A
adma
Guest
It is basely functional, graceless engineering, built on the cheap (even at the time), and nearly continuously derelict.
Though by that equation, what elevated highway at the time, anywhere, *wasn't* so-called "built on the cheap"? Utilitarian was the way to go, and it was perceived (at least by those who were doing the planning) that the beauty was in the modernity and in the utility--and this was before anyone really had a clue (especially in salt-o-philic winter climes like Toronto's) how badly these urban Godzillas would weather over time.
And the irony is that Toronto's 50s/60s municipal superhighways (Gardiner, DVP, Spadina/Allen) reflected *more* of a self-conscious "design" sense than the provincially-built 400-series--though maybe from a functional standpoint, that was also their pitfall...