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Corus Quay Building, view of northwest corner. Photo by Andrew Chiu |
By Astra Burka, OAAArchitect and Filmmaker
After being terrified by a police officer, who warned me NOT to ride my bicycle along Queens Quay during G20 week from Bathurst to Sherbourne, I decided to do it anyway. Starting from Little Italy, I get terrified crossing the “anti-pedestrian” intersection at Lakeshore Boulevard and Bathurst Street to our waterfront.
Happily, I followed the bicycle path east on Queens Quay when it suddenly disappeared at Spadina. The path never reappeared until east of Yonge, where delivery vans were blocking it.
Finally, I arrived at the Corus building that is still under construction. The official opening is not planned until September 30th. My first reaction was that the somber greenish glass façade looked like any of the sprouting towers situated on highways instead of one of the first major Waterfront Toronto projects. What was the design review panel smoking? If I had not seen the small stainless steel Corus sign at the entrance, I would not have known that this was a building housing a successful integrated media and entertainment complex. Half of the lower portion of the city facing façade consisted of metal grills for the electrical panels. Where was the water view?