gor[b] Paul Gorbould: Words and Pictures

How the other 1/1000th live

Today CBC staff got a chance to walk through the model suite for the new Ritz-Carlton skyscraper soon to be built next door to the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto.

It was an interesting opportunity, since the sales centre is not generally open to riff-raff like you and me. Plus, gorgeous as it is, they're going to bulldoze the thing next week to make way for construction in January 2007.

And it's not like I'll be living there when it opens in 2010. The units start at close to a million bucks for the smallest condo (which is still about the size of my Leslieville house) and can run ten times that for the 10,000 square foot penthouse. There will be restaurants and a spa open to the public, but no underground connection. Once it opens I expect people like me will repelled by force fields, or tasered for even looking up at the building.

Which will be quite daunting, actually - the south side is catilevered outward ("toward the lake"). So if you ever look up at a skyscraper and feel it's toppling on you, this one will really freak you out.

Up at the very top (both elevation and socio-economic) the penthouse is still available, but they've already sold half of the condo units which make up the top half of the building. There's money to burn somewhere, obviously - some of it in Singapore, where a sales office for the building was also set up.

The interior was stunningly appointed, of course, with marble everywhere, floor to ceiling windows, and so on. It's gorgeous, but a little hard to wrap your head around... the "woman's closet" is the size of my "master bedroom", and if I sold all my RRSPs, I could buy a parking spot ($45,000)

So, this may be as close as any CBC employee gets to the Ritz-Carlton. However, the R-C will be getting close to us - we'll soon permanently lose the patio outside Ooh La La, and the informal motorcycle parking there. They're shifting around some east side bike racks, too.

Anyhow, it was nice to step out of the rain and momentarily (after they checked my ID) imagine life as a super-rich. The event was billed as "Meet the new neighbours," and I'm glad I did. It may be the only day they'll want to meet me.

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