Torontovibe
Senior Member
I'm really looking forward to seeing the art work in this podium.
Uh-oh, he doesn't like either Tableau or Picasso?
As with Tableau – like most condo projects in downtown Toronto – Picasso is a tower standing atop a large, multistorey base. But the resemblance to lesser beings stops there. The building’s 39-storey shaft is not just another sky-to-sidewalk cascade of glass. Instead, Picasso faces the city with a sculpted exterior composed of sharply defined opaque boxes, each standing several storeys tall and pushing out horizontally from the core. These large extruded oblongs have been shaped from white and grey panels of concrete material punctuated by window openings.
The thrust of the pale boxes is visually reinforced by their black concrete background, and by the bright red edges that define each box. Once they are fully grown and leafed out, the trees on Picasso’s terraces will draw the composition upward and lend a touch of forest to the energetic abstract geometry of the façades. These surfaces have engaging solidity, appropriate in an era of mindfulness about energy conservation.
Several years ago, Mr. Teeple designed a somewhat different building for this property on Richmond West. The complex was to contain both a boutique hotel and a condo component. Had it gone up. it would have been an artistically daring addition to the high-rise cityscape. Picasso, done on the same site for different clients, is not that audacious building. But the present project has quite enough urbane jump and big-city swing to set it firmly apart from the more staid condo stacks rising in the core.
Different and unique isn't always a good thing. Many things can be distinguished but ugly. In this case, however, that sentiment rings true.Agreed, and it's different and unique which is always a good thing!