Toronto Enigma on the Park | 27.74m | 9s | Aragon Properties | BDP Quadrangle

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I just keep getting reminded of these kinds of things....
 
They've started.

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This is, justNo! Looks like a paint ball place or laser tag building. Not what one resides in. While I like this I’d not like loooking at that everyday. Maybe just me. Building design however is nice the set back effect. Bold ness of the structure it’s self. Thank goodness cladding can be changed
 
The cladding is punchy (it looks like a storage facility) but underneath it's the same old Toronto housing typology.

Its relationship to its namesake park feels entirely ambivalent. Even worse, that elevation along a residential street of old Victorians feels particularly in appropriate - a flat facade with punched windows and no attempt at articulation.
 
Ya. I appreciate that its bold and different. But it’s not my favourite, looks very institutional. Glad it happened, but also glad it happened somewhere, where I won’t be seeing it often.
 
I dig it. It's the kind of building that wouldn't be out of place in Amsterdam. Glad to have a little of that here in Toronto.
 
.dwg said:
The cladding is punchy (it looks like a storage facility) but underneath it's the same old Toronto housing typology.

Its relationship to its namesake park feels entirely ambivalent. Even worse, that elevation along a residential street of old Victorians feels particularly in appropriate - a flat facade with punched windows and no attempt at articulation.
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Okay.
 
That alternating angular monochrome cladding reminds me of the winter camouflage treatment given to the German WW2 battleship Tirpitz when it was operating in the North Atlantic, especially when it was berthed in Norwegian waters.
 
Lenser said:
I dig it. It's the kind of building that wouldn't be out of place in Amsterdam. Glad to have a little of that here in Toronto.
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The difference is that architects in Amsterdam have a tradition of playing with typology - in Toronto we are limited to variable surface treatments on buildings that ultimately all have the same bones.
 
Not that said difference matters to the majority of Torontonians. With its striking appearance, people will either find Enigma funky or screwball. They won't be thinking about building typologies.
 
It can't be too many more posts before someone calls it an eye soar, so I'll just jump in an preempt that: it's an eyesore, a playful and important one that will divide people forever, but which we need around to at least force the occasional conversation about being more bold about our choices… like the conversation picking up again here.

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interchange42 said:
It can't be too many more posts before someone calls it an eye soar, so I'll just jump in an preempt that: it's an eyesore, a playful and important one that will divide people forever, but which we need around to at least force the occasional conversation about being more bold about our choices… like the conversation picking up again here.
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Well said. For what it's worth I appreciate the contrast between the new building and the older stock it's situated amidst. That's the kind of contrast I enjoy seeing in an urban environment. What I don't like to see, in terms of built form, is the tyranny of sameness; I would rather see a vibrant variety of architectural relationships, even if that occasionally includes awkward ones.
 
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