Dear Mayor and Councillor,
I recently learned about a small but concerning change to the design of the gorgeous new St Lawrence Market North building.
This building, as I'm sure you know, was designed by the internationally acclaimed architects RSHP, who are known for their "high tech" designs, most famously realized in the Pompidou Centre in Paris. An important element of those designs, in fact a trademark of the firm's style, is the use of colour. Look through their completed projects and you will see that nearly every one has a bold splash of red or yellow integrated into the design.
Their design for the St Lawrence Market building, the result of an international competition, included such a splash of colour in the trumpet-shaped vents that came out of the sidewalk. I've included the rendering below to show what I'm referring to:
<dropped a rendering here>
Unfortunately, it seems that at some point in the design or construction process, someone, presumably city staff, made a decision to paint these vents (now only on the west side of the building) grey instead of red. This is a very bad decision, especially in a city where new buildings are so often criticized for their monotonous grey sameness. Beyond that, it is concerning to see decisions like this being overridden late in the design process, likely not by the original architects who won an international competition on the basis of their bold design vision.
My ask is simple: let the people have some colour! Please direct staff to follow the architects' original vision and return these to the red shown in the designs. The vents are an essential part of the building's architecture and were specifically designed to be red by internationally acclaimed architects. They should remain red!
Thank you,
smably
