Exercise Five : Amin Shahinbakhsh

The Fairmont Royal York Hotel

Fairmont Royal York Hotel is a historic building located in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Entering the lobby, the ceiling is hand painted and framed with travertine pillars. The uniqueness of this place is its world style and classic character. The rooms have the old fashioned feeling.

The city has grown around this landmark. An underground tunnel s connects to a boutique mall and Rain station was added to the structure.

The Five Forces

One. The number of medical practices is a good indication of accessible health care.

Two. There were a few school around. Each serving a specific radius of culture or religion.

Three. Right after existing the RT trains, the first notice I made was the construction of condominiums, and there were many of existing ones around.


Four. The rail way is a important aspect of a city`s transportation as well as division.



Five. The bank is more general in terms of a force, however it maybe interesting when combined with other forces later on.

Banks (Scotia, TD and Royal)

Medical Practices

Condominiums

Schools (Islamic, Cathlic and Public)

Railway Track

Base Map

Exercise five: Michael Pham (Osgoode Hall)

1. The Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, opened Cumberland & Storm’s Osgoode Hall on September 8, 1860. The Prince entered through the new main doors, was welcomed in the newly built atrium, and proceeded to the library where he danced the night away.

Osgoode Hall Library 1860

2. The Osgoode Hall drawings remained in Storm’s possession. At his passing in 1892, Edmund Burke, another well-known Toronto architect, took over Storm’s practice and inherited the drawings. Burke became the partner of J. C. B. Horwood in 1894, with whom he worked until his premature death in 1919.

Floor Plan, Sections and Elevations

Old Archive Drawings

Detail drawing

3. Jack Diamond + Schmitt Architects Inc will be building the expansion of Osgoode hall building. The brainchild of Jack Diamond, a principal with Toronto’s Diamond + Schmitt Architects Inc were the inspired mind behind the city’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts and the York University Student Centre, for which he was presented with the Governor General’s Award for Architecture and the Award of Excellence from Canadian Architect.

Model of new Building

Exercise Five: Alanna McFarland

Toronto Old City Hall

1. In 1899, a time capsule was placed in the cornerstone. It included money, maps, city records, newspapers, and other artifacts of the late 19th century.

2. Alderman Hallam was removed from the opening ceremony in 1899. Some say he was overcome by emotion and wept uncontrollably, while others say he was removed because he was the source of much of the scandal that plagued the building.

3. Old City Hall has been used in movies and television shows such as This is Wonderland, Flashpoint, and Dirty Pictures.

Exercise 5 (Sheraton Centre) HB

Sheraton Centre (123 Queen St. West) is located at the intersection of Queen and York streets. It is actually a two-building complex (one faces Queen St; the shorter, 12 storey building is located behind the tower, located at Richmond and York intersection.

This building was designed by Toronto-based architect firms Searle, Wilbee, Rowland and John B. Parkin Associates. This architecture firm also designed the current Toronto city hall in joint cooperation with the Finnish architect Viljo Revell (completed in 1965), the Simpson Tower (which now houses The Bay department store) as well as other notable complexes including Toronto-Dominion Centre, headed by Mies van der Rohe from 1967 to 1969.

The construction of this hotel was completed in 1972. It is the tallest free standing hotel-only building in Canada until 2009, when it will be surpassed by Niagara Falls Hilton hotel. It is an international style building and consists of mainly concrete and glass. An elevated walkway connects the hotel, the city hall and stairwell to Nathan Phillips Square. However, it is closed due to the budget limitations.

This building is 135m tall, and has 43 floors. This building has 21 elevators, 18 of them are in the tower, one in hotel atrium and two service elevators in podium (basement). There are 1,377 guestrooms in the complex.

A single standard room costs from $200’s and upward per night (this October; source: Hotels.ca.)

