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This is perhaps the wrong post to be writing right now with gas prices where they are, but lately I've been thinking about parking garage designs. We have talked a lot about parking minimums and other related topics on this blog, but let's put all of these aside for today and assume that parking garages are a thing that will continue to exist in our cities.
Generally speaking, parking garages are fairly utilitarian spaces. They store cars and they usually aren't that nice. And in the case of public garages, they often smell like urine. But there are some extraordinary examples out there. Miami immediately comes to mind as a city with some pretty cool garages. I mean, when you have one designed by Herzog & de Meuron (1111 Lincoln Road) that is usually a pretty good indicator.
When I was there in January, we went walking one night through the Design District and we ended up on the roof of "Museum Garage" to take some photos and take in the views. Once we got there, we found people doing everything from eating dinner to filming TikTok videos. Great spaces attract people. It also helps when all of your parking is above-grade, which is the case in Miami.
Here is another example from Sydney (also pictured above). In this case, it's a residential parking garage and Craig & Karl were hired to create a colorful geometric mural. Garages are a perfect place to be a bit more playful and have some fun. I think we should do more of this.
Photo via Craig & Karl
The submission documents for 1200 Bay Street -- the supertall being designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Quadrangle Architects -- are now publicly available through the City of Toronto's development applications website. I went through the plans today out of curiosity. Below are the typical residential floors. The three tranches shown here are floors 19-46, 48-79, and 81-84. Note the side elevator core and the east-west shear walls -- both of which I was expecting to see.
And here are some of the main project stats:
Site area after laneway widening: 890.1 square meters
Total gross floor area (residential & non-residential): 54, 898 square meters
Floor space index: 61.67
Building height (excluding mechanical penthouse): 324 meters
Number of residential suites: 332
Vehicular parking spaces proposed: 0
Bicycle parking spaces proposed: 673
As a rule and out of professional courtesy, I do not comment on other people's projects on this blog (other than to occasionally point out awesome and ambitious projects). But I do enjoy going through drawing sets to see what others are doing and to see what I might learn. And I am similarly happy to collaborate with others who may want to learn from what we are doing.
If you'd like to download a copy of the submission package, you can do that by entering the address over here.
This is perhaps the wrong post to be writing right now with gas prices where they are, but lately I've been thinking about parking garage designs. We have talked a lot about parking minimums and other related topics on this blog, but let's put all of these aside for today and assume that parking garages are a thing that will continue to exist in our cities.
Generally speaking, parking garages are fairly utilitarian spaces. They store cars and they usually aren't that nice. And in the case of public garages, they often smell like urine. But there are some extraordinary examples out there. Miami immediately comes to mind as a city with some pretty cool garages. I mean, when you have one designed by Herzog & de Meuron (1111 Lincoln Road) that is usually a pretty good indicator.
When I was there in January, we went walking one night through the Design District and we ended up on the roof of "Museum Garage" to take some photos and take in the views. Once we got there, we found people doing everything from eating dinner to filming TikTok videos. Great spaces attract people. It also helps when all of your parking is above-grade, which is the case in Miami.
Here is another example from Sydney (also pictured above). In this case, it's a residential parking garage and Craig & Karl were hired to create a colorful geometric mural. Garages are a perfect place to be a bit more playful and have some fun. I think we should do more of this.
Photo via Craig & Karl
The submission documents for 1200 Bay Street -- the supertall being designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Quadrangle Architects -- are now publicly available through the City of Toronto's development applications website. I went through the plans today out of curiosity. Below are the typical residential floors. The three tranches shown here are floors 19-46, 48-79, and 81-84. Note the side elevator core and the east-west shear walls -- both of which I was expecting to see.
