Is it my dodgy memory or did the Richmond Adelaide Centre used to be called The Esplanade at one time?
 
I think 120 Adelaide's cladding looks much nicer, and has worn better than 130's. I'm sitting in 130 and looking at 120 out my window right now. 130's cladding is boring, flat, and fading. It's ugly. I'd really like to see it changed to match 120 more closely. I would prefer that to a facelift like Adelaide Place, which I agree is puke and looks like it belongs in Mississauga's business park. I don't remember exactly how it looked before, but I do remember it looked even worse before the recladding. At least it's clean and tidy now.

EDIT: Okay, I was actually looking at the vented part of 120's cladding near the middle. I thought the whole tower had vented panels like that. So 120 and 130 are actually identical. They both need recladding. The black panels have faded to an uneven charcoal shade.

Here's a picture of Adelaide Place right next door with 130 visible in the reflection, for reference (please excuse the ridiculous emporis watermark):

376413zo9.jpg


For the record, I don't know how they managed to make the marble/granite look that light in the photographs (it looks even worse here than in in person). It's much darker and matches the dark windows. The buildings aren't pretty, but at least they don't stand out.
 
Grey, I believe that both Adelaide Place towers were clad as unarticulated green mirror glass boxes. Definitely the one on University was, and it was dreadful. To my mind the stone banding helps these towers by adding a little articulation into the river of glass. What I like best about the recladding (besides removal of the obnoxious bright green mirror glass) was the addition of the stone protrusion that runs up the sides of what is now known as the DBRS Tower on University. The two runs join at the top with an arc that provides one of the few fluid lines downtown. Nice countepoint.

42

01390_BG.jpg
 
The DBRS tower looks very decent from that side. Your picture is much more representative of the building's actual colour.
 
And the glass covered lobby facing University is a vast improvement from what was originally there.
 
AndreaPalladio said:
They were both clad in that ugly greenish glass. They did a great job of revamping that whole complex, inside and out.
Click to expand...

Actually, I think it was supposed to be gold mirrored glass but it came off as resembling one of those poorly executed bleached hair-dos in Eastern Europe that often came out looking green and brassy. More than just politics changed for the better with the fall of Communism
 
Re Adelaide Place: even with whatever "neat" stone articulation/protrusion touches, it's still routine post-Y2K corporate office highrise mode. It's what the oft-maligned-today SE corners of Yonge + Queen/Richmond/Adelaide would look like were they built 15 or so years later. Get the hint? Nickelback Modern is merely Glass Tiger Modern in "contemporary" clothing. And the Mandala Modern of 120 Adelaide kicks their collective corporate-schlock(itecture) keister.

grey said:
I think 120 Adelaide's cladding looks much nicer, and has worn better than 130's. I'm sitting in 130 and looking at 120 out my window right now. 130's cladding is boring, flat, and fading. It's ugly. I'd really like to see it changed to match 120 more closely. I would prefer that to a facelift like Adelaide Place, which I agree is puke and looks like it belongs in Mississauga's business park. I don't remember exactly how it looked before, but I do remember it looked even worse before the recladding. At least it's clean and tidy now.

EDIT: Okay, I was actually looking at the vented part of 120's cladding near the middle. I thought the whole tower had vented panels like that. So 120 and 130 are actually identical. They both need recladding. The black panels have faded to an uneven charcoal shade.
Click to expand...

How on earth did that judgment morph into a "they both need recladding"? The Docomomo/Dominion Modern crowd would have you drawn and quartered for that rather historically ignorant suggestion viz. 120 Adelaide, especially.

NB: keep in mind that the first (1999) Oxford scheme, at least, left the 120-130 Adelaide curtain walls fundamentally alone, even if they involved add-ons around the base. And they'd probably be *less* likely to propose monkeying with, at the very least, the 120 Adelaide curtain wall in 2007 than in 1999. Further proof of how an overwrought faded/dated/needs-recladding judgment is the realm of well-meaning armchair amateurs who're no better than those who think a grimy-if-distinguished Victorian brick facade can be "improved" through stucco Botox...
 
adma said:
Re Adelaide Place: even with whatever "neat" stone articulation/protrusion touches, it's still routine post-Y2K corporate office highrise mode. It's what the oft-maligned-today SE corners of Yonge + Queen/Richmond/Adelaide would look like were they built 15 or so years later. Get the hint? Nickelback Modern is merely Glass Tiger Modern in "contemporary" clothing. And the Mandala Modern of 120 Adelaide kicks their collective corporate-schlock(itecture) keister.
Click to expand...

By way of appendage, 181 University in its mirrored mode might have been "Moxy Modern"...
 
adma said:
How on earth did that judgment morph into a "they both need recladding"? The Docomomo/Dominion Modern crowd would have you drawn and quartered for that rather historically ignorant suggestion viz. 120 Adelaide, especially.
Click to expand...
Poor observation on my part, but overall idea was that the black tiles on both towers are still faded and dull and could stand to be replaced.
 
So? At least for the sake of 120, more or less replace them in kind, then...

Besides, personally, I don't sense a fatal case of "faded and dull" with 120. If there were a more valid alibi for recladding, it'd be functional rather than aesthetic--and even there, maintaining the look ought to be paramount...
 
Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest that they should be "updated" in green glass, or anything. I had a restoration in mind.
 
Reconsidering Design

Spoke to someone involved with the project at Oxford (the owner of RAC) the other day, he said they are now reconsidering their plans. Not sure what this will mean - probably the residential component is a bit of a long shot though.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top