Toronto Women's College Hospital | 70.1m | 10s | P.E.B.

[stjames2queenwest]

I love the pink glass. More. Please more. It may or may not have taken gender stereotyping to get coloured glass again in this city, but I'm glad.
And who doesn't like a big pink box?

The trees are nice

 

[buildup]

"And who doesn't like a big pink box?"

Moderator!!!!

There's a nice little urban oasis evolving when you group WCH's new parkette, the green area on the N/E corner of Grosvenor and Queen's Park, and eventually (hopefully) a green space immediately behind whatever tower replaces the vacant gov't building at N/W corner of Grosvenor and Bay.

 

[PL1]

Well, the trees in the pink box have disappeared at some point in the past 10 days or so. It's no wonder, as the 3 south ones appeared to be dead. Anyway, here are some images from today showing the state of the the public space landscaping (which appears to be almost complete) at the west side of the property with the new medical gas tanks, and the (not yet) green roof and pink box, sans trees.

Building hand-over is supposed to happen at some point in the next few days.

 

[interchange42]

Such an odd project.

If you get up close to the stone used on the face of Women's College, it's pretty gorgeous stuff…

but start backing away, and the variegations begin to dissolve into a mess:

In the image above, it looks like the pieces nearest eye level have been placed with some thought given variations in tone, but up near the top of the wall, it appears that no though has been given at all to the more drastic changes in tone up there. From further away, below, it's simply a patchy mess.

Could they not have sorted the stone out when it arrived to find ways to either even out across particular walls, or blend it from one end of the wall to the other? The blockiness of it is thuddingly ugly.

At least we are getting something of a garden here, with some trees that may with time distract us from the wall, and three arches planted as a memorial to the demolished wing.

Meanwhile, it the northwest corner of the site there's an ugly concrete pad with a gas storage tank of some type. It will lose the garbage skip and construction equipment at some point and look better subsequently, but it will never look like anything other than an unfortunate afterthought.

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[PL1]

Meanwhile, it the northwest corner of the site there's an ugly concrete pad with a gas storage tank of some type. It will lose the garbage skip and construction equipment at some point and look better subsequently, but it will never look like anything other than an unfortunate afterthought.
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It's the medical oxygen storage tank. It has to be kept a certain distance from buildings. And with the site geometry, I'm not sure where else it could have gone.

I need to post some photos of the lobby. They kept the old cornerstones and have them on display on the landing between the ground and second floors.

 

[P23]

That stone wall would probably look nice with a bit of ivy growing on it.

 

[josephdavidmckee]

I always thought that the stone walls here were wet from rain or snow, I didn't realize that was their patterning. What a waste of a beautiful material.

 

[Torontovibe]

I find this building to be horribly ugly. From a distance it looks like a concrete bunker or a parking garage. It pisses me off, just to walk by it, so I try to avoid it. This should never have been allowed.

 

[someMidTowner]

Meanwhile, it the northwest corner of the site there's an ugly concrete pad with a gas storage tank of some type. It will lose the garbage skip and construction equipment at some point and look better subsequently, but it will never look like anything other than an unfortunate afterthought.

It's the medical oxygen storage tank. It has to be kept a certain distance from buildings. And with the site geometry, I'm not sure where else it could have gone.

In fact, the old tank at the old WCH was on almost the exact same spot:

Google Street View from 09

 

[stjames2queenwest]

I think it's great. It's really pretty and unusual. It's also really "cool" - something you'd see in the future, its a nice pop of colour in the streetscape. I like it.

 

[Miscreant]

That stone work is brutal. I too didn't realize that was permanent, but just persistent dampness/dirtiness. I'm surprised; I mean, that's really bad and I'm not sure how they'd let that happen.

In other news--I can't wait until the site on Bay St., shown behind the tank in the last photo, gets redeveloped.

 

[officedweller]

Could the darker areas up top be caused by moisture and sealing/resealing the stone would cause a more uniform appearance?

 

[Skeezix]

[...]
If you get up close to the stone used on the face of Women's College, it's pretty gorgeous stuff…
[...]
but start backing away, and the variegations begin to dissolve into a mess:
[...]
Could they not have sorted the stone out when it arrived to find ways to either even out across particular walls, or blend it from one end of the wall to the other? The blockiness of it is thuddingly ugly.
[...]
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I was driving by Bridgepoint a couple of days ago, and they seemed to use a similar stone. Yet, they managed to do a much better job. Maybe they picked a more appropriate type of stone, or they did a better job of sorting/blending the pieces. But it looks so much better than those photos you posted of WCH.

Bridgepoint Health (Old Riverdale Hospital, 11s, KPMB/Stantec) by drum118, on Flickr
Untitled by drum118, on Flickr

 

[stjames2queenwest]

yea the stone patterning is unfortunate. Especially because it is in fact beautiful stone. Atleast the intent was there?

 

[interchange42]

At Bridgepoint there is evidence of thought throughout.

At Women's College, the thought ends with "stone goes on that wall".

If this were the normal for stone, no one would use it. How do you spend what it takes to clad a building in stone but then fail to hire qualified installers? What a waste of a beautiful material.

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