Toronto The Livmore | 138.68m | 43s | Vertica | IBI Group

I think this will be like nearby 77 Elm Street to future generations in that it will reference no building around it and it will resemble no other building in the city.
 
Have we become so conservative that just a little bit of colour is enough to label a building "insane"? Oh yeah, I forgot that anything in Toronto that isn't grey, is considered radical and probably build by an anarchist.

There's a difference between colour and messy. This is the latter.
 
Funnily enough, it's not the colour at all that gives me pause with this design. But hey, my mind's not made up yet.
 
i would say im on the like side of the fence too

its weird looking which is good its different- we need somemore odd standouts like this peoples heads will turn when they see it
 
As usual, I wish it weren't 90% glass, but I think I like the design otherwise, mostly for the sake of its weirdness. It would be like an alien slab fell from Mars into this area.
 
I'm all for something different, but this goes way too far. It looks like a dogs breakfast. What, he couldn't make up his mind what he wanted to do?


It's like the old saying, "any publicity is good publicity". If these guys are trying to get media attention - at our expense - they could likely achieve it with this pos.
 
I'm all for something different, but this goes way too far. It looks like a dogs breakfast. What, he couldn't make up his mind what he wanted to do?

It's like the old saying, "any publicity is good publicity". If these guys are trying to get media attention - at our expense - they could likely achieve it with this pos.

Dont forget, its a rental bldg.....they are not selling anything here but leasing it to the average person, whats there not to like:confused:
 
Perhaps we're moving on from Neo-Modernism to a more Mannerist phase?

Interesting point! It makes sense that architects are beginning to look to more mannerist expressions, having been surrounded by plenty of neo-modern buildings in both residential and commercial development. History repeating itself (mannerism being the flamboyant child of renaissance classicism, similar to PoMo's innovative reconfiguring of modernism).

While 43 Gerrard is still inherently neo-modern (in my opinion), it's show of color and shifting planes is a fun break and is a great point of departure for a discussion in regards to a growing shift in architectural styles.
 
It makes sense that architects are beginning to look to more mannerist expressions, having been surrounded by plenty of neo-modern buildings in both residential and commercial development. History repeating itself (mannerism being the flamboyant child of renaissance classicism, similar to PoMo's innovative reconfiguring of modernism).

More on my kookie little thesis, from the Aura thread:

Some of our best local architects, heretofore widely known for their sleek, minimalist, box-like towers, are actually using all of those techniques with their new condo designs, scrapergeek. It's an approach not unlike the Mannerists and the aesthetic challenge they posed to the order and balance of the High Renaissance - an expressive re-ordering of the components of the Classical design vocabulary. As with Giulio Romano's Palazzo del Te ( the strange, dropped keystones, for instance ), or the courtyard of his Palazzo Ducale in Mantua ( spiral engaged columns, Flintstone-like hacked rustications ... ), or Michelangelo's Porta Pia ( pediments within pediments, a square arch with an alternative round arch above it, and an audacious embrace of disharmony for artistic ends ), and Ammanati's Palazzo Provincale in Lucca ( the two disconnected Ionic capitals, floated for no apparent reason as decorative elements above the entrance arch ... ) so is there a similar re-ordering of Modernist elements in condo projects by such local firms as aA, Teeple, RAW, Core etc. Perhaps the large volume of work ( unique to our city ) is providing a broad enough canvas to draw out this response, and encourage Toronto Style to evolve.

As with any city that doesn't strictly speaking have to import foreign talent because there's a strong local design culture, there's a breadth to our Mannerist Modernism that's allowing quite a range of individual expressions of the "mood" that's afoot. The imported talent doesn't share the same approach - L Tower and the Ritz, for instance, eschew the Boring Toronto Box and aren't about reordering the form at all. Theirs is a different aesthetic.

So if we're going through a Mannerist mood change ... are we going for Baroque next?
 

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