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Toronto wins big at "Good Design is Good Business" Awards

"Going far beyond" something includes that same thing - as in "going beyond the call of duty". Some visually attractive buildings don't work as intended because they only approach design as a superficial thing - and obviously they weren't eligible for these awards.
 
I was kinda happy until I read this....ugliest box on this planet...

Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, designed by Diamond and Schmitt
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It just shows its credibility of this crappy award thingy. What a joke, indeed.
 
I was kinda happy until I read this....ugliest box on this planet
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so you prefer the aesthetic of some random stucco clad, retail superstore more?... telling indeed
 
Urban Shocker said:
"Going far beyond" something includes that same thing - as in "going beyond the call of duty". Some visually attractive buildings don't work as intended because they only approach design as a superficial thing - and obviously they weren't eligible for these awards.
Click to expand...

True. I'm not saying the Four Seasons is an unattractive building, but it's far from perfect. It's clear this building won the award based on far more than it's exterior design, which leaves a lot to be desired.
 
The perfect building has yet to be built. Ictinus, Callicrates & Phidias, and later Mies, came close, but not quite.
 
The City Room is one of the best interior public spaces built in 50 years and I would put it in the same league as the City Hall Rotunda or the Reference Library atrium. Perhaps only Calatrava's Galleria would handily beat it in my opinion. This, and the auditorium make this a worthy building.

A loading dock is a loading dock, so I don't care too much if the York Street side is ugly. The Queen Street and Richmond Street sides are a disappointment, but it's not uncorrectable with some more money and/or imagination.
 
Ah, another series of posts on the Four Season's Centre for the Performing Arts. That most battered of expired equines.

...wait for it...

Ah, another series of posts on the Four Season's Centre for the Performing Arts. That most battered of expired equines.

Because we haven't heard any of this before...
 
I think the FourSeasons Centre is actually pretty nice, maybe not the best in all of the world but it is really nice and it is stunnning on University, especially at night! And I think many tourist may agree with me because I've shown a few people it and they loved it!
 
If it were anything than what it is, somebody would still complain about it.
 
While Diamond was certainly constrained by budget (and the Queen and Richmond streetfronts are terrible regardless), it's very important to note that he was working under incredible site restraints. That plot of land was extremely tight for a concert hall of this size. You can see it in the narrow little corridors that you take to get to the front row seats, for example. It's a great hall with good acoustics and a lovely lobby, wedged into a very tight site. That as much as anything explains the problems with the exterior.
 
The Richmond Street side was given priority in the design process because that's where large delivery trucks come and go. Without figuring out how to do that side correctly the opera house couldn't function at all. The original plan was for trailers to pull in forward and drive out forward, but the site wasn't big enough so they back in and drive out. They designed backwards from that - fitting in the stages, the auditorium, rehearsal space, and using what little space was left for the public space - the City Room. The tight site dictated why the City Room is so prominently connected to the University Avenue and Queen streetscape ( as is, to a lesser degree, the Jackman Lounge overlooking Queen ). There is a lot of subtle ramping too - the Queen Street entry plaza and the floor between the City Room and the ground floor of the auditorium - necessitated by the site.
 
Urban Shocker said:
The Richmond Street side was given priority in the design process because that's where large delivery trucks come and go. Without figuring out how to do that side correctly the opera house couldn't function at all. The original plan was for trailers to pull in forward and drive out forward, but the site wasn't big enough so they back in and drive out. They designed backwards from that - fitting in the stages, the auditorium, rehearsal space, and using what little space was left for the public space - the City Room. The tight site dictated why the City Room is so prominently connected to the University Avenue and Queen streetscape ( as is, to a lesser degree, the Jackman Lounge overlooking Queen ). There is a lot of subtle ramping too - the Queen Street entry plaza and the floor between the City Room and the ground floor of the auditorium - necessitated by the site.
Click to expand...


Exactly, yes, though I think you're talking about the York Street side, rather than Richmond. But yes, it was definitely a very challenging site to work with.
 
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