Exercise Four-Mehdi Hosseini

Normally referred as the ‘TD Centre’.
1-It consists of six towers, covered in bronze-tinted glass and black painted steel. The complex was the inspiration of Allen Lambert (1911-2002), former President and Chairman of the Board of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, with Phyllis Lambert recommending Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as the project architect.
2- The Toronto-Dominion Centre is one of North America’s largest business communities. It is home to many generations of business leaders. Its influence reaches far beyond the TD Centre borders and it has presented Canada with a new standard of excellence for design and construction, defining the notion of Canada’s financial capital. It is owned by the Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited. The Toronto-Dominion Centre has 6 buildings, the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower, Royal Trust Tower, Canadian Pacific Tower, TD Waterhouse Tower, Ernst & Young Tower, and 95 Wellington West. The total rentable area of the office towers is 4,300,000 square feet with over 100 tenants and 150,000 square feet in the retail concourse with over 75 tenants. Also as part of the complex, the old Toronto Stock Exchange building was incorporated and converted into the Design Exchange building that can be accessed from Bay Street or inside the complex.
3- Over the years the Toronto-Dominion Centre has participated in the "Fatal Light Awareness Program" (FLAP). The TD Centre’s automated lighting system turns off the lights in some areas at a specific time after business hours in September and October to help prevent birds flying at night from hitting the windows.
4-"The two-storey banking hall in the plaza is among the best spaces Mies ever made. As you are visiting the branch you will find yellow flowers in a fishbowl vase on the service counters just where Mies had put them." (from Globe and Mail, November 4, 2002)
5- Royal Bank Plaza Escalator Replacement Oxford Properties replaced the escalators linking the Royal Bank Plaza to the TD Centre on October 10, 2008.

6- To improve its energy profile, in 2000 the Centre embarked on a comprehensive energy retrofit of all its facilities, including a comprehensive education and awareness program with financial assistance from the Energy Innovators Initiative (EII). Specific measures implemented by the Toronto-Dominion Centre included upgrading existing lighting to T-8 technology or higher or electronic ballasts. The amount of time the lighting was functioning was also reduced through the installation of occupancy sensors and automated lighting controls. Control systems with variable air volume were installed in the HVAC system. Finally, a program was initiated to improve employee and tenant awareness and to train key staff on the improved facility systems.
Highlights
Member of the EII since February 1999
EII project started in 2000
Retrofit of all six of its buildings, representing 416 700 m2
Total project investment of $26,774,729
Energy savings of $4,250,000 per year
Annual energy consumption savings of 162 636 GJ (45.18 million ekWh)

Exercise Five: ANAHITA KIANI (Scotia Plaza)

1.The Scotia plaza , in 1987,with 69 storeys was the second tallest building in Canada. the tallest was the 72-storeys tall First Canadian place on Bay Street.

2.In the construction of Scotia Plaza they made a 23 meter deep hole that made it the deepest building in Canada in 1986.

3.Albert Reichmann and Robert Campeau helped top off the 68-storey Scotia Plaza project. Campeau started building the $450 million skyscraper by himself , but sold half of it to the Reichmann familyto raise money for his company,Allied Stores Ltd.

4.In 1989,a just-completed Scotia Plaza made a tall shadow over the Canadian Imperial bank of commerce tower.

5. This is the view of the King street East in 1907 before constructing the Scotia Plaza. There is an article in 1907 that shows the Royal Bank in this picture and asks : why our city is groomy!!! I would like to know what they would say if they had seen Scota Plaza building.

1:3 FINCH STATION - Eve Zorawski

1:1 GROUP BASE MAP
1:2 COMBINATION OF FORCES
1:3 INDIVIDUAL FORCES

RELATION BETWEEN STILL AND MOBILE:

Combining STILL PLANES with the TRAFFIC WEB map created a remarkable contrast between the two forces and how they interact with one another.

Certain planar forces become combined with mobile forces creating a hybrid force, for example as seen with the interaction between FIELD/PARKS- in planes and UNPAVED PATHWAYS- in traffic. (See Image). The two forces also complement one another to better understand their singular relevance. For example, though the Public Transit parking lots take up a great percentage of still planes, during certain times of day they do become quite active.

RELATION BETWEEN ETHNICITY AND ACTIVITY LEVELS IN AREA :

Combining DAY AND NIGHT: SOCIAL ACTIVITY with the OLD AND NEW: POPULATION, SETTLEMENTS and ETHNICITY map enabled us to better understand residential and commercial forces in a more abstract way.

The DAY AND NIGHT: SOCIAL ACTIVITY map begins to inadvertently represent more commercial areas as well as the OLD AND NEW: POPULATION, SETTLEMENTS map which does the same but with the residential. The combination also emphasizes the development of the old Canadian settlements in the area and how they might have migrated and spread.

