urbandreamer said:
Great photos but this week I made some realtors laugh when asked what I thought about this building. My thoughts:

"It's like a supermodel wearing Walmart clothing." (You can see where the developer cut costs.)
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Urban Toronto: "If we don't hate your project, give us a minute. We'll find a reason to!"
 
I know right? Why would we want to scrutinize the decisions made by developers? It's not like they're turning massive profits or anything. They're practically charities!
 
I just find it ridiculous that the reaction to almost every development on this site is either "I hate it!" or "It looks okaaaaay NOW IT DOESN'T!" Sometimes it feels as if people here want bad developments just so they have an excuse to say "I told you it was gonna suck" for the next four or five decades. Not to mention the sour grapes this one gets from those upset it was built at Hurontario and Burnhamthorpe, not Yonge and Dundas.
 
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No sour grapes here. Do you think I could care less where it's built?!

The only thing I care about: exterior aesthetics. If you're going to spend all the time money and effort to build something that will last for a century or more, get it right from the start! Or don't build.
 
much needed new mini market in Absolute and for this area
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Agreed with most replies here.

There are so many more plots of land available for redevelopment or infill within Mississauga's Urban Growth Centre. There will definitely be towers taller and more beautiful than Absolute pulled off. So if you're not satisfied with Absolute, there are so many vacant lands, parking lots and strip malls to be redeveloped to build towers prettier than them.

Not only that, the Hurontario corridor from the 407 all the way to Matheson has so many vacant lands which can be used to build 10 to 15-story office towers to urbanize the north end of the city, which can be built with good design.

So if you don't like it, Mississauga is just getting started. I personally like it (the best towers built in Canada in the new millennium IMO).

Peel Region is starting to become a Forth Worth to a Dallas (Toronto). So people should appreciate that this was built in Mississauga, not in Calgary, not in Vancouver, not in Montreal. We're one region, folks. A little competition is healthy, but too much of it will just harm both parties. This sour graping applies to the latter. Not funny at all.

Maybe they laughed because they you said it in a funny or laughing manner, so they didn't take it seriously.
 
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The only issue is the sloppy handling the of "bottle cap" mechanical levels. For a building with so much attention paid to detail, it seems even more jarring that they are left looking as if a protective film still needs to be removed from the glass.
 
egotrippin said:
The only issue is the sloppy handling the of "bottle cap" mechanical levels. For a building with so much attention paid to detail, it seems even more jarring that they are left looking as if a protective film still needs to be removed from the glass.
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And Cityzen told us that it was not finished, and we would see changes made, but that has still not happened, and they seem to avoid talking about it now, or even visiting UT.
 
innsertnamehere said:
to claim that a building that is winning dozens of international architectural awards has not been "done right" is completely absurd.
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Countless projects win awards for absurd reasons, and are often judged from a distance, with critics looking at polished press images of the building and never visiting the damn thing in real life. As informed architecture critics, we can form our own opinions outside of "awards".

In the case of Absolute, I would say the materiality falls far short of the sleek design. Look at that image of the podium right below your post. Does that look worthy of winning awards? This debate is quite subjective, because it's largely a debate about aesthetics. As for some other features (insulated balcony slabs), the building has great strengths which should be the benchmark in Toronto condo construction.

At the same time, to use objective terms like "done right" as urbandreamer does, we're on difficult ground. There's no such thing as doing a building "right", since each project and site comes with its own challenges.
 
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You are right on the podium. But that's because it was designed by burka, while the towers are by MAD.

And when I say that it had one dozens of awards, I mean that this building cannot be a complete flop (like urban dreamer seems to think), even if it isn't perfect.
 
I agree that architecture of all kinds needs to be viewed with a critical eye, but I'm willing to give this one a huge pass on the materials considering the overall design. Let's not forget that this is a mid-range product built in the suburbs. Ultimately Cityzen should be applauded for this project.
 
Yeah, at the end of the day I am glad Cityzen chose to have a design competition and push themselves a bit. It's certainly an interesting design that brings some awe-inspiring architecture into Mississauga. Heck, I enjoy just seeing its silhouette from the 401 whenever I'm bussing back into town!
 
urbandreamer said:
I never said the building is a "flop." I just said the execution is on the cheap. Which btw is very typical of Canadian condominiums.
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I've been in the 2 Marilyn buildings numerous times, and the quality of finishings in the units, or in the lobby, is no better or worse than any of the dozens of other higher end projects in MCC, or in Toronto. So I don't know what you are talking about when you say the 'execution is on the cheap'..have you ever even set foot in these buildings?

Now, if you want to talk about the dichotomy between the sublime beauty of what MAD Architects designed for the towers, versus the banal junk that our local geniuses at Burka did at ground level, then I am all ears...
 
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