Actually, I like the fact that they are not setback as they might lend themselves to shopfronts at some point in the future.
 
The website for the Scollard monstrosities misidentifies the architect as "Richard Wangle".

http://www.100yorkville.com/town_project.htm

In his 2007 Best & Worst year-ender, John Bentley Mays awards Wengle a Worst House prize:

This award goes to Toronto architect Richard Wengle, for his shocker on Forest Hill Road at Heath Street West. This flamboyant precast concrete building is a hectic, bulging little encyclopedia of everything architectural modernism, for good reasons, denounced and abandoned: colossal square columns in the Corinthian order, whimsical wrought-iron balconies, patches of bas-relief mythological sculpture, scraps of Versailles and other frivolous ornaments from the historical dust bin. Like the many other ancien régime fantasias sprouting up in old neighbourhoods across Toronto, this house is out of place in a modern city.

It also cuts rudely against the grain, the general sense, of the Forest Hill area. For all its rather dour propriety, and the mediocrity of much of its architecture, the neighbourhood has integrity that an architect offends at his peril. The extravagant house by Mr. Wengle is just such an offence against a part of town that has traditionally avoided show-offish gestures — but that's now getting far too many of them.
 
This is Scollard Street going west from Bay to Hazelton. The first few pix are the rear of Regency. My favourite building is #99. The new townhomes are at the west end of the street.

scroll ........
scollardst.jpg
 
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Several young Chinese Canadian fashion designers / tailors had shops on Scollard from the '80s and '90s onwards: William Lee ( who returned to Hong Kong ) had a place in a little building on the south side, about half way along; Alex Wong ( who died in '94 ) had a store called Damask on the north side near Bay; and Juin Tam ( who returned to Macau in 2003 ) had Juin Studio at number 88.
 
Tewder said:
Thirded. It's even worse when you consider that you can see so many examples of the real deal along the neighbouring streets. The massing/scale is great but the aesthetic is very uninteresting.
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What makes these any different from the "real deal"? And when one considers that the "real deal" ones have likely been beaten up, gutted, and rebuilt to be just as new as these ones.

I think the aesthetic of most glass modernist boxes are extremely uninteresting. It's all opinion.
 
Urban Shocker said:
In his 2007 Best & Worst year-ender, John Bentley Mays awards Wengle a Worst House prize:

This award goes to Toronto architect Richard Wengle, for his shocker on Forest Hill Road at Heath Street West. This flamboyant precast concrete building is a hectic, bulging little encyclopedia of everything architectural modernism, for good reasons, denounced and abandoned: colossal square columns in the Corinthian order, whimsical wrought-iron balconies, patches of bas-relief mythological sculpture, scraps of Versailles and other frivolous ornaments from the historical dust bin. Like the many other ancien régime fantasias sprouting up in old neighbourhoods across Toronto, this house is out of place in a modern city.

It also cuts rudely against the grain, the general sense, of the Forest Hill area. For all its rather dour propriety, and the mediocrity of much of its architecture, the neighbourhood has integrity that an architect offends at his peril. The extravagant house by Mr. Wengle is just such an offence against a part of town that has traditionally avoided show-offish gestures — but that's now getting far too many of them.
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Yeah, I remember that list, and Wengle seemed to make several booby-prize appearances.

As for myself, I can tolerate it on Scollard from an urban-libertarian standpoint (at least it only replaces parking); but the "redefinition of an old style" argument is dribble--Wengle and his ilk would use that coffee-table alibi on behalf of the Forest Hill McMansions that clients are tearing down Eden Smith originals for.
 
I am fascinated that even though our entire city is overwhelmingly modernist (which I am happy about), as soon as Yorkville wants to build another faux-historic/post-modernist piece of architecture, so many people take so much offense to it.

Diversity, guys-- let Yorkville have its faux-historian pieces. It's a tiny part of the city. Get over it.
 
^ It's also very high quality. You see that skinny little gap on the left side of the building. They took the stonework right to the rear of the building even though no one's going to see it.
 
Handsome buildings like 99 Scollard, which won Drew Mandel a City of Toronto Urban Design Award in 2007, are the antidote to the creeping Wengleization of Jerkville.
 
Urban Shocker said:
Handsome buildings like 99 Scollard, which won Drew Mandel a City of Toronto Urban Design Award in 2007, are the antidote to the creeping Wengleization of Jerkville.
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Is 99 Scollard the law office?

If not, there's a nice modern building on that street.
 
^^^ Thanks ... I didn't realize there were sooo many pics attached to that post.

Yes, 99 is the building I was referring to.
 
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