Archivist
Senior Member
It's not an egg, it's a gherkin. And it's fabulous. I'd put that gherkin anywhere.
I wonder if this 1000 footer being built in London by Pinnacle International
is still a go considering that the Vancouver one and Toronto tower 4 are on hold.
It's those short miscellaneous buildings clashing with the tall ones. The design on those look so odd they don't work well at all together. They should tear down some of the buildings, build a tall nice looking one and landscape it with a big park and water fountain. Then build some more tall building designs that enhance each other.
I agree. Adventurous but ugly. I'm thankful for Toronto's conservative architecture, as I personally wouldn't want that kind of Faberge Egg and ice cream cone crap in my hometown.
First of all, you can't a judge a city by photos, ever. I can't say this enough. It may not seem possible, but you have absolutely no idea what that part of London feels like from that photo. Not from any number of photos. That's the cool thing about cities, you have to be there.
Secondly, no, they should not "tear down some of the buildings, build a tall nice looking one and landscape it with a big park and water fountain". How can such a thing be suggested from a high level photo? The genius of London is the very arbitrariness of it's messy urbanism, not so much unlike Toronto in many ways. I have always found London so much more interesting and satisfying to walk through than, say, Paris. In the end, Paris's over-programmed landscape can be rather monotonous at times.
Back to the idea of what you understand of cities from photos - How many times have you seen photos of domesticated chickens walking on barely paved roads with dirt sidewalks lined by shitty little shack buildings, in Dubai?
In the end, one just needs to understand that you can't say anything much about a place until you've been there.