Toronto U of T: Robarts Library Renovations & Robarts Common | ?m | ?s | U of T | Diamond Schmitt

Tulse said:
There are those who would disagree that Robarts' style is "clearlybad". I would be one of those. You may not like Brutalism, but you would need to provide an argument as to why this building is not a good exemplar of the style.
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Maybe it's not so much a "good vs bad" thing, as an "art vs corporate/bureaucratic" thing--that which distinguishes Warner Burns Toan & Lunde from a Le Corbusier or Paul Rudolph...
 
To take up another issue, nor is it true that a building has to make a gesture towards the street. Why? Certain buildings fold up their arms and close their eyes, or scowl down on the street, or ignore it. Fortresses, for example, certain courthouses, pyramids. And yes, Robarts is called Fort Book. It's not a very engaging stance, and certainly not one that's fashionable at the moment, but serene forbidding is an attitude with a considerable history in architecture. Robarts has already been softened up with previous interventions, and the current works build on that, but the St. George side will keep it's brutalist aspect, since the addition won't be visible from the east. What's wrong with the greatest library in the country gazing down at those who enter like a stern concrete headmaster? It's not a candy store; it doesn't have to lure us with sweet enticements.
 
CapitalSeven said:
To take up another issue, nor is it true that a building has to make a gesture towards the street. Why? Certain buildings fold up their arms and close their eyes, or scowl down on the street, or ignore it. Fortresses, for example, certain courthouses, pyramids. And yes, Robarts is called Fort Book. It's not a very engaging stance, and certainly not one that's fashionable at the moment, but serene forbidding is an attitude with a considerable history in architecture. Robarts has already been softened up with previous interventions, and the current works build on that, but the St. George side will keep it's brutalist aspect, since the addition won't be visible from the east. What's wrong with the greatest library in the country gazing down at those who enter like a stern concrete headmaster? It's not a candy store; it doesn't have to lure us with sweet enticements.
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With the new addition, it's apparently going to try to be a fortress with candy store. However, I should say that Robarts doesn't ignore the street. It seemed to aspire to make the setting more monumental with its (perhaps grandiose) staircases and sloped landscaping on the St. George side. Yet it also provides a cozy, functional entrance at ground level. Fisher Library's concrete tower is also an unappreciated view terminus for Hoskin Avenue.
 
Actually shabbyness of certain design elements aside, I think Robarts aged and mellowed rather well - the St. George side of the building is a pleasure to walk past every time. With some landscape redesign I am sure the same can be achieved for the Harbord frontage.

AoD
 
Fortress with a candy store -- I love it. I believe the cozy entrance on the ground floor came about in the early to mid nineties when they redid much of the first to fourth floors for accessibility and to accomodate more computer terminals.
 
Application: Zoning Review Status: Not Started

Location: 135 ST GEORGE ST
TORONTO ON M5R 2L8

Ward 20: Trinity-Spadina

Application#: 11 152830 ZPR 00 ZR Accepted Date: Mar 24, 2011

Project: Non-Residential Building New Building

Description: Proposal to construct a new 5 storey building on the west side of existing Library, "Robarts Library", as part of U of T. Use of building is ground floor cafe, and 4 stories of reading rooms.
 
as someone who does appreciate the beauty and rawness of brutalism...

i would agree that Robarts is indeed "clearlybad"

As it currently stands, and with the recent additions, Robarts doesn't really tower over its patrons in a stern, old, headmaster style. It is far too flamboyant, especially in its upper extremities. While the first few floors maintain a coherent style, the upper half of the building is very convoluted, an entire face coposed of what looks like concrete elevators fozen in mid-air terminating in fins which jut out towards the street like poorly abstracted alligator snouts. The Fisher Rare Books library furthemore undermines the complex's grandiosity, as though the metaphorical "headmaster" is trying to be hip and cool just to fit in. The formal qualities of this building are neither elegant nor menacing, and while each element may have its own aesthetic merits, the lack of rhyme or rhythm makes the whole think look like a big joke.

Things are even worse from an urbanistic point of view. It turns 3 out of 4 streets into "back-alleys" without providing any space or shelter to actually enjoy the supposed peace and quiet (actually just a lack of overall activity) which characterizes these streets. The spaces Robarts creates by failing to fit into the street grid are oversized and awkward. The St. George side is just as bad. The entry-way is far from sympathetic to anybody. The activity ever taking place inside of the "shelter" the entrance provides consists of a handful of resentful students sucking on a sour cigarette before mustering the resolve to head back inside for another round of hell.

On the new addition, I'm fairly neutral. I supposed we'll have to wait and see how it will turn out, though I'd rather head over to Sydney Smith for a proper example on how to actually engage with the street in a sucessful way.
 
A well crafted critic Monetto. And yet as a student I always enjoyed going to Robarts and virtually never set foot in Sydney Smith unless I was forced to.
 
Thanks Tricky

I was mostly referring to the steps and the raised podium of SS, which creates a very nice and engaging public space. I also love the new additions to SS, namely the student study/lounge space that was built when the new glass enclosure was added underneath the cantilevered 2nd floor. It is very nicely proportioned and I've always found it very comfortable because of it.

Now, contrast this to Robarts, where inside everything feels epic, monstrous, like one giant hallway, every space as though en-route to something more important.

I will agree that the Scotiabank Information Commons is quite nice, and somehow manages to feel welcoming. This, and a couple of other study wings, are notable exceptions to what I otherwise find to be a very unpalatable building overall.
 
Application: Zoning Review Status: Not Started

Location: 130 ST GEORGE ST
TORONTO M5S 1A5

Ward 20: Trinity-Spadina

Application#: 15 114475 ZPR 00 ZR Accepted Date: Feb 11, 2015

Project: Non-Residential Building Addition

Description: Proposal to construct a 5 storey addition at the west side of existing library - University of Toronto - Robarts Library.
 
Interesting that, at the same time, the same architectural firm is putting an addition on another brutalist monument built out of triangles and hexagons in Ottawa.
 
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