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The Urban Jungle
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Bay Adelaide Centre West Tower (Brookfield, 50s, WZMH)

Urban Shocker said:
To me it represented potential, and possibilities - not thwarted ambition and the end of something.
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Agreed, shocker.

To me, BA represented the end of Bay street exuberance. Even the MINT towers that I wasn't partial to (FCP, Royal Bank Plaza) had some real oomph. FCP had its sheer mass, Royal Bank plaza was layered in gold like Athena. Even 1 King West had its impossibly anorexic form.

BA is, like TK said, just a mundane office building from the 905 photoshopped to a height of 50 storeys. I've never seen a 700 foot tower look so fat and squat.
 
BA is urban filler, 700 feet of iceberg lettuce or garlic bread in the CBD.

Hipster Duck said:
At least wannabe modernist blocks didn't graft a fake, elongated facade of a B-rated 1930s block onto one corner.
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I still wish they had kept the white & blue brick building and morphed it into the new tower, Escher-style. Then, the old bit wouldn't be grafted on and pointless.
 
Urban Shocker did articulate my feelings best. While I am glad to see the stump go, there is still a lot of empty space on the land (as they knocked down existing Bay Street buildings and moved the newer building west of the old spot...which is still empty and awaiting the next boom). And there is a sense of disappointment now that the new tower's primary aesthetic is kind of, for lack of a better and more articulate word, 'blah.'
 
I understand how the notched corners play off of the notched corners of FCP and - goodness knows - I'd be the last person here to deride the idea of expanding on an existing context and fitting in, but there's a tradition with business towers - skyscrapers, dammit! - of being brash and competitive and making a bold corporate statement on the skyline, that this one abdicates.

To be charitable, it kinda looks like the FCP Mini-Me that the Exchange Tower could've been, but wasn't.
 
Well for now it is the most reflective and shiney office tower in the CBD, and that's gotta be worth something. And yes it is tall...

1. FCP - 1975
2. SP - 1987
3. BCE - 1990
4. CC - 1972
5. TD - 1967
6. BA - 2008

Obviously these types of buildings don't come around too often. Look at the shiney glass as half full, and the lack of available tenant willing to spend to make a statement. If none of the banks had major Toronto HQ's I guess I could see things from the other's point of view. But we have a shitload of available office space and a very conservative business community, the chances of something being built outside of the box, would have been very slim to none.
 
caltrane74 said:
Well for now it is the most reflective and shiney office tower in the CBD, and that's gotta be worth something. And yes it is tall...
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Royal Bank Plaza is more reflective and shinier than BlahAdelaide Centre. Even at 30+ years old.
 
Between photographing the CBD, and walking through it daily, I'd say Royal Bank Plaza is more reflective. It also sprinkles the ground with a shimmering golden glow during sunset, which I find absolutely beautiful.

rb_plaza.jpg


edit, for comparison:

IMG_5997.jpg


Who will win the epic battle of reflectivity!?
 
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Yeah, consider Sixth Avenue at the W edge of Rockefeller Center, or Park Avenue post-Seagram--block after block of proto-Bay-Adelaides which were so loathed as to spawn the Postmodern backlash.
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you know, i was just rambling on to someone about the sixth avenue tombstones today.
what i can't figure out is why, why we have a backlash to a backlash to a backlash.
in any case, b-a is not that hard to ignore. it is peculiar only in its absolute lack of peculiarity. which is something.
the RBC centre does have something...just not sure what it is.
 
egotrippin said:
Between photographing the CBD, and walking through it daily, I'd say Royal Bank Plaza is more reflective. It also sprinkles the ground with a shimmering golden glow during sunset, which I find absolutely beautiful.

Who will win the epic battle of reflectivity!?
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Don't want to be a stickler here, but one picture was taken on an overcast day and the other on a blue sky, sunny day. - That's why I said this one is up to debate. -

On a sunny day, the BA cladding looks like a polished mirror.
 
Actually, glass buildings tend to be their most reflective in overcast conditions. The clouds diffuse the light, which is reflected more dynamically. However in direct sunlight it often lights enough of the interior behind the glass which cancels out some of the reflection. Also, the reflectivity of glass can be compared regardless of colour, I don't understand the gold argument.
 
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