Toronto Concord Park Place: Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Community Centre | 18.9m | 4s | City of Toronto | MJMA

Ah, sometimes adding things to Open Street Map is so satisfying!

Hopefully the rest of the buildings (and labelled construction blocks) will update shortly.

(also, when are they gonna get round to the admin of changing Woodsy Park Lane to Ethennonnhawahstihnen?)
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The building uses good-quality materials but comes off as very boring and unaccomplished from an architectural perspective overall. The use of colour leaves a lot to be desired, not to mention the dull massing.

Also, it seems that something could have been built on top to better utilize this prime spot adjacent to a subway station. A mix of market and affordable housing would have been a good idea.
 
DavidCapizzano said:
I think that describes most MJMA buildings. Well detailed but boring and unambitious.
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going to have to disagree here. this project may be more regimented and rectilinear in its urban expression (likely due to the enormous acrobatics of stacking multiple large space spans on a tight site, in addition to city planning tightropes). but take a look at their portfolio and tell me how projects like regent park aquatic, churchill meadows comm centre, centennial college ashtonbee, u of t goldring centre, among others and not even mentioning non-local work, are unambitious. if anything, they are some of the more ambitious and place-making works of toronto architects
 
DavidCapizzano said:
Yeah I just don’t see it. Again, I think the detailing is great, but everything MJMA does feels so desperately stuck in the 2010s. Icy and cold. No personality or character. I respect the structural gymnastics, but I don’t think theyre deserving of the amount of praise they receive. To me, MJMA represents the worst elements of Canadian modernism in the 2000s, yet they’re so fawned over by professionals in the industry who I guess are satisfied with grey and black aluminum?

We can do better.
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David, you're getting as wishy-washy in your opinions as @ProjectEnd. You really need to move away from that and tell us all what you really think! :D
 
FWIW, MJMA often (but not always) makes use of warm-toned, wood or wood-like ceilings that can add some warmth in interior spaces. They're also often good at incorporating natural light into interior spaces.

However, their exteriors are often exceedingly bland, and lack any particular sense of place; and do tend, more often than not towards the cooler side of the colour palate.

They sometimes also do this in the interior, particularly when omitting that warm-toned wood/wood-like material.
 
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Northern Light said:
FWIW, MJMA often (but not always) makes use of warm-toned, wood or wood-like ceilings can add some warmth in interior spaces. They're also often good at incorporating natural light into interior spaces.

However, their exteriors are often exceedingly bland, and lack any particular sense of place; and do tend, more often than not towards the cooler side of the colour palate.

They sometimes also do this in the interior, particularly when omitting that warm-toned wood/wood-like material.
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my local rec centre is Wellesley community centre and I feel like the new pool addition is a great case study for how I feel about mjma. It’s a wonderful pool and the neighbourhood is better for it, but it’s a foreboding black glass and metal box with a clinical black and white interior. There are a sprinkling of wood accents but it almost feels trivial. Meanwhile the original phase 1 building (while a little dated) makes extensive use of maroon brick, and multicoloured mosaic tiles. One of these feels welcoming and is aging well - the other does not.
 
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