canrocks
New Member
It could potentially work, but the font is all wrong. Especially on the "Image Arts Building" sign, the letters are all caps and the font is way off.
Toronto Ryerson Image Centre | ?m | 5s | Ryerson University | Diamond Schmitt
It could potentially work, but the font is all wrong. Especially on the "Image Arts Building" sign, the letters are all caps and the font is way off.
wyliepoon
Senior Member
^ With so many design students studying at Ryerson, perhaps it would be nice for Ryerson to start a design competition for a font that will be unique to Ryerson, the same way that the TTC font is used.
Tuscani01
Senior Member
yin_yang
Active Member
to be fair, the wall that is currently there already has that inscription...in way tackier fashion.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
From Architectural Record:
Glassy Re-Clads Boost Energy Efficiency But Confound Critics
May 8, 2008
By Alec Appelbaum
As owners and regulators ponder how to handle the aging of towers built during the time of the first oil shocks, in the 1970s, architects and engineers nationwide are proving that a new skin can make a middle-aged building more energy efficient—but only sometimes make it look more elegant.
Along with lava lamps and disco, the 1960s and 1970s produced a host of tall buildings that used crude window glazing and air control technology. “In those days you built on site, put in aluminum mullions, and glazed it. Everything was done in the field,” says Gensler architect David Epstein. “Today we use an aluminum extruded panel made in a shop.” Robert Jernigan, also of Gensler, adds that many office buildings entering their fourth decade leak fresh air or generate so much heat that they require extra air conditioning. So a host of structures with similar weaknesses need new skins—and fast.
Although it’s difficult to say just how many such projects are underway, practices throughout the U.S. and Canada are designing more and more reclads. Gensler, for instance, has completed four and started another 17, and Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) has completed eight with three more in progress. This number only seems set to grow. “Re-cladding is going to be a big focus of attention as cities try to reduce carbon output,” says Rafael Pelli, a principal at Pelli Clarke Pelli. To that end, the consulting firm McKinsey and Company issued a report this year that estimates improvements to new and existing building shells’ efficiency could reduce greenhouse gas emissions growth by 60 megatons by 2030.
Done well, re-skinning a building can boost a building’s efficiency—and add aesthetic appeal. The Ryerson School of Image Arts, in Toronto, Canada, hired Diamond + Schmitt to design a gallery for a new photo collection in 2006. The architects’ proposal for a “glass loggia” inspired the school’s president to ask for a retrofit of the entire building, a brick structure that dates to the early 20th century. “We took the idea of turning upper floors into something insulated for the first time,” says principal Don Schmitt. “For more than 30 years, they heated the heck out of it with pumped-in heat and lost a lot of heat.” The architects designed a new two-layer skin with metal two feet behind “huge sheets of ground glass and sandblasted float glass with a series of LED lights in between them.” The facades, Schmitt says, will glow like a beacon at night—and he estimates that the reclad will boost thermal performance by 18 percent.
But some projects, particularly glassy re-clads of masonry buildings, expose architects critical eyes. Gensler’s conceptual renderings of a new facade on a 1920s’ Shreve & Lamb tower on a triangle facing Central Park, for instance, drew howls on the blog Curbed.com. “Every time a building loses its brick facade, an angel gets its wings clipped,” wrote one reader. Even The New York Times’ CityRoom blog sniffed that such a reclad would obscure the tower’s heritage.
Gensler defends the proposed glass as an efficient and responsible bit of urbanism. “The skin is a simple, elegant grill with an innovative and highly detailed corner design,” says Gensler project director Leslie Jabs. “While Gensler did consider leaving the lower colonnade portion as-is, with new cladding on top, it was too similar an approach as Foster’s building for Hearst almost directly across the street.”
Even so, critics of reskining contend that when it comes to buildings already clad in glass, the practice can still strip distinctive architectural qualities. Many commercial property owners are loathe to empty buildings during construction, so a common reclad method involves erecting a new skin over an existing one. Crews generally collect overtime pay for the work, which takes place on nights and weekends, so developers avoid specifying a high level of architectural detail and design complexity, which would further boost labor costs. “You’ll see a very simple new skin,” Jernigan says. “It is new and it is high-performance glaze, but maybe it’s not great-looking. The finances will not give on that one, which is a shame.”
An investment of extra time can make the difference between glare and grace. Institutional clients are often able to afford that investment. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a 1974-vintage metal-and-glass structure wedged in among formidable brick towers of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, wanted a fresh identity when it commenced a 10-year, $1.2 billion campus expansion. So trustees commissioned KPF to re-clad the building and add 500,000 square feet onto it. The result, finished in 2006, allows sunlight to pour into patients’ rooms and brightens the hospital’s facade with a vibrant and colorful lobby visible from the otherwise quiet street. “The trustees began to see that they could take a building that everybody hated and turn it into something iconic,” says KPF partner Jill Lerner.
