Toronto Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts | ?m | 5s | COC | Diamond Schmitt

I'm here sitting @ Osgoode Hall's garden across from the Opera House as I type this....

I must say that the lighting is bringing this place to life but that doesn't account for the other 50% of the day when lights make no difference.

I noticed in renderings there are trees along Queen St. There aren't any planted there now, however, there seems to be a narrow slit of sidewalk space with temporary concrete which can be removed to plant the trees.

The entire Queen Street stretch is very bland with blank brick walls, I really do hope they enliven it by opening up those closed off windows and by adding greenery.

Anybody with inside information care to comment on that?
 
I just hope they come up with a donor willing to cough up the $5 million to get us that outdoor patio on the roof on the Queen Street side.
 
I did not know a patio was in the plans, and that's certainly an expensive one. I wonder if miketoronto's current thread on patio furniture in the General Discussion section is related to this iniative? miketoronto to COC's rescue!

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(I wonder what portion of the $5 Mil would actually be needed to put a patio on the roof - $30,000?)
 
Am I the only one who think that this is such an "ugly" Opera place? I feel so embarrassed everytime I walk by...it's so ugly from all 4 angles.... Is that the best Toronto can do??? I wish we have something similar to LA's Disney Concert Hall.... Ours just looks like an old community center...
 
^Welcome to UrbanToronto ...

Being new here, I guess we'll have to pardon the fact that you don't know the decade long background on getting this project built.
You might not realize that Frank Gehry's Disney Music Concert Hall had a US$110 million price tag ... for that building's parking garage. The total price was near US$300 million. The entire budget for our Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is CAD$181 million.

Nonetheless, I agree that architect Jack Diamond looked into Toronto's past (i.e.Massey Hall) for inspiration. That's unfortunate because Toronto is at this time reinventing itself by looking to the future with innovative projects like OCAD, the ROM and AGO.

The good news is that the interior of the building was spared no expenses. The sound quality is amongst the best in the world. Acoustic connoisseurs have noted that this venue will be amongst the top 3 in the world in that respect.

Of course, I would have loved a flashy building with "Bilbao Effect" written all over it, but I have to admit that it's much better than the parking lot that was there.

I must admit I nearly cried when I walked passed this building last January :\

800px-WaltDisneyConcertHall.jpeg
 
^Dare I criticise?

To me this building exists in a totally different context than our Opera House. Look at it! Does it meet the street well? Does it embrace its surroundings? Is it urban?? This building was designed for a city, or for an area of the city more specifically that is notorious for not having much vibrancy at street level, a place whose scale is more accommodating to traffic than to pedestrians. It is successful as a landmark, but not as an integrated part of the urban fabric. Though there are definately some 'issues' with the new opera house in Toronto, it does seem to bode well as fitting in as an urban facility, particularly at night when it is in use, that is understated but elegant, and that will meet the street better than would some blank, titanium-plastered behemoth. The Disney Hall suits L.A. just fine. The Four Seasons suits Toronto.
 
a place whose scale is more accommodating to traffic than to pedestrians.
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I disagree. A small garden and patio is integrated into the Disney Concert Hall.
Yes, Grand Avenue is always full of cars zooming by, but there are pedestrians walking along the sidewalks and through the Disney Concert Hall's gardens.
I found that it does meet the street well and that it's fully accessible to a pedestrian. As for fitting in the area, it served as a catalyst for Gehry's rejuvenation of the area through condo towers now being planned.

Getting back to Toronto, we have to recognize that if the budget were higher, the Four Seasons Centre would not have been built. At least we got the interior right and the exterior is "nice" to look at. It's not ground breaking but it's not hideous.

I believe that once the Four Seasons Centre opens and becomes successful, it is absolutely plausible that philanthropists will feel compelled to make their building a little more appealing:

• Patio facing Queen St. as originally planned
• Trees along the Queen St. façade
• Street vibrancy on Queen St through the use of a restaurant

From those suggestions, I guess we can admit that the biggest problem is Queen Street. The University façade's City Room will look great I'm sure and will promote a vibrant street presence. However, the dull walls of the Queen Street side needs work.

The Queen Street side unfortunately continues the "dead zone" propelled by the Sheraton's bland concrete façade and parking garages. I don't think that was dealt with well. The suggestions above could help attenuate those problems.
 
Do you think you could wait a few weeks until they can truck the trees in and plant them and open the cafe before you start whingeing about their absence?
 
MetroMan1000:

The glass staircase was right ahead of you as you walked in the door at the south end of the City Room. It descends from Ring 4 to the Grand Ring, from the north end of the building to the south. The City Room is still a construction site and the risers and treads of the staircase are protected, which is probably why you didn't see the "all glass" effect you hoped for.

I passed by yesterday and the glass side panels of the stair are being installed. There were several more, stacked on the main floor.
 
^ good to hear.

Do you think you could wait a few weeks until they can truck the trees in and plant them and open the cafe before you start whingeing about their absence?
Click to expand...

I suspected the trees would be planted as my post above says:
I noticed in renderings there are trees along Queen St. There aren't any planted there now, however, there seems to be a narrow slit of sidewalk space with temporary concrete which can be removed to plant the trees.
Click to expand...


As for the café. It was stated by the project manager early on in construction that the patio was not going ahead until somebody came up with $5M to build it. Nothing was heard of since.
If you look at where the café was supposed to go, the glass curtain along Queen is too short to serve as a barrier to prevent roof top patrons from falling off. So it's an easy assumption to think that the café is indeed not happening. Do you know otherwise? Please share.
 
There's going to be a cafe/restaurant on the ground floor at the corner of York and Queen.
 
You might not realize that Frank Gehry's Disney Music Concert Hall had a US$110 million price tag ... for that building's parking garage. The total price was near US$300 million. The entire budget for our Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is CAD$181 million.
Click to expand...

That shouldn't be an excuse to build such cheap looking community-centre-like Opera House. Just look around the world...look at other's Opera House and look at ours...and we claim ourselves as a world class city, and we can't even afford to build a decent Opera House?

The good news is that the interior of the building was spared no expenses. The sound quality is amongst the best in the world. Acoustic connoisseurs have noted that this venue will be amongst the top 3 in the world in that respect.
Click to expand...

Again, that's not an excuse to have such ugly design. I mean, can't they have a good, decent, well designed exterior, and still maintain the goods inside the building? The reason now that people try to focus on what's inside the theater is BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO EMBARASSED TO MENTION THE OUTSIDE, LOL....
 
To me this building exists in a totally different context than our Opera House. Look at it! Does it meet the street well? Does it embrace its surroundings? Is it urban?? This building was designed for a city, or for an area of the city more specifically that is notorious for not having much vibrancy at street level, a place whose scale is more accommodating to traffic than to pedestrians. It is successful as a landmark, but not as an integrated part of the urban fabric. Though there are definately some 'issues' with the new opera house in Toronto, it does seem to bode well as fitting in as an urban facility, particularly at night when it is in use, that is understated but elegant, and that will meet the street better than would some blank, titanium-plastered behemoth. The Disney Hall suits L.A. just fine. The Four Seasons suits Toronto.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying that we should have something exactly as the Disney Concert Hall...but, come one, we can do better than what we've got. And I don't see there's anything wrong to have something like it? The whole area is quite dull, and this Opera House just make it worse...just look at the back where it's facing the Sheraton and Hilton, totally unacceptable. And you call that "elegant", LOL. One thing I do agree....The Opera House suits Toronto, "dull" and "boring"...
 
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