Category Archives: Tableau condos

Peter Street condo tower continues to climb as nearby Tableau Condos gradually gets its legs

Peter Street Condominiums construction progress

November 14 2013: Construction has reached the 12th floor of Peter Street Condominiums at the northeast corner of Adelaide and Peter Streets …

 

 

Tableau Condos construction progress

… while at the opposite end of the same block, the ground level of Tableau Condos continues to take shape at Peter & Richmond Streets. The two condo towers will bookend the 9-story office building that sits in the middle of the block at 111 Peter Street.

 

One block, two towers: The east side of Peter Street between Richmond and Adelaide Streets is changing dramatically as construction continues to progress on two new condominium towers that will also transform the Entertainment District skyline and streetscapes in the process.

At the southeast corner of Peter and Adelaide, work on the Peter Street Condominium tower has climbed above the 11th level, bringing the building nearly one-third of the way to its ultimate 40-storey floorcount.

Just a few meters north, at the corner of Peter and Richmond, construction is progressing on the ground level of Tableau Condos, a 36-storey tower that will stand atop a distinctive table-shaped podium supported by long, tall column “legs.”

Artistic illustrations of both buildings, along with construction progress photos shot this week, can be viewed on page 2 of this post.

 

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Winter building pics: February 2013

Above is a link to my February 2013 Flickr album of building and construction photos I shot during walks in the downtown area. Click once on the image to view a small-format slideshow of the pictures, or click twice to access the album directly on Flickr and see full-size photos and captions.

 

Demolition clears site for Tableau condo tower

Tableau condo site

January 14 2011: This photo is a year old, but this was basically what the Peter & Richmond Street site for Tableau Condominiums looked like the last time I passed by a little less than two weeks ago …

 

Tableau condos site

… and this was how it looked like when I walked by on Friday evening

 

Tableau’s time has come: Back in February I noticed signs for Progreen Demolition outside the buildings on the southeast corner of Peter and Richmond Streets, where the 36-storey Tableau Condominium tower will be built. When I walked past about two weeks ago, I saw several contractors ripping apart the interior of the vacant Pizzaville store — one of three structures on the site. And when I passed by again this past Friday evening, all that I saw were piles of rubble, a few Liebherr excavation machines, and just a small section of the facade and former front entrance for what was once a four-level brick building at 117 Peter Street.

 

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Tableau turns the table on its condo competition

Tableau Condos

Tableau condos

Website renderings of Tableau condos, designed by Rudy Wallman


Great gams: With so many condo highrise projects either already on the market or being proposed for the Entertainment District, there’s a lot of competition for buyers.  How do developers and architects make sure their own projects have more appeal to potential purchasers than the others on sale just around the corner or down the block?

Offering trendy building amenities and features might help, but I find every new condo project seems to offer the same stuff: posh pilates and yoga studios, luxurious city-view lounges, rooftop terraces with bars and BBQs, multimedia entertainment rooms, and stunning entrance lobbies conceived by top international interior designers. For me, it gets difficult distinguishing between them all:  Which condo has the sky club? The infinity pool on the rooftop skyline terrace? The party lounge with the DJ recording studio?

 

9-legged base will make condo tower stand out

Maybe the key is a memorable building design — something unique and markedly different from the typical  glass and steel box towers that keep popping up everywhere else. Something that will catch someone’s eye because it’s unusual and unforgettable. That’s what works for me, and it’s what I think will make Tableau condos at Richmond & Peter Streets a huge sales success. With an attention-grabbing design by Rudy Wallman of Toronto’s Wallman Architects, Tableau literally stands out in the Entertainment District and definitely gets a leg up on its nearby competition. Nine legs, actually. Nine long, slender, in-your-face legs that will be noticed by everyone who walks or drives through the neighbourhood.

Tableau is a 36-storey, 410-suite mixed-use condo tower planned for the southeast corner of Richmond and Peter, on the block where Richmond turns a bend as it continues west to Spadina Avenue. In what the Tableau website describes as the building’s “signature” architectural element, the condo residences will sit on a “structural table” built strategically above the four-storey warehouse building presently situated on the site. “The front of this building is being reinterpreted and reconstructed and will accommodate the commercial office space, ground floor lobby and retail. The table structure also creates a large, four-storey colonnaded public plaza on Richmond Street.”

 

Will Tableau look better than the artistic illustrations?

I have absolutely no doubt that the colonnade will command attention from passersby. I used to work just around the corner from the Tableau site, and still can’t even imagine just how a tower on a giant table is going to look and feel in that location. The words “shock and awe” come to mind, but not in a bad way. I’m just hoping the finished product will look better — much, much better — than the artistic renderings. Sometimes when I view the drawings I think the building looks striking, and will be even more impressive and perhaps even breathtaking to see in person. It has nuances of X Condos on Jarvis, and the TD Centre towers, all of which I really like. Other times, the Tableau base reminds me of the $7.99 Lack table advertised on the back cover of the 2011 IKEA catalogue (though Lack has fewer legs, of course). From my experience, most of IKEA’s products look great in the catalogue, but appear tacky and cheap when you inspect them in-store. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that this won’t be the case with Tableau’s table.

(Speaking of X Condos: it will share something in common with Tableau. “Nova,” the sculpture that will be incorporated into the Tableau colonnade,  is the work of Kingston, Ont. artist Shayne Dark, who created the “Double Vision” sculpture standing outside X. I’ve included a pic of it, below.)

Here are some more renderings from the Tableau website, along with photos I’ve taken recently of the Tableau location.

 

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Website rendering of the Tableau colonnade along Richmond Street


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Another depiction of Tableau’s four-storey colonnade


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Artistic impression of Tableau frontage along Peter Street


Tableau condosX Condos

Kingston, Ont. artist Shayne Dark’s sculpture “Nova” will grace the streetscape at Tableau, left. Dark also created the “Double Vision” sculpture at X Condos, right.


Tableau Condos

Tableau condos location seen on Nov. 29 2010


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Tableau condos sign on the warehouse building where the condo tower will eventually rise


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Peter Street view of the warehouse on the Tableau condos site


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Another view of the warehouse site where Tableau will rise


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Peter street facade viewed November 29 2010


Richmond Street West at Peter Street

View of the Richmond Street block which the Tableau tower will dominate


southeast corner of Richmond & Peter Streets

The southeast corner of Richmond & Peter Street where Tableau will rise


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The southeast corner of Richmond & Peter Street


Tableau condos location

Another view of Tableau’s location on the wedge-shaped corner lot


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Original zoning sign (seen here Nov. 29 2010) called for a 29-storey building with condos and a hotel, plus street level restaurants and retail.


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New proposal sign (seen here Feb. 3 2011 on Richmond Street) drops reference to a hotel and calls for a taller tower with condos plus retail and office space.