I think every city would benefit from having it’s own big throbbing mult-story neon vibrator! C’mon, where’s your sense of humor? 
Ok, seriously–WTF? How do those work? How do you not have wasted space, tilted walls and windows that point at the ground? How do you have a level floor that doesn’t have windows that slant away from the plane of the floor? Dammit, that picture made my head hurt trying to figure it out…
Um… we have one of those, too. It’s in really bad shape, and I’m not certain that it was ever actually finished.
Ah, I just remembered. My own nomination: the Zumberge Library . It’s ugly, for a start, but the inside is completely disorienting as well. The staircase is in the exact center of the building, with no natural light at all (those stairs are dangerous . Something about the way they were built makes them prime territory for sprained ankles and falling down entire flights). Now, after turning around several times while climbing the stairs, you emerge onto a floor after picking one of two sets of doors that look completely identical, but face opposing directions. The best way to figure out which way you are facing is to go find one of the few windows and look out it. I adore libraries, but I started avoiding that one really quickly.
I actually like the new ROM as well. My girlfriend and I aren’t fond of the skin though. We were hoping the “aluminum siding” was NOT going to be the final finish. Typically, I’m not fond of Libeskind because so much of his work imposes itself on the site (compared to say, Zaha Hadid who adopts the inherent movement of a space. Ever her crazy shit has exquisite lines of movement.)
I don’t like the “Boot”. And as for that OCAD checkered box on pick-up sticks. You’d just die if you saw how it was supposed to be. In homage to CMYK, four of the sides were going to be those solid colours. The bottom was going to be solid magenta!
The neighbouring business decided to compete with the garishness by painting their building thusly.
That’s not just any business; that’s the OCAD art supplies store. It’s connected.
Obviously someone dropped the model and broke it, and during construction noone realized it wasn’t really supposed to look like that . . .
I watched it being built. The steel framework is like a 3-D puzzle, all angles and intersections. The steel fabricators said that it was like nothing they’d ever done before.
I’m just very, very disappointed in the cladding.
(I’ve only been inside once, briefly. I remember the scuffs on the white walls.)
Oh the humanity!
Obviously, this is where the Joker and the Penguin had their hideouts in the 1960s…
Actually, it does. Look westward along the south side of Bloor from near the Winners store. You’ve got:[ul][]The Colonnade, a 1960’s-style apartment/retail complex notable for its restrained Modernist design[]An anonymous store[]The old Club Monaco store on the corner of Queens Park, which was built as the U of T Household Science Building before the First World War[]The original ROM building on the other side of Queens Park []The Crystal (its actual name is the Lee-Chin Crystal)[]The Royal Conservatory of Music, with its heritage and Modern sections[]Varsity Stadium[]The old U of T Observatory building in its dark brick[]The new Modernist residence building at the corner of St George[]The Bata Shoe Museum on the other corner of St George[/ul]The south side of Bloor Street is a mixture of Victorian and Modern architecture that actually works quite well.
What is it with modern architects? Do they take classes in ugly? Some of these people need to be put on War Crimes lists for designing what are Crimes Against Humanity.
I went over to that link that pictured that building – yeeesh, I shudder again. I had forgotten about that monstrosity downtown. Seems, tho’, that they generally love that building on that forum.
Me?
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on the O’Keefe Centre - forever.”
And as for the ROM – sorry, it looks to me like a greenhouse built by Bizarro #1. And while I often enjoy contrast, to me it really doesn’t work with the old ROM.
Prince Charles? Is that you?
I know! It looks like some space monster devouring a lovely old building! :eek:
Hazel harangues?
The architect here looks like he also designs contemporary strip malls. Altho’ it could be worse – the dreaded concrete and glass box. I swear, do you really need an architect to design these? “Ummm…wall here, here, here, and, uhhh, maybe here? Oh, and a roof would be good.”
This thread would not be complete with out the Experience Music Project in Seattle.
From another angle .
While this looks like scrapped Saturn 5 rocket parts, it is in fact the Disney Building in Los Angeles.
Which, in turn, is a copy of the New York Municipal Building, which Joseph Stalin once saw while visiting the U.S., fell in love with and eventually decided would be the model for Soviet state architecture. True story!
Incidentally, this is the most phallic tower in the world. Knowing what I know about the architect, it was intended that way.
My first impression on seeing that thing is the Citadel out of Half Life 2…except far less stylish. 