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CN Tower announces base expansion

Hydrogen said:
Go on, you can say aluminum siding. It may not win you friends, though. ;)
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Aluminum siding? What, are you kidding me?? :eek:
No metal whatsoever. Nowt that I actually *think* about it, there is really nothing the tower can be clad in that doesn't screw it up.... ;)
 
I miss the reflecting pool, and the wee bridge that took you from the main reception building, over the pool, to the interconnected elevator lobbies at the base. Without the pool to rein in their borders, those little glass enclosures make a bit less sense.

A friend of mine were hashing over what to do at the base of the building, seeing as we're both have troubles with the redo. The main dislikes were, first, the crude maintenance gear and platforms severely cluttering up the architecture of the base. Second, the new addition, although it improves capacity and flow a lot, has some weird oversights in it. Ticket booths outside, cramped escalator access from Front Street, unclear flow in layout, that monster trap of a gift shop, and the way it hugs the tower compromising its stand-alone sculptural quality. We both miss the reflecting pool and rue the paving brick that's covering it. Also, the wee token gardens around the base seem colossally misplaced, vastly overshadowed by the structure above.

"Bring in Zaha Hadid!", he declared. Seeing as that wasn't an immediate option, (though I thought it was a great idea, could you imagine the sweeping zinger she'd come up with?) - we tried to think of what else to do. It looked something like this:

cnredo.jpg


(Please pardon the crude photoshop, I'm no ace at it.)

I figure they should first demolish the existing reception building in its entirety. It's too narrow and awkward and layout to be functional. Replace it with a soothing landscape-referencing feature (waterwall, rocks, plantings) to provide some buffer from the tracks and top it with a seasonally enclosed walkway to provide a connection from the Front street entrance dropoff to the Skywalk.

Restore the reflecting pool and landscaping to the base of the tower.

Build a new dynamic looking, spacious and exciting reception building on Bremner Boulevard. Green roof it, and incorporate it into the hill at the base of the tower. House broadcasting facilities in here as well, which may free up floor space up stairs for more observation levels. Access to the tower from this building would be through under the reflecting pool, now roofed with glass, on the B1 level.

Hook the new reception building into the Skywalk. Maybe even bring back the "Universal Man" sculpture. Then again, on second thought...!

Or something like that. Anyway, thar ya go. Oh - here's Hadid's planned design for the base of Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower.

Hadidpricetower.jpg


Damn. Don't that make my plan look like crap!
 
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scrappyTO said:
Does anyone remember when there was a giant Pepsi logo on the tower? For many years later you could still see the faded remnants of the logo on the white band beneath the observation decks.
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Hmm, I don't remember that. I do remember the 30 or 40 storey Windows 95 banner that was hung on the west side of the building.
 
I think the Universal Man should be clad in something. Aluminum Siding perhaps. And then moved further to the boonies, perhaps, even, to Vaughan.
 
Great idea. Perhaps Sir Christopher Wren will pause for a few seconds, as he jets from the opening of the new airport he designed for Dubai to the launch of his latest jewellery and perfume bottle lines for Tiffany in Paris, to scribble a little design on the back of a napkin for how it'll look.
 
scrappyTO said:
Does anyone remember when there was a giant Pepsi logo on the tower? For many years later you could still see the faded remnants of the logo on the white band beneath the observation decks.
Click to expand...

I recall a Canadian flag pasted to the north side of the bubble for a while and then removed leaving the glue, or whatever it was, behind. Then there was the giant flag unfurled on Canada Day years ago. The flag's creators claimed it was indestructable. It lasted about 6 hours at that height before being reduced to tatters and removed.
 
Soho said:
Then there was the giant flag unfurled on Canada Day years ago. The flag's creators claimed it was indestructable. It lasted about 6 hours at that height before being reduced to tatters and removed.
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Important rule of thumb: Never EVER claim that something is indestructable (or unsinkable or otherwise immune to damage). Didn't the fate of the Titanic teach them anything?
 
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