Not a fan of that brick colour. It's giving me 70s/80s vibes

And not in a retro cool way. Like low-rise medical office building-ish (not Medical Arts! hah)
 
Wigs said:
Not a fan of that brick colour. It's giving me 70s/80s vibes

And not in a retro cool way. Like low-rise medical office building-ish (not Medical Arts! hah)
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Maybe I'm just young but I'm really into 70s/80s brick lately.

Saw a great brick building in Stratford a few weeks ago from that era:
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But I'm also partial to what is in my opinion great architecture from that time that many would lament as ugly, saw this beaut in Toronto a couple weeks ago while visiting Queen's Park:
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I'm also a fan of the Robarts Library too.
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That last one is brutalist but cool at the same time.

As for the brick - I think if the cornices had been BIGGER and the brick had lacked all those white blocks it would have looked a lot more uniform. Like how it looked in the render was perfect.
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This feels like a harveys commercial, where you have the commercial burger, and then you have the real burger. See the difference the cornice makes in the render? It's bigger, whiter and more substantial and helps to break up those levels, but with the resulting cornices being narrower on such a big surface I feel it fails to do that, and with the white bricks the focus is just too scattered, the mind doesn't know exactly where to land. Like a crow it's attracted to bright things so the eyes kinda zigzag all over the front surface focusing on each one. You don't even NOTICE the recessed details whereas if the brick had been uniform you would have had to.

However, upon saying all that I will admit that the brick DOES feel STRUCTURAL. It is a believable look that the brick itself is supporting the podium, so they did well on that, I just think their choice of brick was a bad choice. Also I have never seen white brick strewn through a brick face in my entire life, so I am not sure where that design choice came from. Also being wet this isn't the best example of what it will look like as everything looks darker as a result, esp. the cornices - it's interesting that the middle top cornice is dry because of the overhang of the tower over it.
 
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Chronamut, you're right. The white bricks are making it look worse than it should be. Once it's finished maybe they won't be as noticeable as maybe the glass balconies draw your attention upwards 🤷🏻‍♂️

Chris R, I'm totally into brutalism and other "oddball to appreciate" architecture. It's the white brick mixed in giving c.1977-1982 medical office building (edit: or real estate office) vibes 🤪

Edited to fix my spelling mistakes
 
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Well the good news is if it ever DID become an issue one could just tape the mortar over and paint/stain those white bricks a regular colour - they do it on stamped brick concrete all the time - the retirement home close to centennial on king is a great example of that - can't even tell it's not real brick. But yeah.. it's the white brick that's the main issue.

And who could have known I suppose, sounds cool in theory, but didn't pan out well in the end.

..also some day people will spell my username right LOL..
 
will be interesting what the reveal shows on the south wall (why such a large opening at the eastern edge?
 
Chronamut said:
Well the good news is if it ever DID become an issue one could just tape the mortar over and paint/stain those white bricks a regular colour - they do it on stamped brick concrete all the time - the retirement home close to centennial on king is a great example of that - can't even tell it's not real brick. But yeah.. it's the white brick that's the main issue.

And who could have known I suppose, sounds cool in theory, but didn't pan out well in the end.

..also some day people will spell my username right LOL..
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Haha fixed it! (my apologies)
 
I can't stand when there is a brick podium but it has a fully glass corner. It makes the rest of the brick look 2d/pasted on instead of achieving the 'street wall' feeling that these podiums are supposed to replicate in the first place.
 
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