Toronto 401 Bay Street | 143.86m | 33s | Cadillac Fairview | WZMH

I had such low expectations for the reclad. It’s not as terrible as I was expecting.

It certainly makes Old City Hall pop.
 
I had such low expectations for the reclad. It’s not as terrible as I was expecting.
If this were a NEW building built on a vacant lot it would be 'unmemorable' but it is a new skin put onto an older building and needs to be judged on whether it was done 'sensitively' - I would say that it wasn't.
 
Mar 18, 2020

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Am i seeing things or are there truly two toned aluminum panels (white and darker grey?). If so, this reclad is really reaching unprecedented levels of repulsiveness.
 
Design, from start to end of CD's, takes years. How did this possibly pass through so many hands and have so many eyes on it in that time and STILL turn out so badly?

If I had shown a senior designer or studio professor this - even as a misguided first concept sketch - it would be tossed aside in favour of better options. It's like an associate took a liking to the 5th concept that a student intern did - you know, the one that they did just for the sake of having a 5th option to show even though the 5th one is just terrible and they know their boss won't ask for it to be explored further.
 
Lack of imagination. Or no respect for the building's past. Pick your poison.

...the more troubling question though: How did they make something so gray more depressingly gray? /sigh
 
Lack of imagination. Or no respect for the building's past. Pick your poison.

...the more troubling question though: How did they make something so gray more depressingly gray? /sigh
and how come they took so long about doing it? The permit was applied for early in 2014 and the first photo on this thread showing construction was November 2015.
 
and how come they took so long about doing it? The permit was applied for early in 2014 and the first photo on this thread showing construction was November 2015.

Maybe they are in some kinda race with Cumberland at Yorkville Plaza... >.>
 

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