Toronto Bay Adelaide Centre | 217.92m | 51s | Brookfield | KPMB

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To give you an inking, those walls with the dots are entirely made up of hand cut, hand inlaid tiles. Here's what the black dot looks like up close:

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Yeah, I've looked at it up close (as well as the other one on the other side - to the extent one can look at it up close due to the escalators). Personally, I find the art underwhelming.

But I agree with Automation that I like it better than a cluttered retail space.
 
I'm not sure Ed's comment was motivated by a concern over a lack of retail in the immediate area, but rather that Adelaide St should have an animated and interesting streetscape (regardless of what might be around the corner on Yonge). I agree on that point, but just think that doesn't necessitate retail here - a simple lobby space with interesting art can also do the trick (and in my opinion does it better here). My issue is that I don't particularly find this art interesting, but art is in the eye of the beholder.
 
The craftsmanship involved in those circles really is impressive when you see them in person.

A lot of the nicer lobbies in the financial district actually get a lot of action. When I used to be over at 130 Adelaide, there were frequent art exhibits and various functions held in that lobby. It was also used for a number of film shoots later in the evening. The annual canstructruction event at the TD Centre, which gets good coverage on UT is another example.

Lobbies, when managed well, can be a surprisingly versatile resource and we are fortunate to have such nice ones in Toronto. I think this one will be well-used as well. For what it's worth, I think this new lobby is an improvement over the one at BAC West.
 
Better pedestrian traffic flow with fewer cross-traffic conflicts, less divided with an obvious front end facing the courtyard between the buildings, and of course those giant circles, which provide simple but interesting focal points.
 
I guess this proves the old saying "à chacun son goût". I think BAC West, with the visual connections between Bay Street and the plaza is far superior, especially compared to the dead end elevator banks in BAC East. And not to flog a dead horse, but the public art in BAC East is, in my opinion, quite weak, particularly compared to the light installation by James Turrell in BAC West, which I think is fantastic. I actually found the BAC East lobby to read a bit like half a lobby, especially when I saw that it would have no ground-floor connection to the Yonge podium lobby (which earlier on this thread others had to politely remind me - *face palm* - was due to the underground garage ramp).

Given how many people in this thread have expressed the opinion that the buildings are bland, I think it's interesting that we each see merits in the two different lobbies and come to such different conclusions.
 

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Drives me nuts that the entrance right on the corner of a busy Financial District intersection is closed, with a Fire Exit Only sign. During the site plan approval process, when the City is ensuring that a building's doors and windows appropriately address the street, it needs to do a better job to securing actual use of such doors and windows. This bistro isn't a terrible example by any means, but having a locked door right on the corner is not great.
 
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