Top 10 Favourite Toronto Buildings

[Urban Shocker]

What are your Top 10 Favourite local buildings of all time ... and why?

( they must be still standing )

 

[HHC]

The whitney block.

Historic, has good scaling, love the detailing and the courtyard concept from the front.

 

[buildup]

Mies' TD Centre - still defines the financial district
Scotiabank Tower - great scale
Telus - a beautiful restoration
St George Club or York Club (Bloor & St George) although the wall is a shame
All the restored warehouses on King West & East
The various Munk buildings in UofT
Victoria College
Queen's Park - what a great pile

 

[buildup]

Actually, I'm more curious to know your favorites!

 

[k10ery]

Somehow I love those slab towers up in Thorncliffe.

 

[jn_12]

In no particular order:

The Lumsden Building (Yonge and Adelaide)
The Hudson Bay building on Queen
St James Cathedral
Old City Hall
Queens Park
Union Station
Osgoode Hall
The row of buildings on the south side of Front St between Church St and the St Lawrence Centre
St Lawrence Hall
1 Spadina Crescent

 

[buildup]

Wasnt 1 Spadina Crescent supposed to be restored after a philanthropist donated towards it 3-4 years ago?

 

[adHominem]

Somehow I love those slab towers up in Thorncliffe.

I love those as well. I'm not sure what it is, exactly. The grid, the proportions; they're just... pleasing.

(edit: I should add my choices, I guess.)

New City Hall - even my hearty dislike of many of its current occupants can't extinguish my love of this building. I just enjoy moving through it and looking at it.

Lord Lansdowne Public School - a Googie public school! Charmingly bonkers.

20 Prince Arthur - just whimsical enough.

The RC Harris Water Filtration plant - the fact that it even exists, given Toronto's legendary parsimony, is so improbable; its beauty is almost a mere bonus.

The TD Centre - austere and elegant.

The Gladstone Hotel - I think they did a lovely job with the reno/restoration.

The pods & Cinesphere at Ontario Place - it is, apparently, possible to feel nostalgia for a future that never happened.

There are many more, but I'll have to think on it a bit.

 

[buildup]

I forgot to mention the older restored structure in MARS. It was derilict in the 90s.

 

[buildup]

Somehow I love those slab towers up in Thorncliffe.

I've often being thrilled by those as well. I think its because they appear Utopian from the lower perspective; idealized Towers in a Park vision soaring from virgin forest and blue sky without any back drop. Many structures look spectacular on a natural elevation.

 

[k10ery]

I love those as well. I'm not sure what it is, exactly. The grid, the proportions; they're just... pleasing.

(edit: I should add my choices, I guess.) ...

Yes, I couldn't understand the appeal of the Thorncliffe towers either. But then I watched the last five minutes f 2001: A Space Odyssey, and everything suddenly made sense. (Joke.)

I like all your choices - perhaps we have similar taste.

Here is another one: the Daniel Brooke Building. Kitty corner to St Lawrence Hall, but much less pompous. And the former home of the Toronto Patriot, whatever that was.

 

[k10ery]

I've often being thrilled by those as well. I think its because they appear Utopian from the lower perspective; idealized Towers in a Park vision soaring from virgin forest and blue sky without any back drop. Many structures look spectacular on a natural elevation.

Agreed, but the juxtaposition of the rectilinear forms against the trees is the key.

I like MARS too. I'm ashamed to say I never really noticed it til they cleaned it up. Toronto needs more baroque. This one out in Scarborough is not bad. Again, the park setting helps a lot.

 

[Urban Shocker]

* The Commercial Bank
William Thomas, 1845.

* St. Lawrence Hall
William Thomas, 1850.

* Osgoode Hall ( south front )
John Ewart; Henry Bowyer Lane; Frederic W. Cumberland and William G.Storm,
1829-1861.

* Victoria College
William G. Storm, 1892.

* R.C. Harris Water Filtration Plant
Thomas C. Pomphrey, 1935.

* Massey College
Ron Thom, 1963.

* Toronto Dominion Centre
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1964.

* City Hall
Viljo Revell, 1965.

* Commerce Court West
I.M. Pei, 1971.

* OCADU Sharp Centre for Design
Will Alsop, 2004.

 

[adma]

* Commerce Court West
I.M. Pei, 1971.

Ah, I remember a few years back when the late not-so-great Whoaccio tried to frame CCW as crap Pei and crap architecture. (Strange character, he; seemed to have a chronically pindicked-crabby tone in his posts. After I gently quasi-"outed" him, he stopped posting on UT. Seems to have vanished from other newspaper-comments-page realms as well. He surely had "issues".)

 

[buildup]

I used to detest BCE towers for some reason. Then someone on this site completely changed my mind - now I love them. Strange how one's appreciation can just flip like that.
We dont have a lot of 'wow' architecture but our financial core is really very fine in an understated way.
I think the 1FCP recladding is outstanding!