How to Beautify Cityplace in Downtown Toronto

I used to think that architecture, in a Toronto context, was governed solely by city guidelines, land site constraints, and the market reality that developers need to sell 80% of a building before it gets built.

Essentially, design has to be formulaic across Toronto in order for a condo project to move forward quickly.

As I was writing my bo0k on the preconstruction condo buying process I became engrossed in the idea that there could be a better way....but what was it?

I then came across an interesting blog article by Ingrid Fetel. Ingrid, author of the upcoming book The Aesthetics of Joy, researches how people emotionally react to things.

For example, Ingrid found was that surface treatments with colour, like stripes, can be used to create feelings of abundance.




How can this be applied to Cityplace?

This long stretch of wall at Harbour View Estates is a great example why people hate the buildings. It's bleak, lacks character and it screams suburbia.





Adding a little colour is a simple thing we could do if we demanded a higher standard.

Thanks to Ed from UrbanToronto and D Hussey Properties for the inspiration to write this.