Despite concerns about the sustainability of the glass-walled condo and the monotony they have brought to the Toronto skyline, these are not issues that concern city planners. That’s someone else’s department.
For planners, the main thing is to ensure that everything fits in — in other words, that nothing stands out. As long as a building isn’t too tall, too dense, or too good, the department is happy to give its approval.
— thestar.com
Photo by Sam Javanrouh, via.
2 Comments
I'd be curious to read the Toronto zoning ordinance to see if "glass towers" are actually somehow mandated, i.e. through density requirements, design guidelines, etc. I have a suspicion they are not as it is very difficult to write into code/zoning the aesthetic qualities of buildings; most developers would howl so loudly as to make it nearly impossible for a City to write it into code, even if they wanted to. My guess is that the developers are driving the ship on this issue and not City government.
Right, agreed. I clicked "like" on this one because I do think Toronto architecture is risk-averse and that the tall glass residential towers in general are a problem, but the article doesn't mention a single way in which planners are to blame for this. The more I think of it the more the article strikes me as completely -- 100%! -- groundless. It's the stating of an opinion, or an instinct... practically a journalistic bowel movement.
So then the question should be: are we posting it on Archinect to chat about how boring Toronto residential architecture is, or did someone actually think there was an intelligent point in this article? Or is there a real problem with Toronto city planning? I'm eager to believe there is, but then we need to find articles with analysis in them.
The fewer links to spurious articles there are on here, the better all our lives will be... Just sayin'.
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