B
building babel
Guest
What comes after 'Toronto Style' architecture? It can't last forever.
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B
building babel
Guest
The only thing I could see dethroning the present sleek and restrained KPMB/Clewes/Diamond+Schmitt hegemony of the local scene would be a bold move like this:
A movement that's totally whimsical and frivolous: Take a dollop of inspiration from Will Alsop, stir in some Memphis from the '80's, add a dash of Siamak Hariri's Baha'i temple in Chile, and a soupcon of Libeskind, and ... voila! ... a blobby, spiked, dappled and many-hued and totally insane look that would make Rotterdam green with jealousy.
A movement that's totally whimsical and frivolous: Take a dollop of inspiration from Will Alsop, stir in some Memphis from the '80's, add a dash of Siamak Hariri's Baha'i temple in Chile, and a soupcon of Libeskind, and ... voila! ... a blobby, spiked, dappled and many-hued and totally insane look that would make Rotterdam green with jealousy.
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adma
Guest
Just generally, I wonder if it's fated to be like so much of our cultural sphere these days; styles divided not by "eras" but by "cliques" or "tribes". That is, Toronto Style is forever, just as everything else is...
Yeah, I know, a resigned POV and all, a Fukiyamaesque "end of history", bla bla.
Yeah, I know, a resigned POV and all, a Fukiyamaesque "end of history", bla bla.
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bizorky
Guest
Alas, if poorly executed it could look like a virus under an electron microscope.
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Archivistower
Guest
Let's hope that the Toronto Style and the North York Style don't have an epic clash, which is won by the northern barbaric hordes due to their numerical superiority and larger girths. The concrete monoliths might march down Yonge Street to take their "rightful" place by the lake, supported by the turncoat Harbour Castle (who is tired, after all, of being the punchbag of the waterfront).
On their way, by means of exacting a tribute and letting the city know who is in power, they apply pippydoos and doodads to 18 Yorkville and Spire (after looting them from some of the lower floors of the Prince Arthur - it takes 12 years for anyone to notice some of the doodads missing from that building). A vanquished city awakes to find Princess Place sitting on the former HtO park, gates and all.
On their way, by means of exacting a tribute and letting the city know who is in power, they apply pippydoos and doodads to 18 Yorkville and Spire (after looting them from some of the lower floors of the Prince Arthur - it takes 12 years for anyone to notice some of the doodads missing from that building). A vanquished city awakes to find Princess Place sitting on the former HtO park, gates and all.
S
scarberiankhatru
Guest
^
Actually, I really wonder what will become of all the towers in the park if, in a few decades, they're replaced en masse. Many of them have the most amazing locations next to valleys and at major intersections that, until now, have been completely untouched by the Toronto Style (or the Vancouver Style, or even the 1980s). Maybe stuff that's fallen by the wayside like older Moriyama, some of the crazier PoMo designs, anything that Venturi would call a duck, etc., will make an appearance. Everything is so restrained that outbursts like OCAD and the ROM crystal might seem perfunctory...suburban 416 could be the outlet, where a wilder style is born - 'Marilyn' lives next to Square One, after all. We're gonna run out of downtown parking lots soon and after the waterfront is done, where else might "what's next?" be found?
Actually, I really wonder what will become of all the towers in the park if, in a few decades, they're replaced en masse. Many of them have the most amazing locations next to valleys and at major intersections that, until now, have been completely untouched by the Toronto Style (or the Vancouver Style, or even the 1980s). Maybe stuff that's fallen by the wayside like older Moriyama, some of the crazier PoMo designs, anything that Venturi would call a duck, etc., will make an appearance. Everything is so restrained that outbursts like OCAD and the ROM crystal might seem perfunctory...suburban 416 could be the outlet, where a wilder style is born - 'Marilyn' lives next to Square One, after all. We're gonna run out of downtown parking lots soon and after the waterfront is done, where else might "what's next?" be found?
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Bogtrotter
Guest
What's 'Toronto Style' Architecture?
B
building babel
Guest
I love the imagery of warring buildings that Archivist conjours up, like Monty Python's Crimson Permanent Assurance Company building attacking the Very Big Corporation of America skyscraper.
And I think adma may be on to something with his "end of history" analogy: an inertia of motion setting in, with no external jolt to knock neo-Modernism off balance and cause something new to happen. Just increasingly exotic blips of starchitecture cropping up now and then.
And I think adma may be on to something with his "end of history" analogy: an inertia of motion setting in, with no external jolt to knock neo-Modernism off balance and cause something new to happen. Just increasingly exotic blips of starchitecture cropping up now and then.