that is never going to be built<\/a> – these are the tactics of people with a game-changing property at a pivotal moment, trying to see how far they can stretch the city’s planning regimen and its ideas of how to build a city.<\/p>\n![\"Pretty](\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/10\/oxfordplacepark-1024x588.jpg\" "\\"Pretty")
<\/p>\n
If any of this gets built in this market cycle I will be pleased. (Except the casino.) The convention centre that exists now is an urbanistic disaster on a site that, now, deserves better.<\/p>\n
But don’t be surprised if these images shimmer and vanish, mirage-like, and reveal a more modest reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex’s personal blog on architecture The Globe and Mail reports today that Oxford Properties, the large developer that owns the Convention Centre and adjacent land in the middle of downtown Toronto, is aiming high with its redevelopment plan. They are proposing two high-rises that would top 1,000 feet. I haveContinue reading “The Convention Centre, Norman Foster and imaginary parks”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4088,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21759,33,20,5],"tags":[21326,6296,21324,21323,21325,359,469,174,1811,21327,1504,314,19],"class_list":["post-34414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-features","category-housing","category-urban-design","category-waterfront","tag-adamson-associates","tag-alex","tag-energy-conservation-techniques","tag-hearst-tower","tag-large-developer","tag-london","tag-new-york","tag-no-mean-city","tag-norman-foster","tag-oxford-properties","tag-port-lands","tag-the-globe-and-mail","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Convention Centre, Norman Foster and imaginary parks - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/10\/26\/the-convention-centre-norman-foster-and-imaginary-parks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Convention Centre, Norman Foster and imaginary parks - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex’s personal blog on architecture The Globe and Mail reports today that Oxford Properties, the large developer that owns the Convention Centre and adjacent land in the middle of downtown Toronto, is aiming high with its redevelopment plan. They are proposing two high-rises that would top 1,000 feet. 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![\"Oxford](\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/10\/20121011-oxfordplace800.jpg\" "\\"Oxford")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/spacingmedia.com\/uploads\/images\/line-grey-1pixel-600wide.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nomeancity.net\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif\" "\\"More...\\""){kind=spacer}
Foster is one of the great corporate architects of our time. He has built a massive office that\u00a0 produces large and high-quality buildings around the world, with great technical facility and some of the artistry that made him a cultural force 40 years ago. The Hearst Tower in New York may be the best skyscraper of the past generation: formally expressive, spatially interesting, and (so I read) very well-planned and well-detailed. It is also LEED Gold certified and (by North American standards) genuinely green<\/a>, with operable windows, energy conservation techniques and rainwater collection. So: If someone’s going to design megatowers here, we could do worse.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/10\/hearst-tower.jpg\" "\\"hearst-tower\\"")
<\/p>\n