Toronto Corus Quay | ?m | 8s | Waterfront Toronto | Diamond Schmitt

The Bobbsey Twins of the architectural manifesto world:

Alklay: Bring on the wavy forms and shapes, the splashes of colour and the creative use of materials. This is architecture at its most creative: artists attempting to express themselves, and our new age, using the latest techniques and a mindset ... Bring on the new age of style.

Gropius: Let us desire, conceive, and create the new building of the future together. It will combine architecture, sculpture, and painting in a single form, and will one day rise towards the heavens from the hands of a million workers as the crystalline symbol of a new and coming faith.
 
Urban Shocker said:
There you go, misrepresenting my posts again. I've never made an either-or polarization between grey and colour - instead I've pointed out that grey is a colour - for the benefit of those who either claim it isn't, or who see the world in black-and-white terms where it is in opposition to other colours. Here's Tewder's full quote:

This thread is a good example of the problem when issues are so relentlessly cornered into false 'either-or' polarizations (grey or colour, spectacle or no spectacle, boxy or curvey, within the 'Toronto context' or not etc). It's disingenuous and counterproductive. The heart of the issue here is Diamond's vision of architecture for this site, and whether you're for it or not. I for one feel it is perfectly reasonable to criticize Corus without resorting to false dichotomies.
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Urban Shocker said:
The thirst for spectacle is an increasingly tired, dogmatic approach
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Rinse & repeat.
 
Wasn't the whole point of the architectural review panel, to get us the best design possible? If this is the best we can do, or the best we are going to get on our waterfront, it's a sad joke. It's not like our Central waterfront has many buildings that Torontonians love. It's more the opposite. Is one or two iconic buildings, with a bit of spectacle, too much to ask for?

Our mayor goes on and on about Toronto being a city where design and beauty matter. Are buildings like this supposed to turn Toronto into a tourism superstar? I'm tired of hearing Mr. Mayor talk about making Toronto tourist friendly, then at every turn, doing exactly the opposite.

Dismiss "spectacle" as just superficial silliness but the most beloved buildings around the world, contain spectacle. (Chrysler Building, Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, Big Ben and The Sydney Opera House) Bland boxes don't make a tourism magnet or a great city.
 
Torontovibe:

Actually - grandiose statements notwithstanding, the UDP plays the more important role of preventing disasters (like the stretch between York and Yonge) from happening.

AoD
 
Let alone disasters of the Chedington/NY Towers variety, i.e. as disconcertingly understated as Corus may be, imagine if...
 
Adma is right. Under different circumstances, we could have had something like this...

hcom_1480921_5_b.jpg


or this...

beijing-bad-architecture.jpg


Then again, perhaps something like this could have come through the pipeline...

pompidou1.jpg


...I quietly await my "stop looking at other cities on the internet," flaming. Yahoo.
 
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Urban Shocker said:
The Bobbsey Twins of the architectural manifesto world:
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hmmmm, 'fan boys' and bobbsy twins... maybe we should start our own club?


Torontovibe said:
Wasn't the whole point of the architectural review panel, to get us the best design possible? If this is the best we can do, or the best we are going to get on our waterfront, it's a sad joke. It's not like our Central waterfront has many buildings that Torontonians love. It's more the opposite. Is one or two iconic buildings, with a bit of spectacle, too much to ask for?
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Of course it's not, but I fear the architectural/design establishment is dominated by self-important 'urban shockers' using Toronto's built form to play out their insular dogmatic and arcane design fetishes (grey being the most colourful of colours type nonsense....)

Put me down as a 'bobbsy twin' but the very notion that Toronto is above 'spectacle' is also a bit much to swallow, and all the more so when this false assumption is applied so rigorously no matter what the context or function. All design is about spectacle. Anything that is 'viewed' is spectacle, and to hold up poor Dubai-type examples of design as an incontrovertible argument against 'spectacle' is forcing a rigid design mind-set too far. The built form in Toronto suffers. Thankfully we have designers like Alsop coming here to nudge us beyond these artificial conventions, getting us back nearer to the spirit of adventure in design that led previous generations in Toronto to built the TD Centre and other modernist buildings that were the bold and daring 'spectacle' of their time.

Lest I risk falling into the trap of false dichotomy or of a polarized position I will add that I like Diamond and Clewes and some of the work they are doing in some contexts... *but* their's is not the only design response to all contexts in Toronto and we can push the envelope to embrace risk and grandeur and colour and shape and all kinds of other design fundamentals.
 
Why don't these anti-spectacle types ever use examples of The Chrysler Building? They pick the crassest examples, as if there is no such thing as spectacle as great architecture. There are lots of great examples of spectacle, a few even being in stogy TO. (Ontario Place and City Hall being examples)
 
Oh, Tewder darlin' you really should leave your defensively-circled encampment in the woods, hitch up the buggy to old Dobbin, and head off down the old dirt road into town now and then. The TSA'a Waterfront Review forum last week was a delightful rebuke to all your fanboy notions of how our local design culture would be nuthin' - just nuthin' I tell ya' - without a few foreign architects like Alsop ( who retreated from us a bankrupt ) to show us the way.
 
I got word that there will be 2 restaurants in the building. A short list of 10 potential tenants for these spaces has been made and Corus staff are being asked for their opinion on who should get the space.
 
Tuscani01 said:
I got word that there will be 2 restaurants in the building. A short list of 10 potential tenants for these spaces has been made and Corus staff are being asked for their opinion on who should get the space.
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Hopefully restaurant implies exactly that i.e. it won't just be a Burger King or some fast food joint.

Could be great though if there's access from the boardwalk!
 
I agree completely. No matter whether the building is a spectacle or is colourful or not, it is the people, staff, local residents and tourists, who will bring the area to life and add the vibrancy so presently lacking in the east bayfront. Outside of any TEDCO bashing for not having this be a proper mixed-use development, if there are two or more decent restaurants and cafes, some benches, a good promenade, trees and other greenery and well-executed public spaces, then in the context of the other development proposed or planned for this area, this will likely be a fine addition to the waterfront.
 
walking out from the kool haus this morning at 6.30am. apologies for the crappy camera.

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