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Name this architectural "style"

Arrg Laddie, thems dangerous waters thems is...

I'm not the biggest fan of Innis but I'm sure there are plenty of people who would stand up and vocally proclaim their love for its 'imaginative but restrained' design....


I still love that - 'imaginative but restrained'
 
Ontario Style

If you're looking for a name for this style, I'd dub it "Ontario Style." You won't find it anywhere else. Green Faux copper roof, two-tone red and yellow brick. Often with green glass. It's supposed to harken back to Ontario's 19th century agrarian past. The best example of this - by far - is Mississauga City Hall.
 
This "Ye Olde Worlde" look is everywhere. When I go to England ( which has plenty of genuine ye olde worlde buildings ) I see it all over the place: Castle Mall Shopping Centre in Norwich, Norfolk, ( a shopping centre next to a castle ) for instance, employs a very similar faux look to these Ontario buildings.

Whereas 40 or 50 years ago such buildings might have been contemporary in design because there was a brash confidence in the future, now there's fear about what sort of future we face, a retreat to forms that express the mythical good old days of the past, and suspicion of the new.
 
Though in terms of England, 40 to 50 years ago, wasn't that a criticism levelled against the likes of the Townscape movement, neo-vernacular picturesque et al?

Oh yeah. That, relative to the present, was like Innis College relative to Brock Township Hall, or something like it...
 
Hey, don't be hatin' on the Waterloo City Centre... it's a pleasant building. I do have an affection with it.

Very understated, very 1980's at the same time. The lobby is nice dark green marble and brass even!! LOL

citycentre1tv8.jpg

*Ignore the temporary roof railings in this image: the green roof was being installed a few years ago.
 
Lost in the Woods said:
If you're looking for a name for this style, I'd dub it "Ontario Style." You won't find it anywhere else. Green Faux copper roof, two-tone red and yellow brick. Often with green glass. It's supposed to harken back to Ontario's 19th century agrarian past. The best example of this - by far - is Mississauga City Hall.
Click to expand...

See, I'd throw Mississauga City Hall right to the dogs of Post-Modernism. Except for the small, pseudo-fascist balcony sitting in the middle of the otherwise blank pediment...very Germany circa 1936. I can almost imagine Hazel hobbling out to it to give a 'state of the suburban nation' address where she declares war on other municipalities for stealing Mississauga's wireless internet!

From the Nationalist's Post - July 34, 2011

The Mcallion Mobile prepares for a speedy retreat to her hilltop fortress (also known as the Robin's nest) after her declaration of war.

smart5.JPG
 
I remember skating there as a kid (right behind that car). I hated the architecture, even when I was about 8. It was so big and empty and I thought the whole farm idea was stupid. Huge pillars made it feel kind of Greek, but it was always totally dark, deserted, quiet, and creepy except for the skating rink. Not a very friendly civic structure.
 
Whereas 40 or 50 years ago such buildings might have been contemporary in design because there was a brash confidence in the future, now there's fear about what sort of future we face, a retreat to forms that express the mythical good old days of the past, and suspicion of the new.
Click to expand...

hmm. sounds good but how do you explain the victorian adoration of the gothic and the greek revivial of the 18th century.
they used the glory of the past to boast about the future.
no?
i think people rejected modernism because it was so shockingly, wantonly abused.
like repeatedly kickin' a dawg. he was a nice dog once. but he got real ugly after a spell.
 
Well, Neo-Classicism was partly a reaction against Rococo and Baroque, and an attempt to get back to pure ideal forms that best reflected Age of Reason rationality, and Gothic Revival was a deliberate expression of "Englishness" tied to a revived evangelizing Church of England and therefore the perfect house style for an expanding British Empire. But does the Cheddingtonista insurgency have the same level of intellectual underpinning as those other two movements, which defined their age? PoMo was ironic fun for a few minutes, but the fact that it wasn't embraced locally - except as pastiche by hacks - should tell you something about the depth of its appeal as a vehicle for creative expression, however gruesome the work of the Mies copyists who enabled it was.
 
perhaps 'ironic fun' does define our age sadly.
a couple of those buildings reminded my of britney spears in the most disturbing ways!
the pastiche may be more than just a misguided yearning for the past.
but then what do i know.
i'm addicted to ironic fun...oh my god. i'm doing it right NOW!
i'm making a pastiche of myself again.
(thanks for the info on gothic revival and such...appreciated. i had no idea the anglicans were behind it)
 
Oh yes, it was Onward Christian Soldiers morning, noon and night all through the latter half of the Victorian era in Britain - the Church was back big time. And there was lots of chatter amongst the pointy-heads about which historical style to revive, as a branding exercise that best represented the roots of Englishness within the context of the expanding empire - was it to be Gothic or Elizabethan for instance? It couldn't be Neo-Classical since the English couldn't claim that they had anything to do with Classical Greece ( though, of course, they brought great chunks of classical buildings and statuary home with them after they went on their grand tours ). When Sir Chuck Berry was chosen to design the new seat of Parliament in Westminster in the Mock Goth manner, their style won.
 
Urban Shocker said:
Well, Neo-Classicism was partly a reaction against Rococo and Baroque, and an attempt to get back to pure ideal forms that best reflected Age of Reason rationality, and Gothic Revival was a deliberate expression of "Englishness" tied to a revived evangelizing Church of England and therefore the perfect house style for an expanding British Empire. But does the Cheddingtonista insurgency have the same level of intellectual underpinning as those other two movements, which defined their age? PoMo was ironic fun for a few minutes, but the fact that it wasn't embraced locally - except as pastiche by hacks - should tell you something about the depth of its appeal as a vehicle for creative expression, however gruesome the work of the Mies copyists who enabled it was.
Click to expand...

The Cheddingotnista insurgency and the McMansion brigade seem to be informed by no other motive than to display copious amounts of wealth in facile terms. Arguably, these people enjoy showing off to the world, but are not informed enough to hire an architect to freeze their individuality in stone. The joke is on them, of course. Once they're dead they'll have nothing to be remembered by. No visitors will stream into their mansions and gaze up at the delicate woodwork of their ceilings. Nobody will remember Mr. So-and-So, the pharma magnate, as they admire the Kauffmanns or the Savoyes. McMansions are even funnier because they're made out of the same sheetrock and Tyvek as the split-levels the rest of us proles have to suffer in.
 
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