Toronto Scotiabank North Tower at Bay Adelaide Centre | 140.2m | 32s | Brookfield | KPMB

A zoom-in:


214596
 
Above grade forms? Finally! I've been biking by this since it started construction and I often forget that it is even happening.
 
got it right said:
Above grade forms? This started 2 years after the One......lol
Click to expand...
You're aware the entirety of the below grade was pretty much complete prior to starting on the tower, right? Probably not - so there's your answer.
 
Really disappointed Brookfield didn't do something here.. sure it fits in nicely as the 3rd clone... seamless. But maybe local-based developers (with international clients and projects) could toss us one good project design idea. We're under-writing them so give one good idea back.
 
i dont know what KPMB and Brookfeild were thinking when they designed and built this. there is 0 creativity in the design of this. the least they could have done is added few setbacks to the 3 siblings.
 
ushahid said:
i dont know what KPMB and Brookfeild were thinking when they designed and built this. there is 0 creativity in the design of this. the least they could have done is added few setbacks to the 3 siblings.
Click to expand...
What they were thinking is "simple is best", "simplicity is beauty", "less is more", that kind of thing. A lot of people hold those as tenets of their architectural philosophy, and following those tenets has produced some stunning buildings here and around the world. Bruce Kuwabara of KPMB, the designer of these buildings, is certainly a practitioner of those beliefs. I'm drawn to minimalism generally too, but I want one strong gesture on each minimalist structure that will set it apart from its neighbours (or link it to others in a multi-phase complex). The TD Centre is a great example of a multi-phase complex where most buildings (even the post-Mies ones) are tied tightly together by the black I-beam aesthetic (I'beam doesn't play so well in a sans-serif font), while Commerce Court West is a lovely example of a one-off modernist landmark with its stainless steel frames around the each floor of windows.

These buildings are missing those "god is in the details" moments; they're pretty much just glass, similar to Kuwabara's Southcore Financial Centre office towers. At least SFC has the IBI-designed Delta hotel at the west end to give it some character, and SFC's ground realm holds a little interest across the site. Bay Adelaide has some pleasantly grand, zen-like minimalist lobbies at ground level too, but the buildings add zero to the skyline, or to the streetscape from any distance. Some, any, architectural gesture would have helped.

42
 
^^^ Then I guess it's time for a new generation of Toronto architects to push aside purist Neo-Modernists like Bruce Kuwabara. An injection of fresh blood and fresh ideas is always a good thing.

The excesses of Modernism that gave rise to the Post-Modernist backlash 40-odd years ago - the sameness, the repetition, the reductiveness, not so much for aesthetic principle but for corporate profit - seem to be at play here in Neo-Modernist form. We need a new backlash. Post-Post-Modernism!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top