New Toronto Courthouse (11 Centre Avenue) | Proposed | 17 st | ??? m | Downtown

Are buildings purposely short behind City Hall because its a hospitable helicopter flight path? It looks so eerie when you look north. It's like the city disappeared.

Thanks for the update, marcanadian! kay:

isaidso said:

Are buildings purposely short behind City Hall because its a hospitable helicopter flight path? It looks so eerie when you look north. It's like the city disappeared.

Click to expand...

I think it's a combination of that plus preserving the view from NPS. They were allowed to go another 5 or 6 storeys with this one.

I'm pretty pumped that the Old Court House will become the new Museum of Toronto.

^^ I heard that before but isn't it just a proposal at this point?

Marcanadian said:

I think it's a combination of that plus preserving the view from NPS. They were allowed to go another 5 or 6 storeys with this one.

Click to expand...

I suppose I differ on what constitutes a view.

In Europe having nothing but sky behind an iconic structure (Arc de Triomphe) is the goal but adopting that aesthetic for a big north American city is absurd. In a city like Toronto the view is skyscrapers, not sky. The view to the south of NPS is fabulous, the view north is nonexistent.

If I wanted a view of the sky I'd have moved to Saskatchewan not downtown Toronto. I'm hoping that the current mindset will do a 180 over the next few decades and people will see the city's built form as the view. We might as whole generations are growing up with skyscrapers. Their appreciation for them and tolerance for height is likely very different than those currently running things.