AlexBozikovic
Active Member
Such a huge disappointment, this whole project.
Such a huge disappointment, this whole project.
The urbanism is fine - but it’s dense and sterile as hell.Care to explain how?
Alex expanded a bit on Twitter and I tend to agree with his points:Care to explain how?
Alex expanded a bit on Twitter and I tend to agree with his points:
My issues with the project are:
1) The architecture totally overwhelms the heritage of the Kent School building. At the very least, the new buildings should have been pulled back from Dufferin to align with the front plane of the school.
2) The retention of the Bloor Collegiate building is the worst kind of facadomy and doesn't in any way respect the original form of the buildings.
3) The towers are stubby and too close together and reside on giant multi-storey podiums to get the unit count up. I would have much preferred fewer, taller towers, more widely spaced, with less overwhelming podiums.
I may be biased because I'm a huge fan of Art Deco/Art Moderne, but I think Bloor Collegiate a lovely building and very much worth saving. I'll agree that it's not "grand", exactly, but it has some beautiful details (just look at those porthole windows and curved brick corners!). I'm glad that some of that heritage is being retained in the latest iteration, but it's essentially some old brick pasted onto the front of a new building of a wholly different scale.The second point is a problem for me.............I don't like the original facade of Bloor Collegiate that much and don't consider it grand......... I appreciate saving it not only as a gesture but to add some variety to the architecture of the site.
That said.......this is not a building, which on its 'face', pun intended, merits preservation to me.
With that kind of claustrophobic massing, it reminds me of the 60s vision for St. James Town. I wouldn't be at all surprised if, in 30 years, it's widely viewed by the rest of the city as an urban hell. Hope it doesn't come to that but....