Toronto 89 Avenue Yorkville | 76.5m | 20s | Armour Heights | Richard Wengle

Really? I'm happy this #architecture #design #view #home#highrise #luxury #luxurylifestyle#downtown #toronto #building #classic#elegant #tailored#armourheightsdevelopments is coming to Avenue Road!

I actually don't even care that it looks like Dick thinks it will. You want to do classic luxury for the empty, nostalgic, boomer-luxury market? Sure, WTF not.

I just fear that their portfolio consists of: http://www.armourheightsdevelopments.com/our-projects/residential/, and worry that this Larry-Kudlow-As-A-Building garbage is going to be so visible.
 
Wengle’s office is basically directly across the street from this. Maybe he’s not getting any work because his architecture is so terrible so he was bored and made this?

(Enough people don’t have taste so he’s plenty busy, I know.)
 
I liked the old design and I do like contemporary modern work. However I also like some traditional work that is very refreshing from all the glass boxes going up around town. I do think that the all glass approach really isn't good for the summer months where these units can become unbearably hot....back to this proposal. I like it and I do not think it is terrible as mentioned. I also think many people do like the 'traditional' approach to design and that does not mean they don't have taste. It means it is their taste. It has stood the test of time after all. Will the glass boxes stand the test of time? Some folks are just plain old iconoclasts.
 
LUVIT! said:
I liked the old design and I do like contemporary modern work. However I also like some traditional work that is very refreshing from all the glass boxes going up around town. I do think that the all glass approach really isn't good for the summer months where these units can become unbearably hot....back to this proposal. I like it and I do not think it is terrible as mentioned. I also think many people do like the 'traditional' approach to design and that does not mean they don't have taste. It means it is their taste. It has stood the test of time after all. Will the glass boxes stand the test of time? Some folks are just plain old iconoclasts.
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The concern lies more with the execution of 'traditional' (here we're looking at something more 'transitional', which, ugh, why is that a thing) - the combination of Wengle (who, granted, has managed to design a couple of decent projects) and Armour Heights (which I knew nothing about until viewing their online portfolio yesterday and EEEK explains it pretty well) threatens to produce a tower in the manner of Lucien Lagrange. Nobody wants that in 2019.
 
ardwold1 said:
The concern lies more with the execution of 'traditional' (here we're looking at something more 'transitional', which, ugh, why is that a thing) - the combination of Wengle (who, granted, has managed to design a couple of decent projects) and Armour Heights (which I knew nothing about until viewing their online portfolio yesterday and EEEK explains it pretty well) threatens to produce a tower in the manner of Lucien Lagrange. Nobody wants that in 2019.
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Exactly. There's good neo-classicism and then there's bad neo-classicism (this being the latter), even if it's not to your taste. I don't particular care for the style, but I can appreciate One St. Thomas or 15CPW, for instance (though Stern also has some clunkers).
 
ardwold1 said:
The concern lies more with the execution of 'traditional' (here we're looking at something more 'transitional', which, ugh, why is that a thing) - the combination of Wengle (who, granted, has managed to design a couple of decent projects) and Armour Heights (which I knew nothing about until viewing their online portfolio yesterday and EEEK explains it pretty well) threatens to produce a tower in the manner of Lucien Lagrange. Nobody wants that in 2019.
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The thing is though that it's not nobody: the pippypoo and doodad crowd are out there and always will be, ready to pounce on the next balustraded balcony and pineapple-festooned finials. Whether well-executed or ham-fisted they care not, it's the checklist of ornamentations they're looking for now, tomorrow, and the hangover ever after.

42
 
interchange42 said:
The thing is though that it's not nobody: the pippypoo and doodad crowd are out there and always will be, ready to pounce on the next balustraded balcony and pineapple-festooned finials. Whether well-executed or ham-fisted they care not, it's the checklist of ornamentations they're looking for now, tomorrow, and the hangover ever after.

42
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best line i've seen on this board in a while. faux-historic architecture shall forever now be known as "pippypoo and doodad architecture".
 
innsertnamehere said:
best line i've seen on this board in a while. faux-historic architecture shall forever now be known as "pippypoo and doodad architecture".
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I can't take credit for "pippypoo and doodad": that was originated here by the immortal and missed @Urban Shocker

42
 
interchange42 said:
I can't take credit for "pippypoo and doodad": that was originated here by the immortal and missed @Urban Shocker

42
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According to forum search algorithm, @Urban Shocker was indeed a prolific user of the "pippypoo and doodad" terminology. However, the first ever documented use of pippypoo and doodad on UrbanToronto occurred on March 15, 2006 by the venerable @building babel. Later that day, he went on to explain what pippypoos and doodads really mean in this epic post:
building babel said:
"Pippypoos" and "doodads" are graphic-designer-speak for gratuitous visual elements used by second rate designers to gussy up their work and try and make it seem more important than it is.

Obviously, some architects use three dimensional pippypoos and doodads too - and we have neither a design review system, nor a particularly visually literate buying public, to thwart them in this. They can do what they want, this isn't Russia. Heck, even Russia isn't Russia any more.

Pippypoos and doodads are the More Is Less credo writ large. Large, out of proportion, and made of precast usually.

The mushroom-like sprouting of pippypoos and doodads is actively enabled by the kind of omnivorous, cultural do-me-ism that disses aesthetic discussions based on quality of design as, variously, "style wars" or "the battle between ancients and moderns" and gleefully awaits the return to temporary, hothouse, fashionability of some particularly gruesome stylistic abberation as proof of that credo, willfully promotes bad design as mere imperfection and downplays good design as dullness. In short, an attitude that abdicates any attempt at discrimination based on quality. Pippypoo and doodad mongers are nourished by the spread of such attitudes, they draw strength from them as they rest, hanging upside down in dark rooms with their wings folded around them, gathering their strength for their next onslaught..

There are musical pippypoos and doodads in pop music. There are literary pippypoos and doodads. There are theatrical pippypoos and doodads, and operatic pippypoos and doodads too, and ...
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Now, according to forum rules of conduct, one must:
A. "Use the search function"
B. "Read previous postings carefully before replying"
C. "Credit to the author must be given"
D. "Include source, author and a link to the source"

Seems like a blatant disregard of the rules of conduct by @interchange42 here. Only one question remains at this point: is @interchange42 going to be a bigger man and ban himself? ;)
 
Full Metal Junkie said:
According to forum search algorithm, @Urban Shocker was indeed a prolific user of the "pippypoo and doodad" terminology. However, the first ever documented use of pippypoo and doodad on UrbanToronto occurred on March 15, 2006 by the venerable @building babel. Later that day, he went on to explain what pippypoos and doodads really mean in this epic post:


Now, according to forum rules of conduct, one must:
A. "Use the search function"
B. "Read previous postings carefully before replying"
C. "Credit to the author must be given"
D. "Include source, author and a link to the source"

Seems like a blatant disregard of the rules of conduct by @interchange42 here. Only one question remains at this point: is @interchange42 going to be a bigger man and ban himself? ;)
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buildingbabel and Urban Shocker were one and the same.
 
Ah circa 2006, the pre vBulletin days. Back when I was still a high schooler going by a different forum handle and roaming around the city with my good old Canon point and shoot lol.
 
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Off-topic, but it sure is interesting to read these old threads and compare the level of architectural discourse then vs. today. Perhaps it was a bit pretentious, maybe a tad insufferable, but way more fun to read than most of the architectural discussions from the past five or so years I've been active here.
 
ProjectEnd said:
buildingbabel and Urban Shocker were one and the same.
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I am ashamed of myself
picard-forehead-smack.jpg
 
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