[ShonTron]

Chris Hume (Star) on the Puglies:
Buildings get cheers and jeers

Almost predictably, Hume votes for Be Bloor and DNA as amongst the worst of last year (he also mentions Ryerson Business and Opera House as disappointments). His praise is for the Leslie Dan Pharmacy building, the new Canada Life Tower, Gardiner Museum and Tip Top Lofts.

Website:

www.pugawards.com

 

[alklay]

A bit of fun.

The pictures are really small and you have to be familiar with the projects themselves otherwise your votes become a reflection on how good the photography of the particular building happens to be.

 

[astroturf]

Horrible site to navigate and review the listings. All flash!? I thought that fetish was long gone.

 

[EnviroTO]

Where is Battery Park on the list? Be Bloor and Battery Park are way worse than DNA.

 

[MisterF]

lol check out the second photo for 18 Yonge. It's not even the right building.

 

[alklay]

I think the project had to be registered in 2006 and thus I think there is a little time-lag with regard to some of the offerings. And yes (and yet again), a site about design is horribly designed.

 

[Hipster Duck]

My 2006 pugly vote would go to the thousands of McMansion subdivisions that are built every year on the edge of the 905, the mock stone townhouse developments that pass as 'infill' and all the big box stores that get erected in a fortnight. Of course you can't vote for these.

 

[ShonTron]

I'd be tempted to vote for the townhouses on Bathurst St north of Queen at Wolesley Loop as the worst thing to be built in Toronto in 2006. But that's not up there either.

 

[Urban Shocker]

What a silly, but amusing, website. Choose your criteria, and vote.

Though the Gardiner Museum is a lovely little building to look at, with some regret I voted it into the hall of shame simply because of all the space wasted on a restaurant, dead space outside the restaurant, outdoor rooftop patio for the restaurant, and ground floor entrance lobby dead space - real estate that could have been more appropriately used for displaying far more of the beautiful ceramics that I go there expecting to see. I had expected more of this cultural institution - not in aesthetic terms, but in function.

SpeedStick also got my thumbs down, just for fun.

The Four Seasons Centre got the thumbs up because, functionally, it does things the Gardiner fails to do by never losing sight of what the users of the building actually require - a beautiful and acoustically perfect hall in which to hear opera and a great show-off space to people-watch before the show and at intermission.

 

[wyliepoon]

I bet next year's Puglies will be a no brainer... Metropolis will win it all!

 

[RJR123]

My 2006 pugly vote would go to the thousands of McMansion subdivisions that are built every year on the edge of the 905, the mock stone townhouse developments that pass as 'infill' and all the big box stores that get erected in a fortnight. Of course you can't vote for these.

I couldn't agree more. I'll take 1000 DNA's over the revolting mess that passes itself off as a neighbourhood at 400 and Canada's Wonderland.

 

[adma]

I'd be tempted to vote for the townhouses on Bathurst St north of Queen at Wolesley Loop as the worst thing to be built in Toronto in 2006. But that's not up there either.

Too outrageously campy to be "worst" IMHO.

 

[calimehtar]

I know someone in pharmacy at the U of T who claims that the Leslie Dan building is really unpleasant to use, unfortunately I can't remember why.

Also I don't argue that DNA is mediocre, but it been a great addition to the neighborhood and fits in with existing buildings relatively well, and I quite like the new Ryerson building, big box stores and all.

 

[Observer Walt]

Given the reactions on this board, the Four Seasons (Opera House) seems to take a prize for most sharply divided opinions. I wonder if there is any chance that it could be voted "best" and "worst" simultaneously?

 

[interchange42]

That would be great - it would really highlight the Puglies' over-simplistic shortcomings.

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