Toronto George Brown College: Limberlost Place | 52.5m | 10s | George Brown | Moriyama Teshima Architects

Which of the four finalist design teams' concept do you prefer?

  • Moriyama & Teshima Architects + Acton Ostry Architects

  • Patkau Architects + MJMA

  • Provencher Roy + Turner Fleischer

  • Shigeru Ban + Brook McIlroy


Results are only viewable after voting.
Our Central Waterfront Growth To Watch For story has said since it was published on Friday that the announcement will be made on Tuesday. If you only visit the forum threads, don't forget that there's typically lots of info connected to the front page too!

42
 
I knew they would win. So typical of this city’s ambivalence toward audaciousness. Can we ever do something adventurous with architecture? I don’t understand the exclusive fetish we have neomodernism. It is so hackneyed in this city. More architectural banality on the waterfront. It seems that whenever we hold international design competitions, a local firm wins. In a way, it kind of defeats the purpose of looking elsewhere, beyond our own backyard.
 
I knew they would win. So typical of this city’s ambivalence toward audaciousness. Can we ever do something adventurous with architecture? I don’t understand the exclusive fetish we have neomkdernism. It is so hackneyed in this city. More architectural banality on the waterfront.

Huh? I think there's a genuine argument to be made that this is the most audacious of the four proposals, with the Shigeru obviously being the only other one that comes close. What building in the city looks anything remotely like this proposal?
 
I for one am glad it'll hide the existing campus from view finally. Always hated it and a lot of people seemed to agree back in the day when that forum thread was active.
 
Beside the angular Daphne Cockwell George Brown building, and hidden from the water by it, this is the wrong site for the globular Shigeru Ban proposal. SB should be invited by Waterfront Toronto to design the signature building in Promontory Park, where it would stand out. The MT+AO plan make a virtue of the angles down there: this should look great.

42
 
Huh? I think there's a genuine argument to be made that this is the most audacious of the four proposals, with the Shigeru obviously being the only other one that comes close. What building in the city looks anything remotely like this proposal?
This looks somewhat similar (see link). My contention has more to do with the standard, minimalist, straight line approach to design in this city; where any deviation from that is often called ‘too busy.’ There seems to be an obsessive, unrelenting tendency toward this ‘less is more’ design philosophy, and it is tiring. Remove the pointed roofline, and this looks like almost any other neomodernist, institutional building in the city that has been built in the last couple of decades. This proposal might have been more practical with respect to its interior spaces (though, we know very little about each proposal’s interior layout). The Shiberu Ban proposal would have been a one-of-a-kind structure in Toronto. Nothing remotely resembles its supple, elegant, organic curves.

It was easily one of the most imaginative buildings this city has ever had the chance of possessing: from the clever Super Mario warp pipe on the roof, to the the tree-like columns and neo gothic window arches at the main entrance (which remind me of the World Trade Center); the large, curved, wooden beams throughout the interior space; the spiral staircase; the honey gold glazing & roof panels, etc. Is the winning proposal (though, certainly more attractive) really that far of a step up from the adjacent Innovation Centre, that has yet to be built? It looks very conservative and still very timid.

A sharp-angled roofline doesn’t really push the envelope, in my opinion. That’s the only really distinctive feature I can see with this design. It doesn’t move me in any way. This could fit into any university or college campus in Canada and not really stand out, in my view. Even to the layman, I think the Shigeru Ban proposal would demand one’s attention and would turn heads. Anyone could appreciate it solely on a visceral level. It would be nice to see this proposal get built somewhere else in the city. It is too good of a design to give up. Unfortunately, that won’t happen.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Sp...2!3m1!1s0x882b34c07c298151:0x6d8ea3c7a0056e10
 
Last edited:
This looks somewhat similar (see link). My contention has more to do with the standard, minimalist, straight line approach to design in this city; where any deviation from that is often called ‘too busy.’ There seems to be an obsessive, unrelenting tendency toward this ‘less is more’ design philosophy, and it is tiring. Remove the pointed roofline, and this looks like almost any other neomodernist, institutional building in the city that has been built in the last couple of decades. This proposal might have been more practical with respect to its interior spaces (though, we know very little about each proposal’s interior layout). The Shiberu Ban proposal would have been a one-of-a-kind structure in Toronto. Nothing remotely resembles its supple, elegant, organic curves. It was easily one of the most imaginative buildings this city has ever had the chance of possessing: from the clever Super Mario warp pipe on the roof, to the the tree-like columns and neo gothic window arches at the main entrance (which remind me of the World Trade Center); the large, curved, wooden beams throughout the interior space; the spiral staircase; the honey gold glazing & roof panels, etc. Is the winning proposal (though, certainly more attractive) really that far of a step up from the adjacent Innovation Centre, that has yet to be built? It looks very conservative and still very timid. A sharp-angled roofline doesn’t really push the envelope, in my opinion. That’s the only really distinctive feature I can see with this design. It doesn’t move me in any way. This could fit into any university or college campus anywhere in Canada and not really stand out, in my view. Even to the layman, I think the Shigeru Ban proposal would demand one’s attention and would turn heads. Anyone could appreciate it solely on a visceral level. It would be nice to see this proposal get built somewhere else in the city. It is too good of a design to give up. Unfortunately, that won’t happen.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Sp...2!3m1!1s0x882b34c07c298151:0x6d8ea3c7a0056e10

I mean, to each his or her own, of course, but I find this far more visually striking than the Shigeru proposal, which I also liked. I certainly don't think it's fair to assert that everyone agrees with your disagreement on that front -- I don't think it is conservative at all, I don't think it looks remotely like either 1 Spadina Crescent or the proposed Waterfront "Innovation" Centre, and I thought the protrusion on the Shigeru building was random and tacked on to the detriment of the building's overall effect. And I think it's similarly unfair to criticize the M+T proposal by saying "remove the pointed roofline" -- one could levy the same criticism of literally any building ("if you remove the box and stilts, the OCAD addition is nonexistent!").

It's also simply untrue that Toronto is devoid of striking, non-rectilinear design, even if many of us want more of it (myself included), and your mention of the WTC is quizzical given that it was one of the ultimate odes to restrained simplicity, which you bemoan in the Toronto setting.

I'm very happy M+T won, and also would've been very happy if Shigeru had won, and I think it's undoubtedly a net positive for the waterfront.
 
Exciting news! So very well deserved by the Moriyama team. Now comes the really fun part - watching the process of creating a type of building that currently the Ontario Building Code has no provisions for. It's not often we get to see something so out of the ordinary.

A lot of people seem to be complaining that the Moriyama proposal is very conservative, safe, and uninteresting. I would argue that in fact its construction and environmental systems approach is quite extraordinary, and if you look through all the proposed material, that becomes clear. It also looks like a project that will be a pleasant building to inhabit and use as a student.

As for the pitched roof, the Moriyama building uses it because it allows stack effect ventilation and allows for great views, and as a structural element. It is not simply an aesthetic choice tacked on to create a certain "look", it's very much embedded into how the building functions and is used. The idea that it should be removed is ridiculous. I'd sooner say that the curved roof of the Turner-Fleischer building, or the angled slice of the MJMA proposal, or the barnacle on the Shigeru Ban proposal should be lopped off.
 
Hmm? start: 2021, you need 36 months to change the building code in Ontario.....??

To build a wood building this tall in Ontario, changes to the Ontario Building Code will be required. This may explain the anticipated three year time frame before construction could begin.
 

Back
Top