jje1000
Senior Member
Simplifying the carvings and other decorative elements would result in a building that isn’t indentical to its original design, though; which is the point I was trying to make. It would be very hard to recreate an exact copy of said building; even more so if the building was Old City Hall or University College at U of T. Any remakes would probably come as well as a McMansion tries to mimic older housing styles.
As for the building pertaining to the thread title: the attention to detail is exquisite, but I find the double cornice awkward. It might look better to remove the lower, original one; but I assume it was left in place to distinguish between the old and the new.
Buildings don't need to be identical to their original forms and decorations to carry forward their original meanings- for instance- the Woolworth Building and MetLife Towers have both heavily simplified their external decorations in the years since they were built. Both the Bay Adelaide Centre/ EY Tower reconstructions are acceptable enough despite the changes in floor heights and even the number of floors.
I would say that proportions and unity of style/form/materiality matter more than anything else- things that McMansions fail to do (since this sort of stuff is no longer taught in architecture school).
This site amusingly goes into the details that separate 'New Traditional' from the 'McMansion Style': http://mcmansionhell.com/101
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