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

isaidso said:
Shockingly horrible. All one can hope for is a restoration 20-30 years down the road. They've absolutely butchered this building. They must have hired the same woman who did this below. The kicker is they almost certainly think they did a wonderful job and got paid handsomely for their efforts.

jesus1.jpg


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The Monkey Christ restoration! I think you just dropped the mike on what most of us wanted to say about this "upgrade" but couldn't find the right words to really spear it. Thank you for that! /bows
 
My anti-fan-fic of this building is that there was a member of the design team who realized at some point that the whole thing was an unmitigated disaster and they decided to subvert the process by adding in design elements that would work against the grain. So for example, where the columns are coming down the whole height of the tower, they decided to add a horizontal element that would run against them and weaken the effect of the vertical elements. Where the tower "breathes" because it has a multi-storey reveal between the podium and the floors above, this designer made sure to model up mullions that extended down and reduced the (successful) effect of the reveal. Where there was any sense of texture at grade, he/she replaced all of the cladding with back-painted glass.

I can sleep at night, despite what a disaster this tower is, because of the efforts of this one rebellious designer, working against the rest of the team, who made sure to push it from mediocre to absolutely horrifying, a victory in itself. Without this fictional narrative, I don't know how else to accept or process what I see.
 
We really do need a UT equivalent of the Razzies - the categories are:

Worst low-rise of the year
Worst mid-rise of the year
Worst high-rise of the year
Worst public/institutional project of the year (hi Arthur Meighen!)
Worst renovation/restoration of the year (nominees: 401 Bay, Arthur Meighen, June Callwood)
Worst public space/realm project of the year (June Callwood!)
Worst project (any kind) of the year
Most "promising" project in planning/execution phase

AoD
 
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isaidso said:
Shockingly horrible. All one can hope for is a restoration 20-30 years down the road. They've absolutely butchered this building. They must have hired the same woman who did this below. The kicker is they almost certainly think they did a wonderful job and got paid handsomely for their efforts.

jesus1.jpg


Click to expand...
Judging by the sheer lack of pride in this abomination, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some under the table payoffs going on.
 
Translude15 said:
Judging by the sheer lack of pride in this abomination, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some under the table payoffs going on.
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What? Ridiculous, baseless.

No-one has to pay anyone off for something like this to happen, as there's nothing in the City's setup to stop anything like this from happening. The recladding plans for buildings are only required to be seen by the Building & Construction Department, and all they do is check that it meets code, that it insulates properly, is fireproof, etc. That's it.

42
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
We really do need a UT equivalent of the Razzies - the categories are:

Worst low-rise of the year
Worst mid-rise of the year
Worst high-rise of the year
Worst public/institutional project of the year (hi Arthur Meighen!)
Worst renovation/restoration of the year (nominees: 401 Bay, Arthur Meighen, June Callwood)
Worst public space/realm project of the year (June Callwood!)
Worst project (any kind) of the year
Most "promising" project in planning/execution phase

AoD
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What ever happened to the Pugly Awards?
www.pugawards.com

Celebrating 10 Years Of Architecture | PUG X

www.pugawards.com www.pugawards.com
 
interchange42 said:
What? Ridiculous, baseless.

No-one has to pay anyone off for something like this to happen, as there's nothing in the City's setup to stop anything like this from happening. The recladding plans for buildings are only required to be seen by the Building & Construction Department, and all they do is check that it meets code, that it insulates properly, is fireproof, etc. That's it.

42
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Baseless, yes but I was referring more to the relationship between designer/architect, builder, material/cladding supplier(s) and the property owner. Nothing related to the City.
 
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