U of T: New Varsity Stadium (Diamond + Schmitt)

[adma]

Yes, but you're a message-board posting urban geek. Get my drift?

Besides, it's not so much "not too bad", as neutral-to-the-point-of-inoffensive; in which case, you might as well criticize the *whole* stadium as it morphs into being, never mind the bubble proper. And it isn't like even the great campuses don't have similar moments of inoffensive neutrality, either--Harvard, Yale, Oxbridge, etc. And they're better off--*realer*--for it. It's only the dumb tourist-bus types who think everything ought to be ooh! aah!...

 

[scarberiankhatru]

The bubble is just kind of...there. I walked right by it at least twice before even noticing that it had been inflated (one time was at night, though, but still, it's huge). When I finally laid conscious eyes on it, I was just like, "oh, a bubble" and kept walking. I'm sure 99% of people who walk by it don't give it a second thought.

I'd like to see the old site plans for previous-but-not-to-be incarnations of the stadium...where would they have fit stores along Bloor and residence towers? The track goes right to Bloor's sidewalk now and the next phase will be elevated over the south end. Perhaps previous plans rested on the acquisition of Trinity's parking lot to the south (never gonna happen), or the acquisition of some/all of Devonshire's ROW (could, maybe should, have happened).

 

[adma]

All in all, consider Varsity's present situation as "marking time"--and I'm not just talking about the bubble; I'm talking about the stadium itself, which looks perfectly anonymous in that perfectly Torontonian "first-rate second-rate" way. Someday, maybe, something more spectacular will come. But for now, well...well, when the time comes for that "something more spectacular", there likely won't be tears shed over this thing going. And maybe that's how it should be...

 

[building babel]

Air-supported structures don't have to all look the same. The form offers plenty of freedom to do something creative. They don't have to be the basic "bubble" shape we've all seen many times before, but the fact that they have been part of the scene for so long seems to have bred lowered expectations from the public and creative ennui from the very designers who could make us sit up and take notice.

The University had the opportunity to assign an architect who understands this, and work with the manufacturer to produce one with a unique shape, colour or texture - and they chose not to do so.

 

[yyzer]

Queen West Triangle Update

Varsity needs more than a 9 iron
TheStar.com - News - Varsity needs more than a 9 iron
February 01, 2007
Christopher Hume

At this point in its history, Toronto may well have more sports venues than teams to use them.

The latest athletic white elephant to join the herd – Allan Lamport Stadium, Maple Leaf Gardens, Ricoh Coliseum the unnamed soccer stadium at Exhibition Place – is the University of Toronto's Varsity Centre.

Built on the site of the old Varsity Stadium on the south side of Bloor St. W. at Devonshire Place, this is as ill-conceived a project as we have seen recently in the city.

To start with, the site is all wrong for an arena, and has been for at least two or three decades. Given that the Royal Ontario Museum and the Royal Conservatory of Music are both halfway through major renovations and expansions, and that the north side of Bloor is about to be remade with condos, the land could – and should – be much better used.

That means residential, retail, commercial, something consistent with the city's need to intensify. This is especially important here, where there are two subway lines and substantial pedestrian traffic.

Plus, there's the bothersome little fact that the U of T hasn't been able to figure out what to do with the facility for years. It has sat virtually empty for at least a generation. Of course everyone remembers the glory days when Varsity was host to the Argos and then John Lennon and Yoko Ono – that was then, this is now.

Besides, if anyone came along today to suggest Varsity be revived as a concert venue, the local residents would rise up in arms. The noise! The traffic! The smell! Oh, the horror, the horror!

There have been several proposals over the years – an athletic complex; a mixed-use residential and commercial space. But the ratepayers weren't exactly enthusiastic, and the U of T just didn't have the stomach to fight them.

So instead, the university has decided to spend the relatively small sum of $17 million to rebuild a modern version of what long occupied the site. In its latest incarnation, Varsity Stadium, now Varsity Centre, has very little to recommend it. Architecturally, it is strictly utilitarian and generic, wildly out of keeping with its newly rebuilt neighbours.

Design has been kept to a bare minimum, with plenty of raw concrete and empty space. The most distinctive feature of the 5,000-seat facility is a large white "bubble" that fills most of the playing field. It will remain in place until the weather warms up; until then, it will serve students and the public as a driving range, open to the public.

No, we're not making this up – it will be a driving range, on Bloor St.

