You can view the page at http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2010/12/vote-john-street-square-competition-finalists
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- Thread starter interchange42
- Start date
Red October
Senior Member
That red staircase with the ticket kiosk looks strangely familiar to me..
Oh wait, that's why, it's in Times Sq already..
Oh wait, that's why, it's in Times Sq already..
Pinkie
Active Member
... and the mirror ball is in Chicago
lightarchitect
Active Member
but it's still the best design..
Traynor
Senior Member
Can we combine the ideas?
The only one in my opinion that would be practicable and used as intended, is number #2, King Street Staircase. It would be a great meeting place or hangout for the summertime lunch crowd. The addition of the amphitheatre makes for a fun place to watch buskers or musicians, but it is still a little sterile. I suggest adding the 'light net' of the Urban Ballroom above the Staircase and you have a winner.
The only one in my opinion that would be practicable and used as intended, is number #2, King Street Staircase. It would be a great meeting place or hangout for the summertime lunch crowd. The addition of the amphitheatre makes for a fun place to watch buskers or musicians, but it is still a little sterile. I suggest adding the 'light net' of the Urban Ballroom above the Staircase and you have a winner.
Red October
Senior Member
I dunno I like the King Street Staircase but the light net of the Urban Ballroom looks cheap to me.
It looks like something your neighbours put up in the backyard for the Canada Day barbecue.
It looks like something your neighbours put up in the backyard for the Canada Day barbecue.
pearpenguin
New Member
The Staircase for me too please. I like simplicity, so it could just be that those renderings are the easiest to understand. Why so many ghosts lurking in the other entries? The tall worms in #5 look too much in charge of the area.
to-enthusiast
Banned
I like the idea of a staircase, but I'd hope for something snazzier than what's proposed. I really like the cylinders in the Oracle Square design, but they need to be scaled down, and there need to be fewer of them.
I agree that a combination of these entries would be ideal, excluding the light net, which looks cheap to me, too - I can imagine it falling into disrepair pretty quickly.
I agree that a combination of these entries would be ideal, excluding the light net, which looks cheap to me, too - I can imagine it falling into disrepair pretty quickly.
Northern Magus
Active Member
Is it me or are most of these pretty underwhelming?
For me, the problem with the staircase proposal is that, aside from the staircase itself, there's nothing else to the concept. No interesting features or furniture or objects. I find it too timid where it needs to be bold.
Similarly, the ballroom doesn't seem to lend itself to too many functions other than sitting around or dancing underneath the lights. Imo it's also basically a one-trick pony, a concept that boils down to one feature. Like the oracle as well.
Entertain me has neat tiles and furniture, but it's beasically just a place to walk by or sit down.
The terrace gets my vote because it offers the most - in some ways it's almost a sum of the best parts of the others.
For me, the problem with the staircase proposal is that, aside from the staircase itself, there's nothing else to the concept. No interesting features or furniture or objects. I find it too timid where it needs to be bold.
Similarly, the ballroom doesn't seem to lend itself to too many functions other than sitting around or dancing underneath the lights. Imo it's also basically a one-trick pony, a concept that boils down to one feature. Like the oracle as well.
Entertain me has neat tiles and furniture, but it's beasically just a place to walk by or sit down.
The terrace gets my vote because it offers the most - in some ways it's almost a sum of the best parts of the others.
Traynor
Senior Member
Let's face it... The Staircase is the least skateboard-friendly... So it has my vote for that alone. And I actually went to the site, watched all the promotional videos and then voted for the Staircase.
condovo
Senior Member
The staircase is the clearest, most compelling, and most useful idea. No bells and whistles necessary. But it's not beautiful. If it wins, let's hope they use granite instead of precast but in these days of Ford, who knows...
ponyboy
Active Member
like Traynor, I thought that combining the staircase for sitting and light net for dancing would be a great synthesis. If well done, it doesn't have to look cheap, and provides an interesting visual effect (ceiling) to this outdoor space that connects well with the lighting across the street.
Traynor
Senior Member
The Urban Ballroom and its Light Net by themselves, remind me of an old-fashioned Christmas Tree lot.
(Found here: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2008/12/pine-or-plastic-big-decisions-on-the-christmas-tree-lot/ )
(Found here: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2008/12/pine-or-plastic-big-decisions-on-the-christmas-tree-lot/ )
Traynor
Senior Member
And I just don't get number 4.
If you take out the artistic colour-blocking that represents the pavement and sidewalk... (Note that the King Street surface roadway, in the overhead view, is the same dia-grid pattern as that of the sidewalk. So you can assume that it is just artistic license and not representative of what you'll get) ... You are left with some wood benches.
Huh?
And if it`s real... I wouldn`t want to be tripping home after clubbing in the Entertainment District and encounter that optical illusion in front of me. It would give me vertigo and I`d hurl in the nearest planter... Oh wait! There are no planters.
If you take out the artistic colour-blocking that represents the pavement and sidewalk... (Note that the King Street surface roadway, in the overhead view, is the same dia-grid pattern as that of the sidewalk. So you can assume that it is just artistic license and not representative of what you'll get) ... You are left with some wood benches.
Huh?
And if it`s real... I wouldn`t want to be tripping home after clubbing in the Entertainment District and encounter that optical illusion in front of me. It would give me vertigo and I`d hurl in the nearest planter... Oh wait! There are no planters.
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4pook
Active Member
I like the Oracle Square one the best, but I'm not sure how it would function as a meeting place, if that is the purpose of this project. I'm not really a big fan of any of the proposals though, they *are* all kind of underwhelming.