U of Waterloo: Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano (5s, KPMB)

[Silence&Motion]

The design elements will go in and out of style until they eventually become historic. So I'm not worried about how fashionable or dated the details of this building are. I'm more concerned about all of those brick walls I see lining Ring Road. I spent 5 years going to school here, and if there's one thing UW does not need any more of, it's long stretches of sterile brick or concrete walls that meet equally sterile grass lawns at ground level.

 

[Therion]

I like the building but do they have to fill in every single green space still left on campus? They just keep shoving building into any open space they can find. Doesn't the university own a large plot of land on the other side of Columbia?

 

[Silence&Motion]

I like the building but do they have to fill in every single green space still left on campus? They just keep shoving building into any open space they can find. Doesn't the university own a large plot of land on the other side of Columbia?

I think the land on the north side of Columbia is being used for some kind of business park. I do wonder if they have a general plan that they're working from, or if they really are just shoving buildings into random open spaces. The campus is pretty chaotic - though that's not necessarily a bad thing. I love the tangle of elevated bridges and underground passageways that link all of the buildings.

 

[Chrisel]

Stephen Hawking was at the official opening that took place on the 21st: Link

The Verge has a nice article about the building with some pictures of the interior:

"What we have here is the Bell Labs of the 21st century," proclaimed Mike Lazaridis, co-founder and vice-chairman of Research In Motion, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre (QNC)

[video=youtube;cAZXcVLMMG0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cAZXcVLMMG0[/video]

And here's an image I found on UW's math website:

Larger version

 

[junctionist]

Waterloo's academic architecture is fantastic.

 

[ProjectEnd]

Why the hell couldn't / can't we have more Keenberg / IKOY? More Sex! More Violence! More Architecture!

 

[marcus_a_j]

Sweet, the Bomber remains in tact!

Waterloo's academic architecture is fantastic.

It is. This and ENV3 are the icing on the cake. I will miss that view of MC from Ring Road (west leg). My first memory of the campus was walking past Biology 2 and seeing MC across the grass and thinking I was no longer in high school. My first love of brutalist architecture.

 

[taal]

Why the hell couldn't / can't we have more Keenberg / IKOY? More Sex! More Violence! More Architecture!

Amen to that !

Though I do have to give a lot of credit to UofT's Pharmacy building ... on the inside and out ... in my opinion it compares well to the above.

 

[reaperexpress]

Waterloo's academic architecture is fantastic.

That's funny. Here in the Planning department, my professors are always cracking jokes at the expense of the buildings on campus. Though to be fair, much of it is regarding continuity, consistency and public space, rather than architecture per se.

 

[ProjectEnd]

Though I do have to give a lot of credit to UofT's Pharmacy building ... on the inside and out ... in my opinion it compares well to the above.

I'm not sure I follow; this building compares 'well' to a building you don't explicitly like, but feel compelled to give 'credit' to? (Genuine question, no insult implied).

 

[taal]

I'm not sure I follow; this building compares 'well' to a building you don't explicitly like, but feel compelled to give 'credit' to? (Genuine question, no insult implied).

I'm not sure where you got the "don't explicitly like" sentiment ?

I was implying I very much like this building in Waterloo, along with others, and was replying to your comment that was alluding we should have more of this from other architecture firms (but alluded the Pharmacy building in Toronto was also great); Though maybe I misinterpreted that and you were really stating you actually do not like this building ? Not sure I'm following otherwise ? (no insult implied here too .

 

[ProjectEnd]

Must have been a simple misunderstanding. I am also of the mind that we should give a great deal of excellent firms more work. That Keenberg seems to have retreated to Chelsea, QC (just north of Ottawa) does imply he (or IKOY) are not taking on larger commissions any more (or any commissions, who knows!).

I am also quite fond of both this building and Foster's Leslie L. Dan. When the latter first opened I wrote an essay for a third-year architecture class which argued that while it was great we 'got a Foster' (even that sentence makes me writhe now), it simply wasn't 'Foster' enough. Several years down the road I see a completely different building and one which is very in keeping with Foster's ever-evolving oeuvre.