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

[TonyV]

Looking at it from Queen & Bay yesterday, I thought to myself, "the stump lives".

 

[interchange42]

The important part of a building is the bottom three or four floors which are visible from the street. If the building above that is reflective and blends in with the sky it allows more light to the street and prevents cavernous dark streets. There is far too much emphasis on skyline development in my opinion. The view from a distance doesn't matter in comparison to actually being there. Eventually as high-rises spead out across the city we will have a skyline like Sao Paulo with no contour at all. What will matter is how a building looks from the street because nobody will see the top because of the building sitting in front of it.

1) A tower does not have to blend in to bring light down to the streets: Royal Bank Plaza doesn't blend in - it beautifully doesn't blend in - and its gold windows on jagged facades can send fantastic reflections down to street level, depending on the time of day and the sun and sky.

2) Yes, how a tower meets the street is vitally important... but why should that detract from putting adequate thought into the skyline aspect? There will always be angles where the top will be part of someone's view: we are not Sao Pauloizing in this town, we will not have a peakless skyline. (Why are you expecting no contours? The planning department is working to preserve the Financial Core peak, the valley around City Hall, other peaks at other secondary centres, and other valleys everywhere else that will maintain neighbourhoods.) I cannot imagine this city ever wanting to give up its famous skyline form, which it uses it to sell itself to the world: it's our face form afar. There are lots of people viewing it from afar too, and they will always be looking.

All of that said, thus particular building is not ugly per se: its architects simply choose an extremely conservative face for it. One conservative, dull, little impact tower will not destroy a skyline, and neither will a couple more of them if the whole complex is built out, but it and they do not add much of anything to the skyline either and that does some small disservice to the hole they are filling.

Wow. Debate about the BA Centre design is still marching on, despite the fact that the building is so inoffensive and was designed to be such that it would never even generate a bit of debate or even attention. How ironic .

Agreed! How ironic...

PS. As for proportions, I've had several friends ask me, "Wait, so that's Toronto's tallest."

What are you saying to people that makes them think this building could be Toronto's tallest? Or are they confused already without your help? Why is their confusion relevant?

Stop judging towers from miles away; that's not generally how architecture or citybuilding works.

It works both ways: for an architect to miss the top for the bottom or the bottom for the top is laziness, while to tell people to stop judging towers from miles away is delusional, but maybe not atypical for architects.

42

 

[SP!RE]

@ interchange42:

My friends' confusion is to state that from many viewpoints, BA Centre doesn't look stumpty or "too short" at all and that's complete nonsense. All the time I point it out to people I'm with and they are always impressed with its height. Some think it's the tallest. Some simply ask how it ranks. Etc. Etc.

As for my statement about judging the building from the ground level: Yes-- the building should look good from afar. But I am stressing the importance of how a building looks from the street, because many people on these forums forget how important that aspect is. It's just so important I don't really know how to vocalize that any further. I think it's FAR easier to create a building design that's attractive, than a pedestrian-friendly, engaging attractive building.

 

[caltrane74]

With all due respect, you're essentially saying that any tall structure on this site doesn't deserve criticism since it's tall and balances out the skyline, and replaced the stump. You're right, it did do all those things, but it failed epically in all other aspects. It's tall, yes, well kind of, it has added to the skyline, yes... kind of, and it replaced the stump, yes, well sort of.

It's bland, and I still am amazed that someone was paid for designing this thing. Honestly, it looks like it was conceived in less than 10 minutes. Seriously, someone was PAID to 'design' this thing? Really? Reeeeeaallly?

I think it depends on your perspective.. to some people it's boring.. to others its elegant. .... I guess it's in the eye of the beholder

 

[Student99]

is the path connection open yet?

 

[41stfloor]

is the path connection open yet?

No.

 

[lordmandeep]

Man stand beside and look and its tall!!!


Nice Podium as well.

 

[Andrew3D]

is the path connection open yet?

I just discovered these pictures of the P.A.T.H taken by cfives5 on flickr.com. These images are 2 months old now. I've included a few extra shots from the interior as well.

 

[khris]

Some of, if not all of those pictures were posted.

 

[Solaris]

I for one have not seen those 'above ground' photos ... thanks for posting Andrew3D

 

[Andrew3D]

Some of, if not all of those pictures were posted.

Nowhere in the past 10 pages have these been posted or anytime after July 7th, though 41stfloor did post a small handful of different pictures showing the inside progress. The work wasn't as far along in the pictures he posted. Regardless, if these are a repost then they're here for anybody who has yet to see them.

 

[deerparker]

I don't recall seeing them before either If it is a repost, it's still appreciated

 

[Dan416]

I think we may have seen some of them before. But sometimes a refresher is good for us regulars who don't re-read whole threads and just read new posts

 

[SP!RE]

Some of, if not all of those pictures were posted.

Never saw these, and trust me, chances are that means they weren't posted anytime recently or didn't get much "airtime" discussion. Again, your attitude... oh nevermind you'll never change.



Amazing photos though, so I was glad to see them. Interesting to see that very pristine white machinery room, and I love the big round ceiling lights in the PATH section. Round ceiling lights... hmm... looks more like a sexy ballroom than section in PATH.

 

[steveve]

LOL!... I posted those pictures on skyscraperpage a couple months ago!

But good thing you found them!

*I found them on Flickr one day...