@.crystalised. the massing model is not meant to be descriptive of the architecture to any great extent. But, to your point, in the massing model you are looking at the south face of the building and there is no way that that view will not reflect the river valley potential with windows upon windows. As I recall, one of the points negotiated with the City had a requirement to keep the street level vista as open as possible. The bulk of the building was increased under the notion of combating wind forces but design structure does not mean that the base of the building has to be solid -- there are many structural solutions that allow for exceptional openness. When the first
design renderings come out, they will bear little resemblance to the massing model (
except perhaps related to the outline of the building). Most -- if not all -- of the observable structural rigidity will occur on the interior core of the building; of that I am certain. I think the mass mavens where simply trying to show the hotel portion (lower floors) as distinct in usage from the upper floors. Personally, I would like to see a vertical split (
since the building is going to be so broad in its east/west axis) with a higher hotel spear on one side perhaps climbing up to a third of the overall height (say 30 floors) and condos opposite that, the 40-plus remainder saved for rental units. It is going to be interesting to follow this one; please "no jinxing!"