Pug Awards 2010: Time again for the good, the bad & the pugly

[Automation Gallery]

It’s that time of the year again, folks. Time for the great unwashed Toronto public to get up on its hind legs and vote for the good, the bad and the downright pugly.

On Saturday voting begins for the Pug Awards. Through the month of May, anyone can log on to pugawards.com and vote three times, designating which building completed in 2009 they “love,†“like,†or “hate.â€

On Thursday, Cecconi Simone, the interior design firm on Dundas Street West that founded the awards, gave the Post a sneak preview of the contenders. The competition is fierce: 34 residential buildings and seven commercial buildings are vying for the Pug Trophy.

In past years condos have dominated the awards, so it is exciting this year to see three new office towers face off in the commercial class: the 51-storey Bay-Adelaide Centre, the 43-storey RBC Centre and the 30-storey Telus Tower. Each has its strength: the Bay-Adelaide has a lovely, airy lobby and the RBC Centre breaks new ground as a skyscraper with windows that tenants can actually open.

But my own vote goes to the Telus building, specifically for designing its connection to the PATH pedestrian network at grade, so that anyone passing through enjoys 10-metre ceilings and dramatic work by Toronto artist Michael Awad.

Anna Simone, co-creator of the Pug Awards, expects a whopping 50,000 to 60,000 people to cast a vote this year, a huge increase from about 10,000 votes the first year.

“It really is the peoples’ choice,†she says. “It’s not edited in any way. People do vote. It’s very honest and very true.â€

Ms. Simone suggests that the Pug Awards encourage architects to give us quality work. “It’s the police dog of our city,†she says. “The more awareness there is the more accountable people are. And then they are more selective in terms of what they develop in our city.â€

The group is branching out, organizing two Pug Talks this year. The first session, next Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Bata Shoe Museum, will feature Councillor Adam Vaughan (Trinity-Spadina), Marianne McKenna from KPMB Architects, Elyse Parker of the City of Toronto, Gary Switzer of MOD Developments Inc., and Ron Palmer of the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area, discussing Toronto’s troubled (my word) public realm.

The Pug Awards also plans a mayoral debate June 16 at the reconceived Art Gallery of Ontario (winner of a Pug Award as favourite building last year). In addition, 30 Grade 8 students are squaring off in a “Pug Ed†design competition, with a $4,000 bursary going to the best redevelopment proposal.

“We want to bring awareness to our youth,†Ms. Simone says. “If they can start to learn the vocabulary of design, it can only enhance the future of our city.â€

http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/04/30/time-again-for-the-good-the-bad-the-pugly/

 

[Parkdalian]

There are a lot of buildings! And there should be a "neutral" button. Some things merit no feelings.

There are also a lot of mistakes. On the awards page, the Four Seasons Corporate Headquarters is listed as a residential project and a commercial project. And they had one of the Markham developments on Queen Street.

 

[interchange42]

Ed and I attended yesterday's Pug Talk held at the Bata Shore Museum, as mentioned in the National Post article above.

It was an interesting evening: John Bentley Mays posed questions to each of the panelists before opening the floor to questions for the audience.

To quickly summarize the contributions of the panelists;

Ron Palmer detailed how the Bloor-Yorkville BIA has had to prod and push the City into taking care of the public realm, and declared that the City needs an advocate for BIAs on staff as so much bureaucracy at City Hall currently seems to be in place to reinforce inertia.

Marianne McKenna of KPMB spoke about strides that the City has made to improve Bloor Street west of Avenue Road by demanding better designed and equipped sidewalks as new buildings have gone in, but complained that the utilities tend to make those improvements very difficult.

Gary Switzer of MOD Developments spoke about the lack of good public spaces in a city gridded by the surveyors' 66 foot chain, and called attention to the fun spots we have where roads deviate from the grid, with Yonge-Dundas Square as an example.

Elyse Parker, head of the City's new Public Realm office, talked about the challenges ahead to improve coordination between agencies, and changing the culture at the City so that the public realm becomes more important.

Adam Vaughan spoke about how important it will be to make city building a key issue in the upcoming civic election this fall, and focusing those questions on the Mayor's race.

To that end, the next Pug Talk on June 16 at the AGO will focus on a mayoral debate. Combined with this year's Pug Awards, it should make for an interesting night.

...and speaking of those awards, UrbanToronto wants to offer an alternate way to weigh in on this year's 41 buildings: In coming days we will begin to feature the projects, and ask you to vote here as well; it's just that we are going to give you more options when you vote. We want to respond to the comments, like that made by Parkdalian above, to those made by others here to previous Pug Awards, and give you the chance now, for a couple more days, to get your two cents in about how we should do it. Please let us know below!

