldn't it be "retail fronting Richmond and Peter?"
Also, the last paragraph says "And you pretty much can't go wrong with retail on Queen."
There will be no retail on Queen, because this building is not on Queen. (you also probably shouldn't start a sentence with the word "and")
That's to say, I also LOVE the ROM Crystal. Brilliant and visionary, I think it's passed the test of time. I know it opened in 2007, but I give a building about 3 years to see if the design looks tired.
I do like the last picture though, older building sides incorporated in new buildings always looks so cool to me :-)
Probably less of a concern at this intersection, but take for example Liberty Village - lots of new office spaces and condos but very little infrastructure changes to support the growth. I worry that it takes 1/4 the time to plan, approve, build, and open a building than it does the complimentary upgrades to public transit, roads, parking, etc. etc.
Also, why do people keep hating on the ROM crystal? People complain when something is a bland, rectangular, glass building, but then when someone tries to do something different (what everyone seems to want), everyone complains that it looks too weird. Pathetic.
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People hate on the ROM because
1) we were sold the following bill of goods: a cool all glass crystal-y pointy artsy facade
and
2) we were delivered a hideous aluminum siding clad disaster with few windows because the shitheads in charge didn't do their homework about
a) having all that glass exposing priceless old things to sunlight
b) having all those crazy angles would have made it impossible to prevent the entire facade of pointy glass bits from completely fogging/frosting over all winter
The ball was dropped in such a mind blowing spectacular way on the ROM. It is and will always be an enormous piece of shit.
And I personally love the Crystal. I think it's spectacular and just what the ROM needed.
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Please, tell us where all this alleged crystal is on the facade.
This integrates historic buildings, has a pretty unique looking lobby, and will likely have some high quality glass and other materials.
I don't know why some people are such architecture snobs and want every building to be an art project by a starchitect. This building is perfect for its purpose and context.
and let's be honest here - that corner used to the be beating heart of clubland, but everything has moved on. There's maybe one or two places left, but with places like Joker, Tonic, System, Fez etc all gone, there's really not a lot of nightlife right there.
I don't like the ROM crystal. It doesn't fit in with anything else in the area or the rest of the building; it looks like a strange growth on the building. Plus it looks even worse inside, with the angled walls they can't put anything interesting on them and they never had a giant mural or anything painted on it so you get a stark, bleak, empty entrance hall to the main museum in our city. It also ruined the dinosaur exhibit. Just generally a bad addition in all ways.
I agree it is not the most amazing piece of architecture in the world, but again, its a step in the right direction to shaking up the bland, constant cube/rectangular prism building ideology that pervades in Toronto (to this day it upsets me that the Sapphire Tower wasn't built...)