[Fighting Madd]

To me, nothing beats Toronto's gothic buildings; it's churches, store fronts, schools and government buildings are timeless in their appeal.

The 1960s onwards seem to have forgotten this appeal, and slad concrete, huge sheets of glass and steel seem to prevail.

In 2055, which building will have more appeal, buildings such as the Glazed-in ROM and the OCAD on stilts or gothic masonry buildings such as Old City Hall, Victoria College and Trinity College?

Obviously it is cheaper to build the modern steel or concete box than it is to build Gothic styled structures, but from an appeal point of view I can't help but pick the latter. I can't imagine UofT's downtown campus having the same appeal if its buildings looked like the concrete blocks of Carleton's or York's campuses.

 

[building babel]

Our buildings are Gothic revival, a product of the Romantic sensibilities of the nineteenth century.

True Gothic ran from the twelfth century until the Renaissance.

There's no reason why a stripped down Gothic styling can't be employed on buildings today, using contemporary construction methods. If Gothic historicist taste fires the public imagination again I'm sure we'll see builders rushing to produce it with varying degrees of success.

You can capture the essence of any style in visual shorthand without having to employ skilled stonemasons to recreate decorative effects of a byegone era at vast expense.

 

[mark simpson]

50s & 60s rule

BTW, have you seen this

www.skyscrapercity.com/sh...p?t=170504

 

[wyliepoon]

There's no reason why a stripped down Gothic styling can't be employed on buildings today, using contemporary construction methods. If Gothic historicist taste fires the public imagination again I'm sure we'll see builders rushing to produce it with varying degrees of success.

I think Calatrava's Galleria at BCE Place has elements of Gothicism, with that high, vaulted, well-lit interior space made up of rather non-conventional supports, which seems to be in the spirit of the cathedrals of old.

I personally like the Beaux-Arts style of all the previous architectural styles in Toronto, but every style has its masterpieces and its eyesores. It's very difficult (and maybe even dangerous) to label a style as completely good or bad.

 

[building babel]

Strawberry Hill, Horace Walpole's 18th century "little Gothic castle" started the fashion:

www.friendsofstrawberryhill.org/

Pugin, a religious nut and the architect who designed the neo-Gothic Palace of Westminster with Charles Barry, proselytized for the style - which he promoted as being morally superior. Architecture to save your soul! No wonder the Victorian establishment loved the style.
The horrors of the industrial revolution sent Pugin scurrying for cover and idealizing the Middle Ages, blind faith, and artisan craftsmanship. He influenced early designers of the Arts and Crafts movement:

www.19thc-artworldwide.or.../youn.html

 

[building babel]

Wylie: I think Calatrava's BCE Galleria columns owe quite a bit to the angled, plant-like, forked central nave columns - and the portico - of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia.

I far prefer Gaudi's outrageously warped interpretation of Gothic to the stuffy, high-minded, English High Victorian revivalist interpretation we built in Toronto.

 

[TdotTrickyRicky]

I would tend to agree that older buildings have greater facade appeal to the contemporary eye. But I think it is difficult to compare these buildings to the styles employed in new constructions because we view the old buildings not as what they were but what they are now. What I mean is that the palaces of St. Petersburg (which i am visiting shortly) are beautiful aesthetically, but symbols of oppression and inequality. We think of them as the pinnacle of what is good and inspiring in human character, when they also represent all that is wicked as well. Also, technically most old buildings are fundamentally different things than they were when they were built because of the modern retrofitting of electrical, lighting, plumbing, building enevelop design, communications equipment etc. In the 20th century we made these interior comfort and practical considerations our top priority for good reason.

 

[building babel]

The Greeks sacrificed animals outside their temples but I don't think that prevents any serious student of architecture from appreciating the beauty and proportion of, say, the Parthenon. People centuries from now may be horrified by the working conditions of capitalist slaves who toiled in the offices of the TD Centre but I doubt if it will make the buildings any the less attractive to the trained eye.

Talking of Greek Classical - there's a style with legs! It has been in and out of fashion more times than most of us have had hot dinners.

 

[ganjavih]

I completely agree, Fighting Madd. Look at the most appealing cities in the world and look at Toronto's best neighbourhoods... pre-1950s.

 

[Antiloop33rpm]

50 years from now, I think Toronto will most likely be celebrated for its Commiebloc Towers in the Park. Scarborough (what is going to happen to suburbs like this is going to be really wild and its one of the most exciting areas of urban design and architecture for myself personally), and Toronto's great collection of 1950's and 60's industrial architecture (again if it is not all destroyed).

Most buildings built now have pretty limited appeal. OCAD will still be admired much in the way TD Tower is. Most everything else is likely to fade off into the urban landscape. By then the Waterfront will have been totally built up, peaked, and on its way, or in total decline and become the new seedy area of Toronto where artists, bohemians, and punks will gather and create new art and music forms. The Toronto Maple Leafs, on its way to 100 years without a Stanley Cup, will still inhabit the now barn like ACC, and Maple Leaf Square, once home to parties sponsored by Molson and well endowed, commercial bikini girls is now a place where vagrants beg for change.

At that point Union Station will seem like a long ago icon of early Industrial Canada and become so busy, flooded with the fleshy mass of humanity and crumbling due to neglect and the pressure of use this area is likely to resemble Alexander-Platz than its current status as a business hub. Socialist rebels will spit on the current symbols of free market/commerical architecture. Gun violence is no longer a problem as the thug life immitators seeking fame, fortune, riches, and all that capitalism and explotation has to offer have since moved on to Calgary to pursue the almighty dollar and taken their guns with them.

Spadina, once a Jewish neighborhood, turned haven for Chinese immigrants, turned gentrified yuppy hellhole, turned depressed relic as hipster and moneyed young professionals move easy leaving the area to once again to return to its gritty roots and attracting a new generation of immigrants from South America.

Mississauga, now almost 2 million people contemplates consuming some of it surrounding municipalities as its secret plan to take over Toronto continues on track.

In this era of Toronto in the year 2055 it Scarborough will look like no other place in North America, maybe the world, and it will the once mighty core that will in fact, look, and feel, like East Berlin. In this Toronto it will be idylic images of 1960's suburban Metro Toronto and its No Name bustops, clean streets, and ample parking downtown that will be most admired and held up in such an iconic, untouchable fashion that even the most stunning Art Deco or Gothic Revival styles will seem like silly attempts to replicate the early European roots of Canadian society.

Ok so only the first paragraph was a serious response to the topic but it felt good to write away some of built up cynicism.