And here are some of the main project stats:
Site area after laneway widening: 890.1 square meters
Total gross floor area (residential & non-residential): 54, 898 square meters
Floor space index: 61.67
Building height (excluding mechanical penthouse): 324 meters
Number of residential suites: 332
Vehicular parking spaces proposed: 0
Bicycle parking spaces proposed: 673
As a rule and out of professional courtesy, I do not comment on other people's projects on this blog (other than to occasionally point out awesome and ambitious projects). But I do enjoy going through drawing sets to see what others are doing and to see what I might learn. And I am similarly happy to collaborate with others who may want to learn from what we are doing.
If you'd like to download a copy of the submission package, you can do that by entering the address over here.
This week, Alex Bozikovic (of the Globe and Mail) dropped the news that a new supertall by Herzog & de Meuron is being planned for the northwest corner of Bay and Bloor here in Toronto. The developers are Kroonenberg Group and ProWinko, both of which are based / have their roots in the Netherlands. At 87 storeys and 324 meters, it would be the tallest building in Canada if it were built today. The proposal includes retail, office, and residential uses.
The first thing that everybody is talking about is the tower's slenderness ratio (the upper floors are said to be about 7,300 square feet). I'm not a structural engineer, but the structural engineers that I do know are telling me that this tower will almost certainly require a tuned mass damper at the top of the building for lateral stiffness. The tower is very narrow in its east-west direction (see below) and so it will perform as a kind of "sail" in the wind. But as New York and other cities have shown us, this can be done.
Another feature of this building is its double skin facade. As far as I know, this would be the first residential building in Toronto to have one (please correct me if I'm wrong). In fact, the only building that I can think of off the top of my head is the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto by Behnisch Architekten and architectsAlliance. (For the record, and as far as I know, I am not related to the donor for this building -- but what a great last name.)
Usually the idea behind a double skin facade is to create an air cavity between both skins and then ventilate it. To reduce cooling loads in the summer, shading devices are also usually added within this air cavity. The system works by trapping and then extracting solar heat gain before it reaches the inside of the building. Engineers and real architects tell me that this generally works a lot better than a typical interior blind, because at that point you've already let a lot of the heat inside of your conditioned space.
I am a big fan of ambition. And this project is certainly ambitious. For more about the proposal, check out the Globe and Mail.
Update: This project is being done in collaboration with Quadrangle Architects of Toronto.
Images: Herzog & de Meuron
This week, Alex Bozikovic (of the Globe and Mail) dropped the news that a new supertall by Herzog & de Meuron is being planned for the northwest corner of Bay and Bloor here in Toronto. The developers are Kroonenberg Group and ProWinko, both of which are based / have their roots in the Netherlands. At 87 storeys and 324 meters, it would be the tallest building in Canada if it were built today. The proposal includes retail, office, and residential uses.
The first thing that everybody is talking about is the tower's slenderness ratio (the upper floors are said to be about 7,300 square feet). I'm not a structural engineer, but the structural engineers that I do know are telling me that this tower will almost certainly require a tuned mass damper at the top of the building for lateral stiffness. The tower is very narrow in its east-west direction (see below) and so it will perform as a kind of "sail" in the wind. But as New York and other cities have shown us, this can be done.
Another feature of this building is its double skin facade. As far as I know, this would be the first residential building in Toronto to have one (please correct me if I'm wrong). In fact, the only building that I can think of off the top of my head is the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto by Behnisch Architekten and architectsAlliance. (For the record, and as far as I know, I am not related to the donor for this building -- but what a great last name.)
Usually the idea behind a double skin facade is to create an air cavity between both skins and then ventilate it. To reduce cooling loads in the summer, shading devices are also usually added within this air cavity. The system works by trapping and then extracting solar heat gain before it reaches the inside of the building. Engineers and real architects tell me that this generally works a lot better than a typical interior blind, because at that point you've already let a lot of the heat inside of your conditioned space.
I am a big fan of ambition. And this project is certainly ambitious. For more about the proposal, check out the Globe and Mail.
Update: This project is being done in collaboration with Quadrangle Architects of Toronto.
Images: Herzog & de Meuron
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