Toronto St Lawrence Centre Redevelopment | ?m | ?s | CreateTO | Hariri Pontarini

Preferred choice for the St. Lawrence Centre Redevelopment Competition

  • Brook McIlroy, Trahan Architects, and Hood Design Studio

    Votes: 11 13.9%

  • Diamond Schmitt, Smoke Architecture, and MVVA

    Votes: 12 15.2%

  • Hariri Pontarini, LMN Architects, Tawaw Collective, Smoke Architecture, and SLA

    Votes: 39 49.4%

  • RDHA, Mecanoo, Two Row Architect, and NAK Design Strategies

    Votes: 16 20.3%

  • Zeidler Architecture, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Two Row Architect, and PLANT Architect

    Votes: 1 1.3%
  • Total voters
    79
  • Poll closed .
I think the correct submission won.

The UT Poll as at today would seem to concur:

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thecharioteer said:
Note also that the original location for the St. Lawrence Centre was on the site of Market Square and that it looks from this 1964 pic in the TPL that the historic block on the south side of Front between Scott and Church would remain:

View attachment 460890
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That model suggests many different things that did not come to pass. In the background, I don't see any North Market at all; the SLC design is different; and in the foreground, that office tower is not what was built in the Yonge-Scott-Wellington-Front block.
 
Northern Light said:
That model suggests many different things that did not come to pass. In the background, I don't see any North Market at all; the SLC design is different; and in the foreground, that office tower is not what was built in the Yonge-Scott-Wellington-Front block.
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Yes, fascinating 'plan' - where did it come from? (A competition or ??). I note a plaza where the new North Market is, a building in "Berczy Park" and some sort of Obelisk at Front & Church.
 
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Towered said:
Always feels good to back a winning horse! 🎩
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I'm electing to assume that the jury just consulted our poll, then went out for omakase.

42
 
interchange42 said:
I'm electing to assume that the jury just consulted our poll, then went out for omakase.

42
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Why not? A larger (and quite possibly more expert) jury pool!

Also extra points for the use of the word omakase.
 
Additional renders and illustrations from their IG account

www.instagram.com

Hariri Pontarini Architects on Instagram: "Envisioned as a space of radical openness and inclusion, the ground floor of our concept for the re-imagined St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts was developed with the aspiration to create one of the city’s gre

159 Likes, 0 Comments - Hariri Pontarini Architects (@hariripontariniarchitects) on Instagram: "Envisioned as a space of radical openness and inclusion, the ground floor of our concept for the ..."
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
www.instagram.com

Hariri Pontarini Architects on Instagram: "Our design proposal for the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts (STLC) seeks to realize the site’s full potential and the centre’s ambition to create a dynamic civic and cultural hub. To achieve this, we rotat

182 Likes, 2 Comments - Hariri Pontarini Architects (@hariripontariniarchitects) on Instagram: "Our design proposal for the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts (STLC) seeks to realize the site’s..."
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
 
The SLC redevelopment is, for me, one of the most interesting and exciting projects this decade for the city (here's hoping it is completed this decade).
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
...can almost hear 'Floyd's Any Colour You Like playing in the background with that pic.
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And we still haven't learned the lessons of the past. The cold and bleak charcoal buildings getting built in large numbers today aren't any better than the brutalism of yesterday.

UtakataNoAnnex said:
...that's the problem though (and assuming this is on the money), is that this all really shows that the people sampled don't really like modernism as an architectural form for the most part. It doesn't say modernism is bad or awful here...it's just not a preferential choice. Which is not really saying a lot, IMO.

Thankfully, the good architects mostly ignore all that. And the rare good ones that don't (ie. Robert A.M. Stern) make it worth everyone's while.
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Architects have been trying and failing to get the public to prefer modern architectural styles for a century. The tastes of the general public are too easily dismissed by architects and design snobs, IMO. Architecture isn't an abstract painting or a song or a novel. Interacting with it isn't optional. It has permanent impacts on its users and the surrounding cityscape. Architecture inherently needs to be practical and is fundamentally for the everyman. If architects are designing buildings that an average person can't enjoy, they're failing at their jobs.

Sure, there are contemporary buildings that inspire awe in the public but those are the exception. Here's another survey that shows the public's preference for traditional architectural styles.
"People prefer traditionally designed buildings" - YouGov
 
Northern Light said:
A photo popped up on FB feed of the construction of the O'Keefe Centre (as it was then known). Of note is what you do and do not see on the east side of Scott Street.

View attachment 460539

A zoomed in look:

View attachment 460542

I have to say, I prefer the SLC's predecessor to the SLC itself

Granted, we need the space for the arts; in that photo, I see plenty of other spots for such a building.
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I prefer most of that area's predecessors to what replaced them.
 
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