Toronto St Lawrence Market North | 25.3m | 5s | City of Toronto | Rogers Stirk Harbour

I wrote to the Mayor about opening date and the "trumpets" Here is the response from Daniel Picheca, the Market Manager.

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I thanked him (and copied the Mayor & Councillor Moise) and said I found it 'sad' and inexplicable that someone at the City thought they knew better than the architect/designer and the (international) competition jury - especially for something that had no cost implications. Red paint is no more expensive than red!

Grey is truly our default!
 
DSC said:
I wrote to the Mayor about opening date and the "trumpets" Here is the response from Daniel Picheca, the Market Manager.

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I thanked him (and copied the Mayor & Councillor Moise) and said I found it 'sad' and inexplicable that someone at the City thought they knew better than the architect/designer and the (international) competition jury - especially for something that had no cost implications. Red paint is no more expensive than red!

Grey is truly our default!
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This is ridiculous. Thanks for writing, though. I think I'll write them a letter, myself. I think we all should.
His email is: Daniel.Picheca@toronto.ca
 
LUVIT! said:
Personally I'm happy the colour is not red. Red is good in small doses elsewhere to highlight a small area or some emergency equipment for example. Otherwise red can be garish.
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The "trumpets" ARE small and ARE a feature' that could justifiably be highlighted; nobody is talking of painting the whole place red.
 
In case anyone wants to write a letter but needs inspiration, here's the approximate text of the email I sent:
Dear Mayor and Councillor,

I recently learned about a small but concerning change to the design of the gorgeous new St Lawrence Market North building.

This building, as I'm sure you know, was designed by the internationally acclaimed architects RSHP, who are known for their "high tech" designs, most famously realized in the Pompidou Centre in Paris. An important element of those designs, in fact a trademark of the firm's style, is the use of colour. Look through their completed projects and you will see that nearly every one has a bold splash of red or yellow integrated into the design.

Their design for the St Lawrence Market building, the result of an international competition, included such a splash of colour in the trumpet-shaped vents that came out of the sidewalk. I've included the rendering below to show what I'm referring to: <dropped a rendering here>

Unfortunately, it seems that at some point in the design or construction process, someone, presumably city staff, made a decision to paint these vents (now only on the west side of the building) grey instead of red. This is a very bad decision, especially in a city where new buildings are so often criticized for their monotonous grey sameness. Beyond that, it is concerning to see decisions like this being overridden late in the design process, likely not by the original architects who won an international competition on the basis of their bold design vision.

My ask is simple: let the people have some colour! Please direct staff to follow the architects' original vision and return these to the red shown in the designs. The vents are an essential part of the building's architecture and were specifically designed to be red by internationally acclaimed architects. They should remain red!

Thank you,
smably ;)
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smably said:
In case anyone wants to write a letter but needs inspiration, here's the approximate text of the email I sent:
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Excellent! Diplomatic, positive, well evidenced, thoughtful. Could not have said it any better!
 
unrealestate said:
wtf is going on with this site? barely any progress since October
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There HAS been work going on but it is primarily inside so you (we) cannot see it. Several photos posted further up this thread and the latest news was that the building will be 'handed over' to the City on April 30. Of course, it now seems that the City are not ready to actually open it - see emails above and suggestions about who to write to. (Mayor Chow and/or Cllr. Moise). I hear that the main rush is to finish the Courts as they need a new home ASAP (perhaps so that the Legislature can move to Old CityHall??)
 
smably said:
In case anyone wants to write a letter but needs inspiration, here's the approximate text of the email I sent:
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Update on this: I got a reply from the councillor's office saying that while they agree that the red is nice, it's in the hands of staff and they won't intervene. They recommended emailing my feedback to nslmredevelopment@toronto.ca, which I did. 🤷‍♀️
 
smably said:
Update on this: I got a reply from the councillor's office saying that while they agree that the red is nice, it's in the hands of staff and they won't intervene. They recommended emailing my feedback to nslmredevelopment@toronto.ca, which I did. 🤷‍♀️
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Me too, I also noted that they did not even bother to consult the City's St Lawrence Market Precinct Advisory Committee (which has a current vacancy, see above!) See also https://rshp.com/projects/
 
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