Toronto 505 University | 212.89m | 64s | Cartareal Corp | BDP Quadrangle

I guess I'm in the minority here in both liking this propasal and feeling like there's many a brutalist building we've lost that is more interesting or unique than this.
 
Looks as though we're about to lose yet another fine example of mid-century 'internationalism'. I really akin this to the loss of the old Star Building or perhaps even the earlier Temple Building. Just when you think Toronto has learned the lessen from its past mistakes, it seems we really haven't learned a thing!
 
First choice, leave this one alone. Second choice, if we must develop, anything short of the efforts underway at its southern neighbour should not be accepted.
 
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The current 505 University is a modernist masterpiece of beautiful proportions, lines, details and colour. Its loss would be a kick in the guts to Toronto's architectural heritage.

In my view it's the handsomest office building anywhere in the city. I love its distinctive roof which draws the eye up to stare for a bit, and the ravishing design of its service-floor window stand-ins, repeated also on the top floor. Many times I've wondered what's up on that mysterious level with its outdoor terrace, and wished I could see for myself.

I came to know it as the Digital Building (after Digital, now folded into HP). To my untutored eye as a new arrival living less than a km away at U of T, it was initially just another postwar office building among the many along University. But it caught my eye repeatedly until it was soon my favourite by far (the only other I liked being the Canada Life Bldg).

City of Toronto, don't make a mistake. Do not approve the demolition of the finest example of modernism in Toronto.

(Explanatory edit, just shy of a yr. later: The TD Centre narrowly loses to take the silver, somewhat as a top German sedan might vs. an E-Type of the same year.)
 
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An exceptional building by a seminal Toronto firm.

Here’s the addition under construction, from the HIA:
B5211C18-5F4F-4D61-9E80-0967A438E7BD.jpeg
 
AlexBozikovic said:
An exceptional building by a seminal Toronto firm.

Here’s the addition under construction, from the HIA:View attachment 453212
Click to expand...

Not to sidetrack Alex' fine point...........

But I have a linguistic quibble................why 'seminal'....... I'm not one for re-writing language for its own sake or getting caught up in assorted, imagined 'isms'.........but seminal has a very specific original meaning.........

Of, or like Semen.

Why not ovate?

I mean why does only one sex'es sexual product get all the credit for innovation?

LOL

Yes, my tongue is in my cheek..........and yet..........

Edit to add:

It occurs to me that bias originates from the idea that the semen changes the egg.

I wonder why it occurred to no one that perhaps the egg changed the semen.
 
Off-topically: You sure that word isn't a homophone, Northern Light-san? They seem to have two separate distinct meanings when looking that up.
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
Off-topically: You sure that word isn't a homophone, Northern Light-san?
Click to expand...

I am.

UtakataNoAnnex said:
They seem to have two separate distinct meanings when looking that up.
Click to expand...

Here ya go:

www.vocabulary.com

Seminal - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms

Call something seminal when it's so original, so groundbreaking and awesome that it will influence everything that comes after it. Picasso produced more than a few seminal works of art, for example.
www.vocabulary.com www.vocabulary.com

www.merriam-webster.com

Definition of SEMINAL

of, relating to, or consisting of seed or semen; containing or contributing the seeds of later development : creative, original… See the full definition
www.merriam-webster.com www.merriam-webster.com

*****

For clarity, the word originates in Latin as 'seed'.

The additional meaning applying to bodily fluid clearly evolving from same.

It then stretches in the above context as in 'the seed of an idea'.

Its also the root for dissemination. To disseminate idea is to spread it widely.
 
I know this is all for fun...but, this is from Oxford, which by dictionary standards, is the only way to fly. I think the interpretation is acceptable. Words evolve and we don't look to the past for meaning, we look to the present.

seminal​

adjective

/ˈsemɪnl/

/ˈsemɪnl/
  1. (formal) very important and having a strong influence on later developments
    • a seminal work/article/study
    • His book on social policy proved to be seminal.
  2. [usually before noun] (specialist) of or containing semen
    • seminal fluid

Funny story, I once got in an argument with an American "lawyer" in West Virginia, who was trying to tell me Merriam Webster's was the best. I told him, maybe down here, but if you ever leave Merica' you may be surprised that the eminent dictionary from the creators of the English language is in fact a bit more thorough.

He didn't like that very much. I think he is yet to leave America also.

On a positive, this will be my word of the day, and i will commit to its use more in my vocab. Thanks NL! :)
 
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