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Archivistower
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From the Star, April 3:
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Context is everything; and in the case of Tribeca, a nondescript office tower conversion sitting on the southeast corner of Don Mills Rd. and Eglinton Ave., that's a serious problem.
Not only is this one of Toronto's most desolate intersections — and a perfect example of how a city can be destroyed when it's sacrificed to the car — the building has almost nothing going for it.
Maybe the renovators tried their best, but it wasn't enough.
The tower was originally designed and built by people who have no interest in architecture and even less in the city. That's a truly sad state of affairs, an indictment even, but the same thing can be seen over and over again throughout Toronto. Is it any wonder this is a city in decline?
Poor Tribeca! With its absurd name and its dreadful location surrounded by parking lots, highways and litter, it doesn't stand a chance.
One can't help but feel sorry for this unfortunate edifice —lost, lonely and unlovable, brought into the world by uncaring builders and sold to an indifferent public.
Plain, awkward, clumsy, it is an instantly familiar mix of glass and concrete. The entrance faces north onto a parking lot, ensuring that it has no relationship to Don Mills.
That's understandable to some extent, but ultimately just another example of the builders' failure to respond to the context, let alone try to create one.
Worst of all, Tribeca isn't alone. Indeed, it could stand as a symbol of what Toronto has become, a city in freefall.
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No one seems to have posted this, so I thought I would, and add a comment about the last sentence. What's up with this guy? Because there's a condo conversion in a suburban setting we're a city in freefall. I often agree with Hume, but I'm getting offended by these gratuitous addons that are unexplained and unjustified.
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Context is everything; and in the case of Tribeca, a nondescript office tower conversion sitting on the southeast corner of Don Mills Rd. and Eglinton Ave., that's a serious problem.
Not only is this one of Toronto's most desolate intersections — and a perfect example of how a city can be destroyed when it's sacrificed to the car — the building has almost nothing going for it.
Maybe the renovators tried their best, but it wasn't enough.
The tower was originally designed and built by people who have no interest in architecture and even less in the city. That's a truly sad state of affairs, an indictment even, but the same thing can be seen over and over again throughout Toronto. Is it any wonder this is a city in decline?
Poor Tribeca! With its absurd name and its dreadful location surrounded by parking lots, highways and litter, it doesn't stand a chance.
One can't help but feel sorry for this unfortunate edifice —lost, lonely and unlovable, brought into the world by uncaring builders and sold to an indifferent public.
Plain, awkward, clumsy, it is an instantly familiar mix of glass and concrete. The entrance faces north onto a parking lot, ensuring that it has no relationship to Don Mills.
That's understandable to some extent, but ultimately just another example of the builders' failure to respond to the context, let alone try to create one.
Worst of all, Tribeca isn't alone. Indeed, it could stand as a symbol of what Toronto has become, a city in freefall.
------------------------------
No one seems to have posted this, so I thought I would, and add a comment about the last sentence. What's up with this guy? Because there's a condo conversion in a suburban setting we're a city in freefall. I often agree with Hume, but I'm getting offended by these gratuitous addons that are unexplained and unjustified.