The glass-half-full crowd might argue that this represents a new level of variety, if not urbanity, in a city that has more space than it knows what to do with. The rest of us would be more likely to scratch our heads in disbelief.

It's sadly reminiscent of that earlier downtown driving range south of Wellington St., west of Spadina. It existed before the many-towered condo complex, known as CityPlace, had grown so big.

The temptation then was to laugh, but ultimately there's nothing funny about a city that has no better way to use its land than to turn it into a golfing facility.

The U of T hopes the new centre will attract international sports events because it "boasts one of the best artificial turf fields in North America and a world-class, eight-track lane."

Excuse the skepticism, but with only 5,000 seats, the venue is not likely to host anything larger than a high-school sports day.

The best-case scenario is that the centre won' t be around more than 10, maybe 15 years.

It is best understood as a temporary measure, a way to buy time so that the U of T can get its act together and do the right thing. This is a major asset, a piece of property crucial to the future of the neighbourhood and the city itself.

After having built so many impressive buildings on College and Spadina and the two suburban campuses in Mississauga and Scarborough, such a misstep is hard to understand.

In any case, the university will hold an open house at Varsity Centre, tomorrow, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Don't forget your clubs.

 

[spmarshall]

Ah, Hume, the "unnamed" stadium at the Ex has a name. It shares it with a bank (who now goes by its stock ticker symbol as its official name) that despite recond profits, decided to cut 1,000 jobs yesterday. At least that one will be used fairly regularly, unlike say Lamport. Fact check?

 

[tudararms]

"I'm sure 99% of people who walk by it don't give it a second thought."

We tend to forget that unfortunately this is how 'most' people walk by 'most' structures: face down gabbing on cel phone or with ipod blaring in ears, oblivious to surroundings, regardless of how innovative/hack-kneed or aesthetically beautiful/offensive they may be.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

You really underestimate people. I almost suspect that your hate of this project is so profound that the possibility of a normal person responding to it in an entirely neutral fashion enrages your sense of aesthetic justice. Even if the bubble is an urban tumour, could it be any less benign?

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

Not so much a tumour, more like a giant zit. Or hemorrhoid.

 

[unimaginative2]

I just don't get it. It's a sports facility for U of T, and that's what it's always been. Hume and others seem to think that it's a huge tragedy that it won't host "world class" events. Its purpose is to host U of T's various team games, and this facility is more than sufficient. The hatred of the bubble is equally baffling. It's completely benign in its appearance, and it's much better to use the site in the winter months than leave it as a dumping ground for snow. It's simply an object to hate for people who've demanded a mega-stadium (paid for by U of T's students) all along.

 

[building babel]

Agreed. It is a straightforward athletic facility that doesn't pretend it is something it isn't, has continuity with the past use of the site, and provides a nice view across open space as a change of pace from all the cultural buildings and fancy shops crowding the neighbourhood.

Now back to the bubble: I'd say more like a bunion. Or maybe a carbuncle.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

A zit...it's like a whitehead that comes and goes.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

"Hume and others seem to think that it's a huge tragedy that it won't host "world class" events."

And if it won't do that, they want the site to house a condo or a Chanel boutique, or both, athletics be damned if necessary. Whatever happens, they want the site to be as luxuriously world class as OISE across the street, or the cruel little parkette next to it, or Tim Hortons next to that, or the fences that dominate the block towards St. George.

 

[adma]

Now back to the bubble: I'd say more like a bunion. Or maybe a carbuncle.

A monstrous carbuncle? Speaking of which, if there's anything reactionary anti-modernists can single out as zitlike in Toronto, there's Roy Thomson Hall...

Whatever happens, they want the site to be as luxuriously world class as OISE across the street, or the cruel little parkette next to it, or Tim Hortons next to that, or the fences that dominate the block towards St. George.

Leave those fences alone. There's luxuriously world class architecture behind them, 1890s style...

 

[Observer Walt]

Yup, there are parts of Bloor that strive to be world-class and just miss by a hair. OISE might fall into this category.

But Bloor Street remains our "classiest" street, including the immediate environs of the stadium. Certainly the main function of this site is to provide a venue for athletics. But why not build some retail along the Bloor frontage, and why not two or three floors of offices or, God help us, condo apartments? I think we're entitled to a better streetscape here than the largely dead zone that the present stadium provides. As a bonus, some income to the University could have been generated, and the last I heard, they have a number of things that need funding.

A major lost opportunity!