AoD
Glassy Re-Clads Boost Energy Efficiency But Confound Critics
May 8, 2008
By Alec Appelbaum
As owners and regulators ponder how to handle the aging of towers built during the time of the first oil shocks, in the 1970s, architects and engineers nationwide are proving that a new skin can make a middle-aged building more energy efficient—but only sometimes make it look more elegant.
Along with lava lamps and disco, the 1960s and 1970s produced a host of tall buildings that used crude window glazing and air control technology. “In those days you built on site, put in aluminum mullions, and glazed it. Everything was done in the field,” says Gensler architect David Epstein. “Today we use an aluminum extruded panel made in a shop.” Robert Jernigan, also of Gensler, adds that many office buildings entering their fourth decade leak fresh air or generate so much heat that they require extra air conditioning. So a host of structures with similar weaknesses need new skins—and fast.
Although it’s difficult to say just how many such projects are underway, practices throughout the U.S. and Canada are designing more and more reclads. Gensler, for instance, has completed four and started another 17, and Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) has completed eight with three more in progress. This number only seems set to grow. “Re-cladding is going to be a big focus of attention as cities try to reduce carbon output,” says Rafael Pelli, a principal at Pelli Clarke Pelli. To that end, the consulting firm McKinsey and Company issued a report this year that estimates improvements to new and existing building shells’ efficiency could reduce greenhouse gas emissions growth by 60 megatons by 2030.
Done well, re-skinning a building can boost a building’s efficiency—and add aesthetic appeal. The Ryerson School of Image Arts, in Toronto, Canada, hired Diamond + Schmitt to design a gallery for a new photo collection in 2006. The architects’ proposal for a “glass loggia” inspired the school’s president to ask for a retrofit of the entire building, a brick structure that dates to the early 20th century. “We took the idea of turning upper floors into something insulated for the first time,” says principal Don Schmitt. “For more than 30 years, they heated the heck out of it with pumped-in heat and lost a lot of heat.” The architects designed a new two-layer skin with metal two feet behind “huge sheets of ground glass and sandblasted float glass with a series of LED lights in between them.” The facades, Schmitt says, will glow like a beacon at night—and he estimates that the reclad will boost thermal performance by 18 percent.
But some projects, particularly glassy re-clads of masonry buildings, expose architects critical eyes. Gensler’s conceptual renderings of a new facade on a 1920s’ Shreve & Lamb tower on a triangle facing Central Park, for instance, drew howls on the blog Curbed.com. “Every time a building loses its brick facade, an angel gets its wings clipped,” wrote one reader. Even The New York Times’ CityRoom blog sniffed that such a reclad would obscure the tower’s heritage.
Gensler defends the proposed glass as an efficient and responsible bit of urbanism. “The skin is a simple, elegant grill with an innovative and highly detailed corner design,” says Gensler project director Leslie Jabs. “While Gensler did consider leaving the lower colonnade portion as-is, with new cladding on top, it was too similar an approach as Foster’s building for Hearst almost directly across the street.”
Even so, critics of reskining contend that when it comes to buildings already clad in glass, the practice can still strip distinctive architectural qualities. Many commercial property owners are loathe to empty buildings during construction, so a common reclad method involves erecting a new skin over an existing one. Crews generally collect overtime pay for the work, which takes place on nights and weekends, so developers avoid specifying a high level of architectural detail and design complexity, which would further boost labor costs. “You’ll see a very simple new skin,” Jernigan says. “It is new and it is high-performance glaze, but maybe it’s not great-looking. The finances will not give on that one, which is a shame.”
An investment of extra time can make the difference between glare and grace. Institutional clients are often able to afford that investment. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a 1974-vintage metal-and-glass structure wedged in among formidable brick towers of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, wanted a fresh identity when it commenced a 10-year, $1.2 billion campus expansion. So trustees commissioned KPF to re-clad the building and add 500,000 square feet onto it. The result, finished in 2006, allows sunlight to pour into patients’ rooms and brightens the hospital’s facade with a vibrant and colorful lobby visible from the otherwise quiet street. “The trustees began to see that they could take a building that everybody hated and turn it into something iconic,” says KPF partner Jill Lerner.
AoD
Ryerson hires Goethe Institute curator to direct its photo gallery
Last Updated: Monday, October 6, 2008 | 12:46 PM ET
CBC News
Ryerson University in Toronto has hired a curator at the Goethe Institute as director of its new photography gallery and research centre.
Doina Popescu will take over the job Oct. 27, Ryerson provost Alan Shepard announced Monday in a release.
Popescu will oversee the academic, administrative and exhibits at the new photo gallery being built at Ryerson. The gallery, scheduled to open in 2010, will house the Black Star Historical Black & White Photography Collection, a collection of news, current event and pop culture photos bequeathed to the university in 2005.
She also has a mandate to establish an international profile for the gallery and research centre.
