Toronto Hotel X (was Hotel in the Garden) | ?m | 27s | Exhibition Place | NORR

My city includes CampusOne, unfortunately, so that's at the top of my worst building list. 365 Church is a solid second. This one might just edge out Velocity for third.

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WislaHD said:
People shit on Aura due to poor exterior materials and atrocious way it meets the street. The architecture of the tower itself is no worse than the average thing that gets put up in this city, and if anything, it's light features at night are a great addition to the skyline.

Hotel X is probably the worst building in the City in my opinion. I'd be ashamed to have that tower in Vaughan or Markham, let alone at such a prominent site as in the EX.
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Pretty much agree. The majority of the point tower projects to me are pretty uninteresting aesthetically, with make or break largely dependent on quality of cladding. I increasingly look at how it meets the street as an indicator of success- what does it offer to the neighbourhood or public realm around it. A lot of it depends on location too and what opportunities were missed. Hotel X and Aura are in this category for me. Hotel X is a terrible looking project, and to think they put it so prominently on the Exhibition grounds- an area that should be about innovation, is just ass-backward thinking.
 
The hotel should have used the Stanley Barracks as a model, instead of going outside of Exhibition Place for their inspiration.

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What inspiration.. bad quasi 80's pomo at best. At least Velocity has one decent facade and CampusOne has some texture through the ground plain. Hard pressed to find anything redeeming with HotelX , and the fact that it is unlikely that anything is going to obstruct its view for decades makes it all the worse.
 
It's astounding how awful this thing is. There is no greater buzzkill than being at the CNE with all the lights/colour of the midway and seeing this behemoth of ugliness in the background. Aura is anywhere near as terrible.

I'll agree with i42 that Campus One is a serious contender for worst of worst with this one. Velocity is also quite bad but doesn't bother me nearly as much as it used to for some reason.
 
No reason why we can't have multiple categories, like the AUDA. I'd hate to see deserving winners walk away with nothing.

Worst in:

Elements
Buildings in Context - Private
Buildings in Context - Public
Small Open Spaces
Large Places and/ or Neighborhood Designs
Visions & Master Plans

And of course, special "25 year achievement awards" and "lifetime achievement awards" can also be for the taking.

AoD
 
UrbanToronto should host an architecture version of the Razzie Awards every year! Maybe the developers/builders would get their act in order if they felt a large amount of public shame.
 
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junctionist said:
I hardly think that CityPlace is an architectural failure. All the towers have some interesting details, as well as varied crowns and architectural lighting. Could the community have been better designed? Easily. But it's hardly the confusing and incoherent pile of design ideas that this tower presents.
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If there were 23 of these towers, then, yes, it would be far worse than Cityplace. But there's only one and it really just pops into view for a few seconds while zipping by on the Gardiner or in the Go Train. It's not in a neighbourhood that has a lot of foot traffic or that anyone spends an inordinate amount of time.

Cityplace, OTOH, is an entire soul crushing vertical suburb, with thousands of residents, right at the foot of the CN Tower and downtown (With the 2 largest and utterly insipid towers yet to come). It fails on almost every level of design, planning and placemaking and just screams temporary housing for Millenials who will vacate as soon as appropriate housing becomes available. And it also lends the whole southwestern approach to downtown a cheap, placeless, frontier town kind of vibe which is the last thing the city needs.

The same could be said of Aura which also has that cheap, thrown-together-in-a-hurry look, and which--thanks to its height and immense bulk--will utterly dominate the city's busiest street for generations to come.

Despite its apparent drawbacks as a piece of architecture I just don't see that kind of impact emanating from Hotel X--it's probably a building that very few people in the city are even aware of. It's more of a missed opportunity than a disaster.
 
Irishmonk said:
If there were 23 of these towers, then, yes, it would be far worse than Cityplace. But there's only one and it really just pops into view for a few seconds while zipping by on the Gardiner or in the Go Train. It's not in a neighbourhood that has a lot of foot traffic or that anyone spends an inordinate amount of time.

Cityplace, OTOH, is an entire soul crushing vertical suburb, with thousands of residents, right at the foot of the CN Tower and downtown (With the 2 largest and utterly insipid towers yet to come). It fails on almost every level of design, planning and placemaking and just screams temporary housing for Millenials who will vacate as soon as appropriate housing becomes available. And it also lends the whole southwestern approach to downtown a cheap, placeless, frontier town kind of vibe which is the last thing the city needs.

The same could be said of Aura which also has that cheap, thrown-together-in-a-hurry look, and which--thanks to its height and immense bulk--will utterly dominate the city's busiest street for generations to come.

Despite its apparent drawbacks as a piece of architecture I just don't see that kind of impact emanating from Hotel X--it's probably a building that very few people in the city are even aware of. It's more of a missed opportunity than a disaster.
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Your description of CityPlace is way OTT. No idea how long since your last visit to Toronto, but it's not quite the irredeemable hellscape you're portraying it as. There are an increasing number of amenities in the area, and a number of CityPlace dwellers will tell you that they actually enjoy living there. One of the things you're particularly wrong about is vacating Millennials: they're having babies here and are relieved that the double school and community centre is finally under construction on Brunel Court.

I'm not saying that everything is bliss down there—there are issues—but the rant begged some kind of response!

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