[4grand]

I have a horrible feeling that this will quickly become as dated as its great grandparents ('brutalist' art buildings from the 60's)

Let's hope I'm wrong... Those giant concrete slabs scare me too. Is the plan just to put cladding over top?

 

[jaborandi]

jabs: I vaguely remember ours, from the early '70s, when Gord Rayner's huge jazzy mural went up at the foot of University Avenue. There's a photo of it in Building with Wood by John I. Rempel ( the chapter on Ontario's polygonal buildings ) from the final years when it was an Avis Rent-A-Car place. It was about six storeys tall.

Octagonal houses were all the rage in the mid-19th century apparently ( well, I don't need to tell you that ... ); there was a three storey one built in Leaside in 1854 that burned down in 1915. Then there were the octagonal deadhouses, unique to Ontario churchyards, where bodies were stored in the winter until the ground thawed in the spring and they could be buried. There was a handsome brick mock-Goth one on the grounds of St. Michael's cemetery that was slated to be demolished in the late '60s. The one in Necropolis was taken down in 1910.

My memories of it are also a bit vague. I seem to recall it was painted the same bluish slate colour as the Walker House next door or perhaps that memory is the residue of too many psychedelic experiences.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Ah, flashbacks.

 

[jaborandi]

I have a horrible feeling that this will quickly become as dated as its great grandparents ('brutalist' art buildings from the 60's)


Let's hope I'm wrong... Those giant concrete slabs scare me too. Is the plan just to put cladding over top?

Everything becomes dated the moment it is conceived.

Those giant concrete slabs are the walls of the screening rooms.

 

[Hydrogen]

I
Let's hope I'm wrong... Those giant concrete slabs scare me too. Is the plan just to put cladding over top?

I was wondering if I should scare you and tell you that the entire structure will consist of concrete - even the theatre seats. That'll be particularly brutal when sitting through the entire directors cut of Bertolucci's 1900.

 

[jaborandi]

I was wondering if I should scare you and tell you that the entire structure will consist of concrete - even the theatre seats. That'll be particularly brutal when sitting through the entire directors cut of Bertolucci's 1900.

That will be doddle compared to War & Peace

 

[adma]

jabs: I vaguely remember ours, from the early '70s, when Gord Rayner's huge jazzy mural went up at the foot of University Avenue. There's a photo of it in Building with Wood by John I. Rempel ( the chapter on Ontario's polygonal buildings ) from the final years when it was an Avis Rent-A-Car place. It was about six storeys tall.

And didn't it have a giant rooftop Libby's sign in its later years?

 

[urbandreamer]

7 November 2008 photo update

Busy day on the site, taking advantage of the stunning weather.

 

[ProjectEnd]

Two more from Current over on SSC. From Nov. 5.

 

[khris]

I hope they do a good job with the cladding on the theatre portions of this building, or it could feel very hulking over the street.

 

[grey]

I hope they do a good job with the cladding on the theatre portions of this building, or it could feel very hulking over the street.

I think overall the tile-clad base will be a nice diagonal bookend to Metro Hall (and make the Holiday Inn look even worse), but the west wall could be brutal. Picture this east wall without any windows:

Unsurprisingly, all of the renderings seem to be from the John side and not the Widmer side.

 

[khris]

Unsurprisling, yeah... lol.

We'll just have to wait and see I guess. Something really oppressive I think could really make or break this building. I think it will all depend on materials used.

 

[Tewder]

I sort of like the effect that Lightbox is having on the Holiday Inn pile in that it mitigates its hulkiness over King Street, and the hotel's rounded corners seem to flair out much more elegantly now with something to play off.

 

[interchange42]

We're not totally in the dark as to what the likely cladding on Widmer will be, but it looks like the exterior of the cinema is: the auditoriums will be clad in varying shades of black - - - something. On King Street the strips of black cladding will be interspersed with a few glowing vertical bands lit from behind, so there's a good chance that treatment will be continued on Widmer.

In terms of a make-or-break, well, the side that is going to get the most views - King Street - has lots to look at. The renders don't have me worried at all. What is there to worry about here?

42

 

[grey]

Ok, that's not bad at all. That'll break up the square tiles.