scarberiankhatru
Senior Member
I should have said Residences of Word & Taylor.
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junctionist
Senior Member
There was an article in yesterday's Globe:
Reference library gets $30-million renovation
UNNATI GANDHI
January 4, 2008
The Toronto Reference Library has begun a $30-million reorganization and renovation project that will be overseen by the original architects.
The work, which began on Dec. 19, is the first significant renovation to the library since it opened in 1977.
The first phase of the revitalization is the construction of a space for large-scale programs, conferences and community events, the library said in a statement.
It will be financed from public and private sources.
The private-sector fundraising campaign is the most significant bid to raise money in the library's history.
The building's original architects, Moriyama and Teshima, are responsible for the redesign.
"They will retain the architectural beauty of the landmark building while creating a striking and bold design for the future geared to meet the needs of 21st century library users," the statement read.
"New elements will complement traditional spaces to respond to the range of library uses and users."
The library recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.
The project is expected to be complete within five years, and the library will remain open during construction.
Reference library gets $30-million renovation
UNNATI GANDHI
January 4, 2008
The Toronto Reference Library has begun a $30-million reorganization and renovation project that will be overseen by the original architects.
The work, which began on Dec. 19, is the first significant renovation to the library since it opened in 1977.
The first phase of the revitalization is the construction of a space for large-scale programs, conferences and community events, the library said in a statement.
It will be financed from public and private sources.
The private-sector fundraising campaign is the most significant bid to raise money in the library's history.
The building's original architects, Moriyama and Teshima, are responsible for the redesign.
"They will retain the architectural beauty of the landmark building while creating a striking and bold design for the future geared to meet the needs of 21st century library users," the statement read.
"New elements will complement traditional spaces to respond to the range of library uses and users."
The library recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.
The project is expected to be complete within five years, and the library will remain open during construction.
299 bloor call control.
Senior Member
I know they're doing a lot with the renovation, but five years?!? Even Union Station could be done faster than that.
condovo
Senior Member
I'll judge the renovation a success if the building ends up looking like this:
Yorkville Town Hall c. 1910
Yorkville Town Hall c. 1910
Sir Novelty Fashion
Senior Member
Interesting insistence on the fact that it's the original architects doing the reno.
I wonder: does the heritage of a landmark building like this belong to the public or the original architects?
Would it be harder to swallow a redesign that completely altered a building's unique diagonal approach to the street if it was carried out by some third party instead of its original designers?
No doubt. I wonder if that's as it should be.
I wonder: does the heritage of a landmark building like this belong to the public or the original architects?
Would it be harder to swallow a redesign that completely altered a building's unique diagonal approach to the street if it was carried out by some third party instead of its original designers?
No doubt. I wonder if that's as it should be.
junctionist
Senior Member
I'll judge the renovation a success if the building ends up looking like this:
Yorkville Town Hall c. 1910
Does this imply that you like post-modernism?
condovo
Senior Member
Worse. It implies that I don't like anti-urban piles of orange brick and that I do like the reconstruction of lost landmarks to repair scars in the fabric of a city's built heritage. See my reference to Dresden's Frauenkirche in the 'Lost Toronto' thread.
syn
Senior Member
Not to go off topic, but what happened to the Yorkville Town Hall?
ganjavih
Senior Member
Destroyed by fire in 1941.
syn
Senior Member
That's unfortunate. At least it wasn't torn down.
adma
Superstar
Well, first of all, Toronto Ref even in its present/built form isn't as "anti-urban" as you're making it out to be, unless you subscribe to some extreme Kunstler/New Urbanist hate-on for anything architecturally 70s.
And second, re the reconstruction of lost landmarks, it helps to understand circumstances behind the loss to comprehend the reasoning behind the Frauenkirche reconstruction. (And countering that, also consider the controversy engendered by the proposed reconstruction of Berlin's Royal Palace, or that of the Cathedral in Moscow.) On those grounds, reconstructing Toronto's "lost landmarks" might sound neat in theory, but turn out to be repulsively kitschy and retrogressive in practice. As sad as Yorkville Town Hall's loss was, it sure wasn't a war loss, and it sure ain't no Frauenkirche.
The only kinds of people who'd welcome ripping down Toronto Ref's exterior and replacing it with a retro-Yorkville Town Hall are those urban paleo-reactionaries who feel that what's now on YTH's site (Clewes' 18 Yorkville condo) is an anti-urban eyesore of our own time...
condovo
Senior Member
adma, your points are well taken, of course, but I really do hate the TRL, not because it's from the 70s but because I don't happen to like buildings with vast blank walls that turn their backs to the city, which is why I'm no fan of the new opera house either.
Hipster Duck
Senior Member
This makes me think that they will spend the money to remove bookshelves so that they can carve out a space to hold private galas.
Archivist
Senior Member
adma, your points are well taken, of course, but I really do hate the TRL, not because it's from the 70s but because I don't happen to like buildings with vast blank walls that turn their backs to the city, which is why I'm no fan of the new opera house either.
condovo, so long as you understand, for the record, that your attitudes are pretty much identical to those that in the 1950's and early 1960's resulted in the destruction of much Victoriana, which at that time was out of favour. If we are ever to get out of an endless cycle of destroying, on entirely arbitrary grounds, buildings that we simply find out of fashion, it has to start now.
The reference library won a Governor General's Award for Architecture, for instance. On that grounds alone, it stands above the mock Victoriana that you apparently wish to erect in its place.
I do feel that the building could be more user friendly to the street, but I find your attitude disturbing and misplaced. Myself, I am willing to forgive the library it's somewhat unfriendly visage on Yonge - which I think you overstate - just for the carpeting that covers part of the interior walls, a detail I think is delicious and very LogansRun-ish. Moreover, I am sympathetic to the building simply on the basis that it represents part of our cultural heritage.
I also find the current display on Yonge, where well known Torontonians give their feelings about what the library means to them, to be well done and touching. In what way is this a "vast blank wall"? Can you explain to me how, for instance, the side walls of the Old City Hall are more engaging than the TRL? Or, perhaps an even better example would be the Canada Life building on University, with its heavy iron fence keeping people away. Hardly inviting.
condovo, so long as you understand, for the record, that your attitudes are pretty much identical to those that in the 1950's and early 1960's resulted in the destruction of much Victoriana, which at that time was out of favour. If we are ever to get out of an endless cycle of destroying, on entirely arbitrary grounds, buildings that we simply find out of fashion, it has to start now.
The reference library won a Governor General's Award for Architecture, for instance. On that grounds alone, it stands above the mock Victoriana that you apparently wish to erect in its place.
I do feel that the building could be more user friendly to the street, but I find your attitude disturbing and misplaced. Myself, I am willing to forgive the library it's somewhat unfriendly visage on Yonge - which I think you overstate - just for the carpeting that covers part of the interior walls, a detail I think is delicious and very LogansRun-ish. Moreover, I am sympathetic to the building simply on the basis that it represents part of our cultural heritage.
I also find the current display on Yonge, where well known Torontonians give their feelings about what the library means to them, to be well done and touching. In what way is this a "vast blank wall"? Can you explain to me how, for instance, the side walls of the Old City Hall are more engaging than the TRL? Or, perhaps an even better example would be the Canada Life building on University, with its heavy iron fence keeping people away. Hardly inviting.
adma
Superstar
And some might say the same about the vast tilting forms of the ROM Crystal: ugly, overbearing, oppressive, et al...