While we're talking about the ROM/Crystal, why not start by re-thinking the entrance on Bloor ? This bland and cheap opening to the museum misses the sense of occasion one experienced when entering through the magnificant Rotunda. Yesterday, when I visited the ROM, the Rotunda space was devoted for children's craftwork. The entire Crystal reno leaves me feeling nostalgic . Perhaps, lot of the budget for the Crystal reno went for complex engineering, and probably at the expense of quality finishing work and accommodating inner spaces. A later visit to the new AGO yesterday, underscored this feeling that the ROM addition could, and should have
1 King West. The idea of Speed Stick, as a visual conceit, is sound enough - a sleek sliver of a building with an extruded core - but while the bones are strong it fails in the execution. The extruded deodorant core works well enough, but the snaggle-toothed casing is a mess; the two elements don't work together. The inverse-V of the casing echoes the notch in Scotia Plaza, and there's a kinship to the Brookfield Place towers to the south in terms of colour and size, but the main problem's in the deodorant/casing mismatch.
HBC at Yonge and Bloor would be an important project because of its uninspiring all concrete-clad podium at such a prominent intersection. The tower is bland too. Even if you like Brutalism, you may find that the concrete cladding seems generic. The recent makeover of Bloor makes the "bunker" stand out more with its subpar window-less design.
I can't say the same for the distinctive 2 Bloor West. It's among the more memorable towers in Toronto, with its rigid concrete 'ribs' and pronounced mechanical sections (nicely integrated into the architecture, of course), interspersed with an unusual grid of windows.
I'm curious about what troubles you with the back of the City Hall towers? When I toured the green roof last summer I took a really close look at the buidlings and they are in remarkably good shape.
Re changing the back of the City Hall towers--shhh, don't tell Mayor Ford, he might get idears.
As for the ROM Crystal, it makes sense as *a* candidate, at least insofar as it's in the spirit of "fulfilling" the reported design intention, rather than obliterating it...
I might suggest a "precladding" solution, i.e. to reinstate the former aesthetic of a whole lot of post-WWII office and apartment buildings which suffered subsequent disfigurement/debasement through EIFS, smoked/mirrored glass, etc...
Any/all of the 80s/90s buildings that went with white anodized aluminium panels in their cladding (I'm thinking specifically the former Holiday Inn on King, the Madison Centre in North York, and The 250/One Dundas West at the Eaton Centre). It's not the architecture I take issue with but rather the execution. I find those panels look awful after a few years of exposure to the elements, and I'd like to see them replaced with white glazing which would hold up much better.