Hamilton 129-131 Wellington Street North | 15.19m | 4s | WQP | RAW Design

BrenWilson said:
some sort of cruel reverse uno for the building next door painting their brick white?
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Yes the irony is palpable.

It's funny though - that picture makes it look like we're only capable of making buildings in varying shades of grey lol..

I wanna see cybertron architecture - buildings of the future and all we can make is precast lego block rectangles.. disappointing..

it's so commie block there isn't any fancy brick work or window arches..

I am gonna be super happy when/if this era of architecture, or blockitecture, dies.
 
Chronamut said:
Yes the irony is palpable.

It's funny though - that picture makes it look like we're only capable of making buildings in varying shades of grey lol..

I wanna see cybertron architecture - buildings of the future and all we can make is precast lego block rectangles.. disappointing..

it's so commie block there isn't any fancy brick work or window arches..

I am gonna be super happy when/if this era of architecture, or blockitecture, dies.
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This could have been nice with real brick, even without fancy lintels or arches. Modern Dutch, and Colombian use of brick is amazing, yet simple. Often just rectangular, sometimes with an inset layer.

Two buildings we saw in Bogotá:
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let's be honest - it's the white on the first/angles and curves, and the brick inset on the second that makes it stand out and not feel ellen faircloud-esque, not so much the brick itself.

For the third one it's the giant tree for me and the shrubs on the balconies LOL - by itself the third would have looked too stark for me.

Also the rounded part of the brick on the first one is amazing - they usually sit the brick upwards for those so its easier to get the angle gradations.

Personally I am not a fan of 100% brick - it needs some sorta stone accent or different coloured brick, usually yellow, to compliment it. Stone + brick is great though - helps to break the eye up so it doesn't just feel like this massive commie slab. Even the old factories had stone accents, mainly because brick couldn't hold up windows on its own so they acted like support lintels, but ended up looking great in the process. Now that we no longer need stone for that people try to pass entire walls of brick off as chic and imo it just doesn't add up. I hate finishes that don't look like they support the structure and are just slapped on. The second one looks great because it's uniform and because it has insets and looks like the brick actually supports the structure. Perception is key. Core urban would be proud of that one. And are those chimney stack or jut cleverly disguised ventilation shafts? If it's the latter well done.. I always applaud clever hiding of such things..

That blocked in window though.. tsk tsk..

I also personally hate the odd shaped window stuff going on in the third picture. Just makes it look alien. Thank god for that tree lol..
 
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This still looks horrible.

Now the only thing anyone will ever notice is the half bricked in window - it will become the "half bricked in window" building over anything else it originally strove to be.

Now the building looks tired, like it has half-open jughead eyes.
 
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Photo from a friend's balcony. From here you can see that there's a stairway leading to the weird underground level. Not sure why that is, or what the recessed level even is if not semi-recessed residential. Also still not sure why some windows appear bricked over, or what the roof level may or may not be animated for.

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TheHonestMaple said:
da fuk is with those bricked over windows?
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We've alll wondered that for a very long time...

Also this build is horrible - hate to say - that green part is the only interesting part, and I think that's just the vapor barrier part so it'll probably juts be dark when it done.

This could have been done so much better and now it just feels very commie block, with focus on an area that is not a positive focus - its the "wtf is up with those windows" - and that's all it will ever be.

I wanna go up to them after and be like "are you proud of this creation? Because it looks awful. You should be ashamed."
 
I think you're being way to critical with this one. If it wasn't for the bricked over windows, it would actually look great. Not quite sure what you're issue with it is. It looks similar to the Augusta build :confused:
 
TheHonestMaple said:
I think you're being way to critical with this one. If it wasn't for the bricked over windows, it would actually look great. Not quite sure what you're issue with it is. It looks similar to the Augusta build :confused:
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I mean, I think that's a stretch. It looks okay, the bricked over windows look like shit, but overall for a side street infill project it looks alright. Would have liked to see it another floor or two taller, but I'll take what I can get. Definitely not at the caliber of the Augusta buildings though which have hand laid bricks without visible expansion joints which also spend extra effort hiding laundry exhausts and other vents. A lot of effort went into those buildings and it shows. This one, not so much, but again, it's serviceable.
 
Yeah I just have high standards - this literally looks like something Vranich would build, and that is NOT high praise. You can see the join lines - it literally looks like 3 precast levels simply stacked onto each other - it doesn't feel organic at all and there is no stone elements - to compare this to augusta feels very.. disengenuous. Core urban are masters of their craft.. well.. they're masters of what we currently have to work with anyways.. might be a stretch to compare them to say the Royal Connaught which is probably far past their level of stone/concrete cornice design.. but I digress..

Chris laid down a lot of the points so I won't bother rehashing them. Really those filled in windows is what destroyed this one, otherwise its just a look of "faux brick" with holes punched in, which I get is popular right now, but it lacks any character of the previous eras and tries to make something cheap out to be chic.. Even our ancestors hundreds of years ago built better designs with stone lintels that looked functional and harmonious. This one they didn't even try to make the "bricks" look varied like they have with the retirement home they built on king street near centennial that was precast. They just sprayed the entire thing the same damn colour...

I hate to say it, but putting a cornice on that upper lip would have made this look a lot better. For now it looks like the worst of ikea-esque precast design. Designs like this really get my blood boiling.

As Chris said, it's serviceable, but it's always going to be seen as less than even the buildings around it.

I mean look at the joins on the last picture on the left going up the side. They don't even line up properly. Nothing like that would have been acceptable in the past. Just looks like a bunch of concrete panels slapped together because.. well.. that's exactly what it is. It's cheap and it shows. I am glad I am not the only one who balked at the augusta comparison because they actually have skill and their buildings look like they have been there forever, and thank god they exist or I might have given up on modern architecture altogether. Hamilton got used to minimalist design, something like core urban is like an oasis.

So no, I don't think I am being over-critical with this one, I think that issues like these should be pointed out. I mean the point is moot regardless, it's been built, but god I don't have to like it hehe..
 
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