_______________________________

Eve Z.: STILL PLANES


















Amanda C.: TRAFFIC WEB



















Anahita K.: OLD, NEW, AND ETHNICITY




















Michael P..: DAY VS. NIGHT: SOCIAL ACTIVITY

Union Station - Nathan Albion

Union Station

Front St. between Bay St. & York St.

There are many widely available facts about Union Station.  Such as when it opened and who was there when it did.  The Prince of Wales was on site for the opening ceremony of Union station in 1927.  But he was also the first person to buy a ticket there, which at the time cost him $71.20, with a current value of $1100 today.  

The 22 columns across the front of the station are built out of limestone and were placed in one piece.  each column weighs, individually 75 tons!

The current Union station is the third to service downtown Toronto.  the first was outdated, the second burned in the great toronto fire of 1904, and the third, when constructed also contained the first underground pathway system in Toronto.  Spanning between Union Station and The Royal York Hotel.

Exercise five: Karen Lee (The Bay Queen St)

The Bay Queen St (historical Simpson's store)

1) The Queen Street Bay store includes the Department 'St. Regis Room' on the third floor which carries some of the most prestigious and expensive women's designer label clothing in Canada. Some of the designer brands which the ‘St. Regis Room’ includes are Givenchy, Valentino Roma, Armani Collezioni, Louis Feraud, Karl Lagerfeld, Lida Baday and Bellville Sassoon.

2) Originally since the 19th century, the Eaton’s department store was the biggest rivalry for the Queen Street Bay store. The two stores faced each other across Queen Street but now the Toronto Eaton Centre occupies where the Eaton’s department used to be.

3) The Queen Street Bay store is Canada’s largest department store with approximately 1,000,000 square feet of space. The store occupies the entire city block and also was the setting for a TV series called “Today’s Special”.

4) At the south east entrance of the store, there is a plaque showing all fifty two employees of the Queen Street Bay store (at the time called the Simpson’s store) who fought in the World War II.

Exercise Five - Amanda Compagnone

COMMERCE COURT NORTH
King St & Bay St


- When completed in 1930 the 34-story tower was the tallest in the British Empire until 1962 when it was surpassed by the Royal York Hotel.

- The statue of Mercury near the main entrance represents the god of bankers. The bees, squirrels and beavers surrounding the statue represent industry, hard work and thrift.

- The original building was designed by Pearson and Darling; later three buildings were added by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners creating the Commerce Court complex, which was then renovated by Zeidler Partnership Architects in 1994.

- The building currently has 40,457 employees with a growth rate of 3.5%

- In 2007 the building brought in $24 402.2 million in sales with a net income of $3 798.3 million.

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu?id=commercecourtnorth-toronto-canada
http://www.answers.com/topic/canadian-imperial-bank-of-commerce

Exercise Five: Eve

ONTARIO COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN


1. After Alsop Architects were appointed the project for the Sharp Center for Design, Will Alsop instigated a series of client workshops in which early concepts of the center were developed with the university's staff as well as students.

2. According to CUDO (Common University Data Ontario), as reported in 2006, there were only 59 Male international students studying full-time at the Ontario College of Art and Design, as opposed to 116 Female international full-time students.

3. According to the infamous www.myocad.com's professor grading feature, Professor Robert Saxon currently holds the position of the least favourite instructor among students at the Ontario College of Art and Design with an F+.

4. January 9, 2007 - J.W Beatty's Painting Winter Sunshine, Bellefountain (Cabin at River's Edge in Winter) was found missing from a private office at the Ontario College of Art and Design. The Group of Seven painting was last estimated to have a value of 25,000$

Exercise Five: Claudia Kwon

Bay Adelaide Centre (333 Bay Street, Toronto)

1. The Bay Adelaide Centre is a signature tower in downtown Toronto featuring two dramatic glass “sails” that extend above the structure´s façade. A pristine prism clad in clear glass, the project will feature a major public art contribution, integrated with the building architecture, by the world renowned lighting artist James Turrell.

2. While there are a number of development projects currently underway in the city, Bay Adelaide Center will be the only commercial tower in the financial core district built to a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Standard.

3. Adhering to strict building efficiency guidelines, using environmentally friendly materials and practices, and ensuring maximum recycling of building materials, Bay Adelaide Centre West will also feature state-of-the-art operating and life safety systems.