Popescu spent 25 years with the Goethe Institute in Toronto, most recently as deputy director.
She managed the institute's gallery for 10 years, curating shows and connecting with Canadian and international artists.
Born in Montreal, Popescu holds a master's degree in German language and literature and has been involved in Canadian and international arts festivals as well as co-founding the Fourth International Experimental Film Congress in 1989.
She is a steering committee member of the Fifth International Experimental Film Congress, being held in Toronto in 2010.
Ryerson is building an $8-million centre that will have exhibit space and research areas.
Last Updated: Monday, October 6, 2008 | 12:46 PM ET
CBC News
Ryerson University in Toronto has hired a curator at the Goethe Institute as director of its new photography gallery and research centre.
Doina Popescu will take over the job Oct. 27, Ryerson provost Alan Shepard announced Monday in a release.
Popescu will oversee the academic, administrative and exhibits at the new photo gallery being built at Ryerson. The gallery, scheduled to open in 2010, will house the Black Star Historical Black & White Photography Collection, a collection of news, current event and pop culture photos bequeathed to the university in 2005.
She also has a mandate to establish an international profile for the gallery and research centre.
Popescu spent 25 years with the Goethe Institute in Toronto, most recently as deputy director.
She managed the institute's gallery for 10 years, curating shows and connecting with Canadian and international artists.
Born in Montreal, Popescu holds a master's degree in German language and literature and has been involved in Canadian and international arts festivals as well as co-founding the Fourth International Experimental Film Congress in 1989.
She is a steering committee member of the Fifth International Experimental Film Congress, being held in Toronto in 2010.
Ryerson is building an $8-million centre that will have exhibit space and research areas.
syn
Senior Member
When people say the same thing about the Distillery Towers all you can do is accuse them of having a fear of heights.
Now if people want something more, perhaps a 'signpost' for evolution of the Ryerson Campus, all they want is spectacle.
As Alkay points out, this is a false choice (and no one has suggested this is bad because it's just a box anyways).
As for the building, I like it. Too bad they didn't do something similar for the business building.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Well azzo was responding to Hipster's "glass box" comment, asking "box haters" what makes a non-box any better - and answering that question by saying that good design is ultimately what counts. Putting up towers that ignore Toronto's existing context is a different kettle of fish from reinventing the Gooderham site by using a complimentary design-opposite approach that creates a coherent new entity.
Anything can be spectacle. A car crash is spectacle. It's a meaningless value. It doesn't improve beauty, because beauty is an absolute, and it doesn't make ugliness uglier. All it means is that the eye is drawn to something - an excuse used by poor designers to spin their context-ignoring ego-based excrescences to know-nothing clients who crave visual volume because they think it's good design.
Anything can be spectacle. A car crash is spectacle. It's a meaningless value. It doesn't improve beauty, because beauty is an absolute, and it doesn't make ugliness uglier. All it means is that the eye is drawn to something - an excuse used by poor designers to spin their context-ignoring ego-based excrescences to know-nothing clients who crave visual volume because they think it's good design.
H
Hydrogen
Guest
Absolute? Are you possibly making reference to moral absolutism as applied to art?
This could be quite an interesting development (the building).
alklay
Senior Member
"beauty is an absolute"???? In what universe?
H
Hydrogen
Guest
Maybe it's like an absolute monarch.
smuncky
Senior Member
maybe after a few drinks...
Hipster Duck
Senior Member
I had to go waaaay back to see where I even made that comment, and, as I suspected, I didn't. I was joking about how Diamond and Schmitt are box builders, but I never categorically said that I disliked this design.
I think that Shocker's saying that beauty, a subjective matter of opinion, either exists or it doesn't; that there is no degree of beauty.
alklay
Senior Member
Maybe, but can't something be 'more' beautiful than something else? Isn't 'pretty' one notch lower than 'beautiful'.
I haven't thought this out, but if beauty is subjective, then why can't there be degrees of beauty?
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Hipster: Yes, I know. I was careful not to say that it was your opinion, merely a comment that you had made ( in "quotes", too ).
Beauty is an absolute. Something can't be more beautiful than beautiful. Tagging the word "spectacularly" on the front of the word "beautiful" won't do it, any more than tagging the word "art" on the end of the word "graffiti" will transform the sort of derivative imagery scrawled on walls all over town into art, or make a gift more of a gift by advertising it as a "free gift". It's supersizing the language - and debasing it - in an Orwellian good/plus good/double plus good way.
Beauty is an absolute. Something can't be more beautiful than beautiful. Tagging the word "spectacularly" on the front of the word "beautiful" won't do it, any more than tagging the word "art" on the end of the word "graffiti" will transform the sort of derivative imagery scrawled on walls all over town into art, or make a gift more of a gift by advertising it as a "free gift". It's supersizing the language - and debasing it - in an Orwellian good/plus good/double plus good way.