I think flat-topped makes way more sense. They meet the ground in a flat manner (obviously they have to) and I think having the crown be flat at the top also makes sense.
 
Or a slanted, more angular top which carries with it an overall impression of movement instead of just capping off the gesture.
venus450.jpg
 
The flat topped element of the towers works well enough. If we're talking about improvements however, perhaps a more detailed roof element could have been produced. I'm thinking something along the lines of the US Bank/Library Tower in Los Angeles. It's a fitting top for a beautiful and elegant structure.

On another note, I dig your work Traynor, but as was said previously, your recent rendering of Absolute with the hypothetical rooftop element looks, eh, pretty penile to say the least.
 
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Dperador said:
Hey everyone!!
I just started on urban toronto. I've actually checked out this site for the longest time (2 years approximately) and just now made an account. LOL :p
If I make a blunt or incorrect remark please forgive me. hahah But in reference to the "bottle caps" of the towers, are you sure that they are actually white and not the blue tinted windows with sheet protectors from behind that would be removed?!?!
If you look at the last picture on post #2132, there are 2 condos that have the same "sheet" (if you will) that the bottle caps have. I think I can safely assume that they'll be removed as well. In addition, if you look at the renderings of the project, the windows at the top are the same as the rest of building. :p

I could be wrong but I think the "bottle cap" idea is just temporary.
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I think and hope you are right here. I'm surprised no one mentioned this by now.
 
Abruptly truncated is a valid look, playing off of the curves that define the towers - but the slight difference in colour, and the slightly stepped back effect, draws more attention to the top as a defined element than is needed ... and reminds me of a temporary crown on a tooth.
 
I think it would have been a lot nicer without the hat so to speak.

But my biggest concern is the podium really.
 
Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
Forgive my ignorance, how was RTH originally designed?
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The original glass roof was not quite the conical section that it is now. It was meant to start as a cone at the top, but then be stretched to the square corners of the building. Erickson was told by engineers that it couldn't be built (IIRC). The images below are from http://www.tobuilt.ca

RTHOriginal1.jpg


RTHOriginal2.jpg


42
 
interchange42 said:
The original glass roof was not quite the conical section that it is now. It was meant to start as a cone at the top, but then be stretched to the square corners of the building. Erickson was told by engineers that it couldn't be built (IIRC). The images below are from http://www.tobuilt.ca

42
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Over the years I have ran into both engineers and architects who would wanted something built that could not be, as it it was impossible.

Since I don’t have at letter behind my name, they always said I don’t know what I was talking about until I point out where theory fail in the real world of construction and manufacturing.

We even gone to the point of detailing the item and manufacture a sample of it, only to see it fail in real time. It was back to the designing board to come up with a new plan.

In some cases I would show them how to it could be done at a lower cost as well being fast to do.

Things may look great on paper, but doing it is another thing.

Look how this project turn out. It would cost more to do, taken longer to do it and giving something up in the way the unit layouts and wasted space, if it was built as plan.
 
42: Arthur Erickson provided the colour shot above (by email) along with some comments about the glass canopy. It was never a question of "can't be built"... it was a question of avoiding the hundreds of different size/shape glass panes required to morph the ellipse into the square podium. They (the cheapeners) wanted a standardized glass pane to save a few million and that's the reason we ended up with (as I referred to it years ago) an angel food cake on a square plate with a concrete beanie ... and those filthy mullions.
 
I always feel sad when I see the RTH original design. It would have been Toronto's most spectacular building, and one of the most exquisite late modernist designs in the world. All that was lost to save a few million bucks. Imagine if Sydney had gone this route.
 
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