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

[Urban Shocker]

Yes, York.

The small site kept them on their toes - more than half of the square footage of the building is for behind-the-scenes uses. They computer-tweaked the auditorium within an inch of it's life for acoustics and sightlines - though views from the side arms of Ring 3 can sometimes be a problem, depending on the staging.

 

[interchange42]

Trying to pull me into this US? Well, you've pulled me back from vacation to do it I suppose.

Bizarre how awards given out to 3 of Toronto's finest new buildings can generate the same tired old posts form the same tired old posters about FSCPA.

Get over it everyone! We know how you feel about the outside. No one is changing anyone's mind on that. Meanwhile, the place got great notices when it opened last fall, and it is now chalking up some awards and attention for the COC and the city. Be happy!

I am crushing your head.

42

 

[Urban Shocker]

The hunger for novelty and spectacle knows no bounds in an age when the sort of high-fashion, flamboyant starchitecture that computer software can now generate primes the popular imagination, and we mustn't be too mean to those solely in it's thrall. But substance over spectacle, logic over styling, and the proof that good design doesn't have to be expensive - which applies to all three of these winners - counts for something, too.

We live in an age when many forms are acceptable. OCAD, the AGO, and the ROM - and these buildings - can all work.

 

[Observer Walt]

By all reports, all of these buildings do work, although I admit to not having been in the Young Centre yet. Good design, as pointed out, doesn't have to mean knock-your-socks-off, dazzling, flamboyant, etc.; it can simply mean doing the job in a way that suits the occupants / employees in a building (performers), and appeals to the wider public. These buildings apparently do. They are attractive, but in keeping with Toronto's somewhat conservative and low-key nature, and there's nothing wrong with that.

In a time when the phrase "world class" has been thrown around so casually in Toronto, I think these awards are evidence of actual world-class accomplishment. Three of ten projects cited in this article are here in Toronto.

I don't have the history of these awards in front of me, but what other city of our size, or even substantially larger, can point to a comparable record?

The cultural renaissance is being noticed well outside our own neighbourhood, and that's good for the city and its business, on a number of levels.

 

[rdaner]

Speaking of the Four Seasons Centre, has retail located on the Queen Street side yet. When if does it will go a long way to enlivening that end of the building and may decrease the criticism.

 

[JasonParis]

Speaking of the Four Seasons Centre, has retail located on the Queen Street side yet.

Nope, but the sooner the better. Even a Starbucks would do wonders.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The Osgoode subway connection is open, finally. The wooden handrails match those inside the building, I think.

 

[ShonTron]

In a time when the phrase "world class" has been thrown around so casually in Toronto, I think these awards are evidence of actual world-class accomplishment. Three of ten projects cited in this article are here in Toronto.

Actually, I've been hearing a lot less of that "world class" lately. Maybe it's since Mel's gone and is now opening world-crass furniture stores in Kitchener. Or maybe we're finally getting beyond that phase.

The subway entrance has been open for a little while now - it was open at Doors Open.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Ah. I'd given up hoping, and checking, at the end of last winter.

 

[avatarreb]

KPMB seem to be on a roll.

 

[dulapul]

It is strange for me to make such an antagonic distinction between the "working" building and the "beautifull" building. The symbolic and the esthetic are main functions of a building (any building, house, shop, public toilet etc.) same as the circulation and loading. Even more for a cultural public building. The fact that the building it`s "working" doesn`t excuse the fact that it`s not "beautifull". Nor viceversa.

 

[wyliepoon]

The winners and the finalists of the award are featured at this page at the Architectural Record website.

 

[AndreaPalladio]

The fact that the building it`s "working" doesn`t excuse the fact that it`s not "beautifull". Nor viceversa.

Happily it's both. Or, as Architectural Record says, "first rate". Beautiful is not synonymous with decorated.