G A FAMILY AFFAIR The latest Susur outpost puts the kids front and centre, with stunning design from mom’s firm PAGE 2 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2012 SECTION M ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Globe T . O . ACTING EDITOR: LISAN JUTRAS CONDOS Forget the perks, I’ll take the cash As the real-estate market sags, high-rise developers are now selling bragging rights as much as property. But will insider access to film parties and sports events – or the privilege of living in a sculpture – be enough of a draw? Tara Perkins reports ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... his week, Toronto witnessed And right now, tens of thousands as access to TIFF parties or tickets Tthe unveiling of the condo to of new condo units are being to sports games, condo develop- end all condos. Backed by theatre built in a market with fewer ers not just selling a piece of real impresario David Mirvish and buyers. estate; they are selling a lifestyle. They have to somehow designed by Frank Gehry, a giant There were a record 196 condo Mr. Mirvish seems to have tak- differentiate themselves from in his field – known locally for projects under construction in en a page from their books. In the latest incarnation of the Art the Toronto census metropolitan addition to offering buyers the the competition if they want to Gallery of Ontario, and globally area at last count (the end of opportunity to live in a “sculp- make sales. for a stunning roster of buildings June). Sales of newly built high- ture,” residents of his new 2,600- in places ranging from Bilbao to rise units downtown this August unit project will have special Ben Myers, Prague – the new three-tower de- were about half what they were a privileges at its art gallery and Urbanation velopment was announced to year ago, according to RealNet, a access to exhibitions, he said. much fanfare. real-estate research firm. Prices But will that be enough? “I am not building condomini- are slipping – in August they The numbers suggest that even ums. I am building three sculp- were about 4 per cent lower than a stellar special-interest project tures for people to live in,” said a the year before – and many econ- will only get a project so far. proud Mr. Mirvish of his new omists believe that a glut is form- According to Urbanation, a mar- project, which will rise from the ing that will cause prices to drop ket research firm, the number of current footprint of the Princess further. unsold condo units in the Toron- of Wales Theatre. Even in a city Mr. Mirvish’s tower unquestion- to area in June hit a high of 18,123 accustomed to scores of cranes ably offers potential residents a (a figure that includes projects dangling over the skyline, citi- unique opportunity. Not every that are not yet completed). zens took notice. These were big condo offers the bragging rights “With plenty of potential resale names, yes, and even bigger that come with living in a Frank condo supply coming over the ambitions. Gehry building. But as the mar- next year, Toronto is quickly But behind the project’s blind- ket sags, the project’s promoters heading for buyers’ market terri- ing star power, there is a darker may also have to respond as oth- tory for the first time (depending outlook. No project, not even er developers have – by going to on your definition) since the one created by one of the world’s great effort to offer potential recession,” economists at Bank of most famous architects, is buyers something more than just Montreal wrote this week. immune to laws of economics. a box in a tower. With perks such Condos, Page 3 PHOTOILLUSTRATION: THE GLOBE AND MAIL ©2012 Porsche Cars Canada, Ltd. Porsche recommends seat belt usage and observance of all traffic laws at all times. *Fuel economy based on Transport Canada estimates. Actual mileage and range will vary. Things in the rearview mirror: Worries, other drivers, gas stations. The new Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Purchase from $ 67,594.00* Pfaff Porsche 101 Auto Park Circle Woodbridge, ON L4L 8R1 905.851.0852 pfaffporsche.com *MSRP for a 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel and includes Freight, Pre-Delivery Inspection, Administration Fee, Air tax, globali registration fee and Ride Green Nitrogen Program. HST and License fee are extra. Factory order may be necessary due to limited availability. See Pfaff Porsche for more details. THE GLOBE AND MAIL • SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2012 G GLOBE T.O. • M3 ESSAY Liberation architecture Radical buildings by visionaries like Libeskind and Gehry are helping free Toronto from the dry functionality of modernism ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... WILLIAM THORSELL ceptions is Toronto City Hall, the ................................................................ result of an international com- n Oct. 10, Daniel Libeskind petition in 1958 that chose the Owill be in Toronto for a “top- little-known Finnish architect ping off” ceremony at the L Tow- Viljo Revell to build two facing er, a startling 57-storey towers, oft compared to hands condominium at Yonge and cradling something – a circular Front streets. Six years ago, Mr. building that has come to be Libeskind was in town to top off known as “the clam shell” – the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at fronting an expansive square on the Royal Ontario Museum Queen Street. This blatant excep- (where I was then director). It’s tion to the International style becoming a habit. came to symbolize Toronto as a These radical buildings are place of unusual creativity and generating debate in Canada’s potential (against all odds). premiere city, which is fine. But, Subsequent years saw the even better, they are helping to arresting rise of the majestic CN liberate Toronto from the intel- Tower, Ontario Place and the lectual girdle of a spent architec- Eaton Centre (by Eb Zeidler) – all tural age defined by the outside modernism looking in, International style. David Mirvish but delivering potent symbolism proves the case with his dramat- to a city without a hill, whose ic proposal to create a monu- lovely lake hid beyond a waste- mental cultural and residential land of rail yards and freeways. precinct at King and John streets, Almost alone in the context of designed by an unbridled Frank modernism, these rare structures Gehry. carried the burden of giving The International style in Toronto particularity – a sense architecture was born of the Bau- that there is, in fact, a here here. haus movement in Germany (Victorian neighbourhoods pro- after the First World War, rooted vided the other defining grace.) in values that sought “radically And now the dam is breaking. simplified forms … rationality Will Alsop’s “tabletop” structure and functionality, and the idea for OCAD University broke the that mass production was recon- The L Tower, above, by Daniel Libeskind, below, embodies a new spirit of inquiry. MOE DOIRON/THE GLOBE AND MAIL mould in 2004. It’s a charming cilable with the individual artis- pop-art plaisanterie perfectly suit- tic spirit.” (Wikipedia is quite ly forms and spaces in the ed to the subversive nature of good at describing this, noting modernist style, with an eye to the school. In 2007, Mr. Libes- the probable contradiction be- luxe materials and indulgent kind’s design for the ROM tween “mass production” and in- foils in curves and visual effects. brought an intensity and poetic dividuality.) This is modernism in its matur- sensibility to bear on Bloor The core idea in the Interna- ity, letting go a bit, and it often Street of almost unbearable force tional style was “less is more,” works very well indeed. It will (outside and in). It parted the adopted and preached by its continue to pass the test of time. curtain on a new face of beauty, leading practitioner Mies van der However, Toronto, like London as intellectually and psychologi- Rohe, a German architect who and New York, is now moving cally challenging as anything decamped to Chicago in the beyond modernism to embrace a built in Toronto before or since – 1930s. It embraced ideals of effi- new global spirit in architecture. as much origami as a crystal. ciency, reason and utility. It was, It is smartly captured by Den- Last year, in Mississauga, two in essence, an ideology – an ide- mark’s bad-boy architectural beautifully curvaceous “Marilyn ology akin to Puritanism, hostile star, Bjarke Ingels, who riffs off Monroe” condo towers designed to adornment, humour or Mies van der Rohe’s “Less is by Chinese architect Yansong Ma “waste.” It was an expression of more” to say that “Yes is more.” appeared, the result of a rare in- the Machine Age, ascetic indus- (His firm’s name is BIG; their ternational competition. This trialism triumphant over the URL is, perforce,