Growing up Getting Competitive
TORONTO EDITION FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2013 Vol. 17 • No. 15 Tall building design guidelines update Convention venue needed downtown GROWING UP GETTING By Jake Tobin Garrett COMPETITIVE Anyone watching the city’s skyline over the past 10 years By John Michael McGrath would have noticed it has gotten both increasingly crowded and taller. Th is bourgeoning tall building environment brings new design challenges and opportunities that the city hopes Toronto needs a new, large, convention space according to to address in an update to its tall building design guidelines, respected people in the industry—and it needs one downtown, which were adopted at planning and growth management not at Exhibition Place. committee yesterday. Toronto “absolutely” needs a newer, larger convention “It’s been an incredible laboratory for studying tall buildings space says Lyle Hall, managing director at HLT Advisory— because we’re building more tall buildings than most cities in “unequivocally.” Hall is one of the leading consultants in the the world,” city urban design director Robert Freedman told hotel and tourism industry, and his research informed city NRU. “Th ere’s been a huge amount of change and certainly a manager Joe Pennachetti’s recent report. Th e key issue, says huge number of towers added to the city as these guidelines Hall, is Toronto’s lack of “contiguous space,” meaning a single have evolved.” large exhibit space for the large events that have the greatest Since the guidelines were put in place in 2006, the city has economic impact. received 290 tall building applications, he said, adding that “It’s virtually impossible to rent the Metro Toronto many of those were for multiple towers, so the actual number Convention Centre to one customer to use both sides,” is larger.
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