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This was on Daily Dose of Imagery today.

cn-tower_king_university_streetcar_wide_01.jpg


What IS this monstrosity?
 
You mean 100 University? Mid-90s retrofit of c1960 spec building. Believe it or not, it got some good press for what it was...
 
As strangely likeable period curios go, it's sorta its generation's version of 2 Carlton...
 
jaborandi and I did walkies on Saturday and we briefly noted that retrofit, and the one on the south side of Adelaide just east of York Street with the spiky crown. They tried a little too hard, and far too late, to jump aboard the spirit of PoMo - long after the train had left the station.
 
Ah, for my part, an apology for trying to curtail phunky's obliterating desires on this death-to-buildings thread. Regardless of my preferences, he has the right to his desire of blowing it up real good.



I still like it though.
 
jaborandi and I did walkies on Saturday and we briefly noted that retrofit, and the one on the south side of Adelaide just east of York Street with the spiky crown. They tried a little too hard, and far too late, to jump aboard the spirit of PoMo - long after the train had left the station.

Ah yeah, the Adelaide thing. Toronto's A1 example of mock Graves...
 
There's an entire skyline in 100 University's skins. The wavy glass makes me think 'giant tape dispenser', especially from a bit further north and east.

42
 
What was there before was immediately forgettable. At least this building is memorable, and I'm not sure if the implementation is so bad it's appealing, or if it is just beacuse it isn't an eyesore IMHO, though I also get the tape dispenser thought. I'd much, much, rather get rid of the crimes against urbanity first, like 77 Elm, Sheraton, Jorgenson, Sid Smith, 666 Spadina, HBC. 100 University would stay - as a monument to one of the few times Toronto tried something different.
 
Sean Micallef gives Sid Smith a sympathetic write-up in Concrete Toronto. The write-up for the Sheraton explains how the City saw it as a means of extending the Modernism of City Hall to the south, allowing views over it to the new towers at King and Bay, creating that nice interior garden for the public and situating movie theatres there. Architect Michael McClelland, the co-author of the book, suggests several ways the Sheraton - which has since turned it's back on the city - could be opened up again through renovations. As for 77 Elm, well it has been a listed building for some time.
 

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