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Daily Poll for June 2, 2010: Pug Awards Most Hated Nominee

Which project from last year do you hate the most?

  • 263 Wellington West

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 88 Broadway

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 900 Mount Pleasant

    Votes: 2 10.0%
  • Chateau Royal

    Votes: 8 40.0%
  • eq1 at Equinox

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Grande Triomph II

    Votes: 3 15.0%
  • Plaza Royale

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • St. Gabriel Terraces

    Votes: 3 15.0%
  • Zip

    Votes: 4 20.0%

  • Total voters
    20

interchange42

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You've cast ballots 40 times now for the Pug Awards... or maybe you are still catching up, which is fine on Urban Toronto, because our version of the Pugs have not wrapped up quite yet. For the time being, all of our polls remain open.

This, however, is the last time we are going to ask you to cast a Pug vote this year, and this one goes back to the Pugly origins of it all: this is your chance to declare where you dump your derision, heap your hate, and reserve your revulsion for the worst building completed in Toronto in the last year.

So, refresh your memory of the projects here on the Pug nominee's page, and then come back here to choose the project you loathe the most from amongst those that polled the lowest.

All of the projects listed here polled more negative votes than positive ones. Have fun!
 
With nothing on the atrocity level of Metropolis/Toronto Life Square, it was pretty hard to choose just one. Most of the candidates are equally mediocre.
 
Summerside if it was here (but it only received 11 votes in total).
 
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That was one of the hardest decisions I've had to make. Also, I've noticed with a lot of these faux/nouveau-rich type buildings, the names seem proportionately obnoxious and presumptuous to how ugly they are.

"Chateau Royal" "Grande Triomph" "Plaza Royale"

Give me a break.
 
While Chateau Royal, Plaza Royale are all vulgar in architectural taste, the biggest failure of all is Grand Triomphe. All of them are decorated with Euro-tacky elements in facades, but Grand Triomphe dominates over in size and appearance. That thing, adorned with banal hue skin, washed-out glass and a symmetry that mimics the historic European castles of the past centuries in an inappropriate way. Literally, it looks like a lipstick, a silk dress, a pearl necklace and a funny-looking tiara on a pig!

Although latter two are as equally as bad, they are rather smaller, so they are not as obnoxious and distracting as a this colossal high-rise in Yonge St. near Finch. I can't really describe this without anger...

The second most horrific nominee would be St. Gabe Terrace, another ugly condo with a misfitting name. A nightmarish form of Ingres' "odelisque". Compared to last few years, North York seems to be getting more architectural mutations than its previous years (with the exception of The Arc, something that Kirkor did right for sure).
 
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Okay, yesterday we got back to you about the Pug Award Winners - today, let's talk about the losers.

Below are the results from the bottom half of the residential projects, in the order they placed.

First, we have a dirty little secret to cover: we didn't ask you to vote on three of them. Maybe some of you caught that back in May during voting, and you chose to keep quiet too. You see, three projects snuck through the Pug filters that were meant to keep out projects from beyond the City of Toronto proper. Two of the projects were in Markham, and one was in Oakville. Most people wouldn't care about that, they'd consider that a minor technicality, so we saw no reason to make a fuss about that. We, however, are nitpickers, and sticklers for things like imaginary lines down the middle of Steeles Avenue, so neither could we ask you for your opinion on The Majestic, nor Courtyard Residences, nor Rouge Bijou, all found in that hinterland netherworld of strip malls and fledgling express bus services that we pugly Torontonian types feel vaguely anxious about. Anyway, 'nuff said about the 905, let's look at the rest of the underachievers below:

17. Rouge Bijou
18. 263 Wellington Street West
19. Madison Avenue Lofts
20. Edge Lofts
21. Minto Skyy
22. Summerside
23. 900 Mount Pleasant
24. Eq1 at Equinox
25. Malibu at Harbourfront
26. Success Tower at Pinnacle Centre
27. Chateau Royal
28. 88 on Broadway
29. The Majestic
30. St. Gabriel Terraces
31. Zip at Battery Park
32. Plaza Royale
33. Grande Triomphe – Phase II
34. Courtyard Residences

Well, our bottom nine are all there, not in quite in the same order of wretchedness, but our sample size was pretty small, and when you're considering some of the buildings in the list above, which one would place where at any given time could change with your mood.
Feeling indignant about faux today? X marks St. Gabriel Terraces.
A modernist at heart, but feeling betrayed today by lazy lousy examples? Success Tower does not succeed today.
Wanting NoMo' PoMo? Grande Triomphe's misnomer attracts your wrath.
Nothing special today, just generally fed up with crap? Zip zips to the bottom of the list.

It's so hard to pick.

Anyway, it's good to know we can pick'em.

Thanks for your votes UrbanToronto!

42
 
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