One blogger in Toronto believes the next 10 years may be better than the last 10 years, in regards to what commercial real estate gets built. The last 10 years, Bert Archer notes, have not been great for creative and visionary real estate projects in Toronto. One reason is because of the Megacity:
Local architects haven’t been able to navigate their way through all the committees, boards and panels that have to sign off on anything before it gets built.
“It’s become a very, very complex group of problems… We have the municipal planning process, planners, ratepayer councils, design review panels, neighbourhood design charettes. You don’t just have a client anymore, you have a huge collaborative effort.
And it’s not just that there are so many of them; it’s that they all seem to be going in different directions.
Archer, though looks on the bright side: for most of the past 100 years of urban architecture, building design has always been constrained by municipal rules, and he uses the iconic Empire State Building and Chrysler building in New York as examples.
Archer also points out that Toronto is a leader in “adaptive resuse”, that is, converting buildings from their original purpose or function into something that is more useful to contemporary society. Essentially, the constraints of municipal regulations and red tape are forcing architects to be creative. There may not be an star architectural attractions recently in Toronto, but on a different level architects and planners are still being responsive to market demands for artistry.
And this bodes well for the future of commercial real estate over the next ten years in Toronto.
- Charles Edwards frequently blogs on Canadian REIT topics
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