Toronto Velocity at the Square | 122.52m | 40s | HNR | P + S / IBI

kris said:
It's not about architecture or materials. I hope you realize this forum is a niche and 99% of the public could care less about the look of that building.
Click to expand...

So what you're saying is that 99% of the public do care about the look of that building? You're not using that expression correctly.
 
kris said:
It makes perfect sense. It's not just how a building looks. Don't be silly.

It's not about architecture or materials. I hope you realize this forum is a niche and 99% of the public could care less about the look of that building. It's about how it's massing effects the square and contributes to a denser urban setting. People feel more "surrounded" like in Times Square. Doesn't change the fact the building is shitty. But fact is it adds a physical presence to the square that was not there prior.
Click to expand...
The HNR Building and its neighbour framed the square just fine (not that I am opposed to other tall towers around the square; this one is just horrible).

Who cares what 99% of people think? The majority of people are clueless about just about everything.
 
Armour said:
Who cares what 99% of people think? The majority of people are clueless about just about everything.
Click to expand...

You must be a riot at parties.

UT is indeed something of a special interest site but it's also nonetheless a microcosm of the tensions within the larger society. The fact that there's so many lively disagreements on UT about the city's built form is heartily echoed "out there." Not everyone in this city is pleased about Toronto's pace of change or the rising prominence of both soaring towers and a blooming constellation of mid-rise structures. Both the city boosters and nay-sayers make this city what it is: a vibrant, dynamic place where passionate dissension and agreement coexist in a perpetual dance.

I don't know what UT would look like if everyone was magically on the same page over various contentious issues (including the future the Yonge & Dundas area)... but I'd expect the resultant boredom would be brutal.
 
Lenser said:
You must be a riot at parties.

UT is indeed something of a special interest site but it's also nonetheless a microcosm of the tensions within the larger society. The fact that there's so many lively disagreements on UT about the city's built form is heartily echoed "out there." Not everyone in this city is pleased about Toronto's pace of change or the rising prominence of both soaring towers and a blooming constellation of mid-rise structures. Both the city boosters and nay-sayers make this city what it is: a vibrant, dynamic place where passionate dissension and agreement coexist in a perpetual dance.

I don't know what UT would look like if everyone was magically on the same page over various contentious issues (including the future the Yonge & Dundas area)... but I'd expect the resultant boredom would be brutal.
Click to expand...
I thought parties were for teenagers and university students; not grown adults?

I never said or insinuated that everyone must agree on anything. My point was that the majority of people don't recognize good architecture from bad (the same goes for music, film; anything really). Most people are visceral (and that's not always a bad thing). That's basically why gorgeous old houses are torn down and replaced with McMansions. People don't realize that they're destroying timeless works of art and substituting them with something they think looks old-timey.
 
I don't agree that 99% of the population at large do not care what a building looks like. Most people I run into (beyond UT's somewhat cloistered Forum) do complain about condos when they see them (even though in this case it's a rental—that would be beside the point for them), and when you probe, for many, it's basically because they think they are ugly.

What constitutes ugly in one person's eyes is never exactly the same as it is for the next person, but the point is that people are paying attention, and it is buildings like this one that help reinforce to their generalized notions.

42
 
interchange42 said:
I don't agree that 99% of the population at large do not care what a building looks like. Most people I run into (beyond UT's somewhat cloistered Forum) do complain about condos when they see them (even though in this case it's a rental—that would be beside the point for them), and when you probe, for many, it's basically because they think they are ugly.

What constitutes ugly in one person's eyes is never exactly the same as it is for the next person, but the point is that people are paying attention, and it is buildings like this one that help reinforce to their generalized notions.

42
Click to expand...
That is true. People do notice how ugly most of our condos are, but it probably doesn't bother them as much as it does for us. Also, how many of them would recognize the good from the bad: Picasso, Tableau, One Bloor, etc.? I think people notice the crumby condos because they're so tall and impossible to ignore, when one isn't absorbed in their cell phone. Do most people notice banal mid-rises as much as towers? Do buildings like Commerce Court North, Old City Hall even register, or they they just fade into the background?
 
Lenser said:
Grown adults can't party? That's a new one on me. Glad I don't subscribe to that view.
Click to expand...
They can. I just don't understand the Peter Pan culture that is prevalent among Generation Xers. Most of our parents, and their parents before them, were too busy raising us to be living it up. Somewhere along the way, we learned to exploit immigrants to pick up the slack for the diminishing birth rate. But that is a discussion for another thread.
 
Last edited:
It certainly is. Not that I agree in the slightest with that opinion - namely, that our parents were too busy raising us to be living it up. But fodder for another thread? Agreed.
 
Automation Gallery said:
The Delta Centre looks pretty nice to me
Click to expand...
That it does. INDX does not look bad either.

P+S has a wide portfolio so maybe it is not wise to speak so candid as I did, but overall I find great difficulty to find praise for a firm that produce things like Dundas Square Tower. Sadly, this tower is not some exception to their portfolio.
 
interchange42 said:
I don't agree that 99% of the population at large do not care what a building looks like. Most people I run into (beyond UT's somewhat cloistered Forum) do complain about condos when they see them (even though in this case it's a rental—that would be beside the point for them), and when you probe, for many, it's basically because they think they are ugly.

What constitutes ugly in one person's eyes is never exactly the same as it is for the next person, but the point is that people are paying attention, and it is buildings like this one that help reinforce to their generalized notions.

42
Click to expand...
I agree with you. I once literally saw a man with a friend pointing at this building and shaking his head, frowning.
 
This thread in a nutshell:

1. Someone posts picture
2. Everyone vents their displeasure with what they see
3. Repeat
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top