The Globe and Mail

Robbery doesn't always happen at the corner store. A new urban neighbourhood can be robbed of civic delight and architectural significance when 20 towers of human containment are stuck in an impoverished streetscape. Concord Adex's CityPlace is one of North America's largest residential developments and, at the risk of putting too fine a point on the matter, it's making an ass of downtown Toronto. It could have been emerald city. But the 45-acre development, bisected at right angles by the railway lands and Spadina Avenue, is a relentless field of point towers with green-tinted glass. At street level, the buildings' concrete podiums meet concrete sidewalks. There are low-quality concrete beds holding trees and flowerless shrubs. Visual relief apparently comes from concrete pavers tinted the colour of asphalt. The developers have provided a parsimonious sprinkle of granite along the sidewalk -- a gesture that makes playwright Molière's miser Harpagon seem generous.