[caltrane74]

at least you guys have a sense of humour about the place. Yes in the end Metropolis aka : Toronto Death Square is no worse than what surrounds it...

3 Media Towers
6 Video screens ( LED I believe)
1 Brand new and empty/useless building
1 Extremely tacky and over the top street. ( i.e Yonge Street)
Tonnes of Billboard advertising ( most of which is backlit)
And a granite square with steel furniture, crappy stage and tore up canopy...

...so in the end it will fit right in.

( most people won't even notice it ..im sure)

Piccadilly Circus should have been the inspriation, not Times Square. I think it looks oh so much nicer - less ads, but they're of high quality. Yonge-Dundas will never equal the power of Times Square.

In time the ads at Toronto Life Square can always be upgraded into better ads( ie. NEON or LED)... That is something the market forces will have to determine.

Go hard or go home. I've never been partial to this kind of commercial square idea. But i've always thought that if they were going to go that route that it should be 'all-out', otherwise it will inevitably just be considered a tepid effort at imitating Times Square. So far that seems to be the case.

So true, this is a very weak effort so far.....

 

[SP!RE]

Piccadilly Circus is a bit too "identity crisis" for me. It's stuck between being a billboard/commercial advertising square (like Times Square or Dundas Sq.) and being a traditional European meeting place.

Yeah, atleast Toronto is going all-out with Dundas Square.

 

[alklay]

Piccadilly Circus, and its signage, does not even compare to Times Square. In comparison, it looks run down and out to date (the signs - and there are not many - are certainly not of higher quality). Let's admit it, no one does bullsh*t salesmanship like our southern neighbours.

 

[caltrane74]

I like it, however the signage appears to be only on one building.

It has a certain touch of class, that Metropolis lacks.....

 

[Urban Shocker]

I have delighted in the evolution of Yonge and Dundas for the past 37 years, and hope it continues to push the limits of vulgarity waaaaay beyond anything yet seen hereabouts. I'm particularly hoping the faux-fan pippypoos are harbingers of something truly grotesque ...

 

[caltrane74]

urbanshocker stop it!!!! your killin' me, man.

lol

 

[MisterF]

Let's admit it, no one does bullsh*t salesmanship like our southern neighbours.

I dunno, going by pictures on SSP/SSC, a lot of southeast Asian cities can easily give Times Square a run for its money.

 

[alklay]

Oh they can do neon and lights in great quantity, but quantity plus quality, Times Square still wins hands down (and I have seen them all).

For instance, a few years back, Ikea had an ad on the side of building which consisted of the layout for an entire apartment, done in their furnishings and fixtures- and it was really their funishings and fixtures (life size/full scale). An entire apartment on the side of the building! - and it still got lost in all the other ads of moving lights, oversized products and thirty story billboards.

 

[3cp1]

worst...building...ever!

 

[Blixtein]

This building is almost like an inside joke. Someone's screwing with us.

 

[ganjavih]

Curvy ads at Yonge and Dundas woulda been cool (a la Piccadilly Circus)... alas, it probably ain't gonna happen.

 

[BobBob]

Dundas Square doesn't have the skyscrapers of Times Square nor the architecture of Piccadilly Circus. The closest comparison (rather, an ideal worth copying) is closer to something like Shibuya.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

^ Agreed. If memory serves me correctly, I've called for a scramble crossing at Yonge & Dundas multiple times...perhaps it won't be so needed once the subway entrance to Metropolis opens., but I expect pedestrian traffic to go up once all the neon (there better be neon) goes in.

 

[taal]

Say what you want about the surrounding architecture but Piccadilly Circus is ugly as hell - what we have at this vary moment 10X better. Note - my comments pretain to the adds them selves - not the surrounding area or atmosphere.

 

[adma]

Well, if some of those G&M commenters on Alsop's Cloud had their way, this is what Dundas Square "should" look like