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Buildings you'd like to obliterate...

ettml said:
Mies van der Rohe is the architect of the century and you want to bring down one of his masterpieces and what is arguably the finest block in downtown toronto?

ok...

(i don't mind seeing the ernst & young tower gone though as its not really part of mies' plan)
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I wouldn't weep a tear if any one of those towers was knocked down or destroyed. I'd leave the tallest one standing. 1 is enough. 4 is way too much. If anything he should have just built two large towers. 4 towers of the same design just shows a lack of creativity. Even one tower of that design is boring as hell.
 
Who cares about one's plan if it's boring? You might as well be concerned for every buildings plan then. Was it the architect of the Temple Buildings plan to have it be knocked down and replaced by a piece of tempered poo?
 
Ah, but some plans, like some forum posts, are a lot more valuable than others.
 
The number one building that has got to go is the Queen's Quay ferry docks which is basically designed to look and feel like a holding pen for cattle. It really takes a lot of the fun out of the whole experience of going to the islands which, to me, is one of the most quintessential Toronto experiences around.

I'd demolish the Delta Chelsea and the Sheraton Centre without a moment's hesitation, as well as the Hudson's Bay Centre and Cumberland Terrace.

This is very controversial, but a good chunk of Yonge between Dundas and College merits clearance. I would probably flatten the entire western side from Edward just up to the Elephant and Castle. This tacky stretch would be okay if it were anything other than the city's main drag, and with Sams and A&A and even the trademark sleaze long gone, the strip is looking really sad.
 
Mystery White Boy said:
I wouldn't weep a tear if any one of those towers was knocked down or destroyed. I'd leave the tallest one standing. 1 is enough. 4 is way too much. If anything he should have just built two large towers. 4 towers of the same design just shows a lack of creativity. Even one tower of that design is boring as hell.
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If you think you know everything about architecture and master planning why dont you just become an architect and see how hard it really is, like ive said before to you, why dont you stop looking at the fucking form and actually anaylze the buildings, seriously- and ive described to you what makes the original plan of the td centre a masterpeice, as well as the buildings. look it up read about them, understand the fundementals and history of architecture before you discredit them. I would like to see you design a better building.
 
Many of the ones I'd like to see go have been mentioned save for

1) NE corner of Bloor/Dundas West across from subway station....that hideous "Crossways Mall/Towers" - gross!

2) Shipp Centre or sorry..Clarica Centre at Islington and Bloor

3) Wynn Centre - two rounded strip mall buildings on Dundas W. in Mississauga (south side) - disgusting and cheap

4) Greenwin Square - Huntley and Bloor

5) that "triangle-topped" condo building at the Kipling Subway station
 
ceaz40 said:
1) NE corner of Bloor/Dundas West across from subway station....that hideous "Crossways Mall/Towers" - gross!
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Though when it comes to "gross" and worthy of obliteration, it likely plays second fiddle to what's on the SW corner. (And as 70s mixed-use rental complex design goes, Crossways really isn't such a turkey, though it's certainly shopworn.)

3) Wynn Centre - two rounded strip mall buildings on Dundas W. in Mississauga (south side) - disgusting and cheap
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Well, it's Wynn. Whaddaya expect. (Though I always had a fondness for its brazenly bare-basics pop-architecture chutzpah--esp. when it used to have the huge DUNWYNN letters upon the curves.)

4) Greenwin Square - Huntley and Bloor
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IMO it's too "functional" to be obliteration-worthy: straightforward 70s mixed-use semi-Brutalism...
 
Having witnessed at least 10 iterations of this kind of post, it would be more useful if you could say why, apart from just not liking a building, that you want it gone. For me, for instance, I've never been able to stomach the upside-down ziggurat of the Sears office building, something about it just makes me heave. But I know several who like this building, and in terms of the role it plays in the city - as an office at a bit of a remove from the core - it's absolutely fine and perhaps even commendable. I don't think there's much to be gained by my saying I want to blow it up or I hate it or whatever.

If you were to say why you wanted something gone - how the city would be improved by the absence of something - I would have more sympathy. Or even if you could suggest some other means to fix it up rather than demolition.

For instance, the Hudson's Bay Centre at Bloor & Yonge. Far more than it's simple ugliness (which I grant), it really is a street deadener. I particularly hate the small Royal Bank with the enormous staircase with "do not sit here" signs on it. However, if the bank podium were completely rethought and replaced with some kind of transparent retail (surely some kind of store would go frothy over that corner!) I would forgive the building it's sins and move on. I hate the complex in many ways, but I especially loathe the corner treatment of the bank, and that seems to me a relatively easy thing to fix.

Harbour Square, I suppose, would be my other one. Even middling condos that didn't so totally overwhelm the waterfront would be an improvement. I particularly hate how the 1990's buildings crowd the channel nearby, so that no one seems especially sure whether or not it's even public land back there, and to make it worse there are "no trespassing" signs on the east side that add to the unfriendliness. I can't see what you would do to these except blow them.

OK, then, blow dem up good.
 
azzo said:
If you think you know everything about architecture and master planning why dont you just become an architect and see how hard it really is, like ive said before to you, why dont you stop looking at the fucking form and actually anaylze the buildings, seriously- and ive described to you what makes the original plan of the td centre a masterpeice, as well as the buildings. look it up read about them, understand the fundementals and history of architecture before you discredit them. I would like to see you design a better building.
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On paper I could design something much more exciting than TD. I don't have the engineering skills to become an architect. And that's not what I want to do for a living. I don't need to understand the fundamentals and history behind an architect or style to appreciate or hate. Seeing with my own eyes is enough to make me like a building or dislike it. Who cares if I have a deep understanding of architecture or not. You just sound like an elitist snob.
 
You can design something more exciting on paper? Let's have it.

Then we can judge. Because to me, even the fact that you can say that, shows a lack of understanding or appreciation of what buildings are, where a pretty picture equals accomplishment.

And I find it rich that you, who continually shows disdain for just about everything based on everything, could call other "elitist". Hilarious.
 
On paper I could design something much more exciting than TD. I don't have the engineering skills to become an architect.
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Engineering skills can be learned...the kind of genius that is Mies cannot.

It's not so much that I doubt you could design something more exciting that is important, but more so that exciting isn't even the motivation in the first place.


Seeing with my own eyes is enough to make me like a building or dislike it.
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Seeing as you can't even get the number of buildings in question right (even after being told), I really question how carefully you've "seen" them....in every sense of the word.

While Mies had his detractors, even from a few highly talented architects, I think it's safe to say, that in your case, if you find yourself seeing TD as nothing more than boring crap, you really owe it to yourself to re-evaluate....and keep re-evaluating until you understand the process behind the design.

Then, if you still find his highly sophisticated, if severe philosophy unsettling to your sensibilities, then that is totally understandable.

Personally, I find victorian sensibilites very off-putting...doesn't mean I can't appreciate the better examples of the style, which in Toronto's case, takes up a hell of a lot of the city.
 
Hey, he could be even more Joe Blowish and be referring to him as "Miles van der Rohe" or something
 
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