Vertikal (471-481 King St E) | 23 & 19 fl | U/C

[kwcc]

I guess everyone is different but not sure how you can care less about the design towers? Do you not live in the area or do you not travel to the downtown often? These towers will be a fairly visible part of our skyline.  Maybe I am the only one that cares about the look of a building? 

You are not the only one who cares about the look of the buildings absolutely not. I would have to agree that the street presence does absolutely outweigh the building design though. 

Take toronto for example, if you visit UT many members also complain about the ugliness or cheapness of the condos going up there, but you'll notice with the uptick in higher quality condos in recent years, the old ones that were a blight on the landscape no longer stick out. 

Assuming/hoping Covid doesnt mess things up too bad, maybe these buildings are prominent for 10 years, but I fully expect they will get drowned out by larger high rises in the core to the point that eventually no one will this development a second thought, so long as whatever is happening at street level is not an eyesore that is.

There are so many factors that will limit the development in that area that I don't see these towers being engulfed by other towers for decades. This development, in particular, avoided nearly $10m in DC's and got an additional 2X FAR bonus. The DC holiday is over, bonusing is removed from the By-Law and land prices have soared since this property was purchased. I think this site was originally envisioned as a townhouse development. 

I agree that more attention needs to be paid to the design of towers. Of course, grade presence is critical, however, towers can be seen by everyone and are the first impression a person will have as they approach the city/downtown. If the buildings are not inviting, by association, neither is the city/downtown.

The real reason I wanted to add a note to this thread is the street front. I am guessing that the street-fronting facade is done in a way to comply with the King st. shop front study that depicts the types of facades that are 'encouraged' on King st. It's not the most imaginative study...but it's part of the encyclopedia of requirements that we have to consider. I'm not sure if it applies in that area but my experience is that some developers/designers/architects/planners can latch onto those types of documents to push a projects through planning, especially under tight deadlines. Regardless, the document isn't really representative of what I would like to see on King st. but is currently the only reference to draw from so, expect more similar.