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Transformation AGO (5s, Gehry) COMPLETE

Oh nice.... I think. I guess they're finished with the "shield" then. What treatment did the pillar connecting points get? I passed by on Nuit Blanche and I think I saw a metal cover but it was dark and I wasn't sure.
 
9 October 2008 photo update:

Passing by the Grange/Dundas West today, I noticed workers feverishly working away: I highly doubt the AGO will be finished before opening day, don't y'all agree?

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The usual angles, and a few more.
Oct 9, 2008

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Moore's back!
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Steps poured.
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...and being poured.
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Near the front doors.
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Meanwhile, out back...well, a fence is going up on either side of The Grange.
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The visor is kind of cool, on its own. But rarely have I seen an architectural element that seems so tacked on. If I were an aesthetically sensitive Godzilla tromping down Dundas, my first instinct would be to rip that thing off.

Pretty much every new exterior element here feels tacked on. I have to agree with Ganjavih's overall assessment of the project.
 
Well the Dundas visor was tacked on, so what's wrong with it looking like it was tacked on? The way it's bracketed to Parkin's 1974 building doesn't pretend it is anything other than a recent addition. The evolution of the building, through several additions, is obvious.
 
I don't have an opinion on whether it looks tacked on or not, but the visor's reflection of the very local, polychromatic streetscape of a century ago on the other side of Dundas in its much cleaner, smooth surface gets a positive response from me. Very, very cool. In all of the traveling that I have done, I have never seen an effect quite like it.
 
That, and to catch the snow drifts. From inside the Galleria you'll be able to see a gutter in between the visor and the main wall that's been clad in stainless steel, and under which is an incredible number of heat tracing cables.

And the concrete columns aren't being clad, unless it's an extra. That's why they were protected with foam and plywood up until now, to protect the finished surface.
 
Well the Dundas visor was tacked on, so what's wrong with it looking like it was tacked on? The way it's bracketed to Parkin's 1974 building doesn't pretend it is anything other than a recent addition. The evolution of the building, through several additions, is obvious.


Honesty is just one of many aesthetic criteria. Imagine someone takes a dump on the Louvre and calls it "an addition". I say it looks like they took a dump on the Louvre. They reply: "Well, I did take a dump on the Louvre, what's wrong with it looking like I took a dump?"

Of course the disanalogy here is that a dump arguably isn't beautiful in and of itself, while Gehry's visor is. Perhaps a better analogy would be someone taking a sleek, stainless steel dump on the Louvre.
 
Although to be honest, there were people who thought Pei's pyramid and its mass-museumology accoutrements were akin to taking a dump on the Louvre...
 

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