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[kettal]

263 Wellington West is the only real eyesore of the year. He's going to win ugliest building, I guarantee it.

 

[WiddleBittyKitty]

I agree with Parkdalian that there needs to be a Neutral button added to the mix... but that also makes me think one more should be added between it and 'Hate it' too, because I am actually capable of distinguishing between something I hate and something I merely dislike... so, 5 choices maybe?
Love It • Like It • Unmoved • Dislike It • Hate it

 

[tim_crux]

I'm one of the Pug Awards team and wanted to weigh in on the subject of the voting options, as I can assure you it's discussed at length each year amongst us as to how many options is enough options. Many of you probably know last year was the introduction of "LIKE IT" into the fold - this was in response to the general opinion that not everyone feels strongly enough to LOVE or HATE a nominee so we wanted to find a neutral ground. At the same time we are an organization aimed at providing a platform to the broader public (not those necessarily very involved in the fields or art, design or even online voting) - and this is in large part why we streamline the voting process to make the process as easy possible without facing the end-user with so too many options (recognizing of course that one could argue it makes it more difficult to vote when one doesn't see the option they want - but we can't please everyone). This year was the introduction of "comments" which we feel gives the more engaged user a platform to voice their opinions more directly - and who knows you may even see a new award pop-up out of this at the closing ceremony.

That said, I look forward to seeing your version and will be sure to vote (but please don't give me too many options!)

 

[wyliepoon]

One suggestion I have (at least for the UT version) is to introduce more voting categories. Other possible categories that we can vote for...

Best architectural firm
Best (most aesthetically-friendly) residential/commercial developer
Best public space (park or public square)
Favourite heritage building
etc.

If we want to make the voting more interesting... perhaps we should introduce some sort of playoff system.

 

[interchange42]

Wylie, your ideas are good, but maybe too hard to incorporate into the Pugs. What we will do is that after the Pug Awards are over, we will ask our members to rate the subjects of the various categories you have listed above, and more!

Please check the Polls subforum of UrbanToronto on a daily basis to consider our latest poll!

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[khris]

I sent them an email asking why some projects are outside of the City of Toronto proper, when in the rules for qualifying need to be buildings within the city. No response though.

 

[adamg4848]

I was at the Pug website looking through the comments, and I noticed a lot of people are just voting based on the photos, usually giving negative comments, or complaining that they can't see certain details. That's just laziness, I think all the buildings should be viewed in person, or maybe at least a virtual tour.

 

[junctionist]

I was at the Pug website looking through the comments, and I noticed a lot of people are just voting based on the photos, usually giving negative comments, or complaining that they can't see certain details. That's just laziness, I think all the buildings should be viewed in person, or maybe at least a virtual tour.

Did you leave a comment about that?

 

[adamg4848]

Did you leave a comment about that?

Maybe I should have, I just assumed nobody actually goes back to look at their comments. I don't actaully think it makes a person lazy, that wasn't the right word. I would say they should at least give the building a look, if they are able, before they cast a vote. Maybe if I have the time (and can remember the buildings in question), I'll post a comment to that effect.

 

[adma]

I'm sure that "voting based on photos" factored in before; notably w/the Argyle Lofts victory a couple of years ago (presumably people were voting for the old, in lieu of the new)

 

[Edward Skira]

This year's Pug Award winners, announced Wednesday evening at the AGO, were quite well predicted by UrbanToronto, although we did miss the Honourable Mention in both residential and commercial categories.

The Residential winners were Honourable Mention The Arc (our fourth pick) in place of our pick Murano, Runner-Up Pure Spirit which we correctly predicted, and 60 Richmond, a clear winner for us and them!

First Place:
60 Richmond East Housing Co-Operative

Second Place:
Pure Spirit

Third Place:
The Arc

Similarly in the Commercial category, UrbanToronto correctly predicted the first and second place winners while missing the third. Honourable Mention went to Bloorview Kids Rehab in place of our vote for Telus House, while the Runner-Up position was confirmed for the RBC Centre, and we agreed on the clear winner in this category, the Royal Conservatory's Telus Centre for Performance and Learning.

First Place:
Royal Conservatory TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning

Second Place:
RBC Centre

Third Place:
Bloorview Kids Rehab

Congratulations to all winners, to the Pugs for making good architecture a media-worthy issue in Toronto, and to UrbanToronto for voting so astutely!

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

I'm disappointed that RBC Centre (a fine contender) won over Telus House, to my eyes the best office tower built so far this cycle.