Toronto U of T: Jackman Law Building Expansion | ?m | 3s | U of T | Hariri Pontarini

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Great use of quality materials, but not so hot about the slightly fortress-y feel of the Queens Park Crescent street level.

AoD

 

[smably]

Refined, restrained, and subtle. I really like this.

 

[Orson]

Great use of quality materials, but not so hot about the slightly fortress-y feel of the Queens Park Crescent street level.

AoD

Well it is a law building.

 

[Benito]

Landscaping going on now. From this evening.

 

[Armour]

That reflective soffit is really neat.

 

[condovo]

Wait. Are those ugly retaining walls from the building's previous incarnation staying? Is the yellow precast not going to be replaced with fieldstone?

 

[verlander]

Great use of quality materials, but not so hot about the slightly fortress-y feel of the Queens Park Crescent street level.

AoD

+1, and I'll go you one further. While the material choices are generally very nice, the deep verticals and especially the impenetrably dark glass of the upper floors conspire with the relatively blank grade-level walls to convey a real sense of unfriendliness to the public, at least in these photos. To me, it feels like it was designed with "University-is-a-highway" in mind more than "opposite-a-well-populated-park-with-students-everywhere".

 

[Student99]

is that... an asphalt path? why isn't it brick-lain like the rest of U of T's pathways?

And what on earth is going on with the surface under the overhang... I was envisioning something like flagstone with patio seating for some reason. What they've put there looks like something you'd find under the Gardiner Expressway and I suspect it's going to reek of urine very quickly from the nightly frequenters of Queen's Park.

 

[k10ery]

Great use of quality materials, but not so hot about the slightly fortress-y feel of the Queens Park Crescent street level.

AoD

Probably been said here before but it seems rather inspired by Arne Jacobsen's wonderful St. Catherine's College Oxford. But the Jackman's pilasters are rather heavier -- too heavy IMO.

(Source: wikimedia)

 

[greenleaf]

is that... an asphalt path? why isn't it brick-lain like the rest of U of T's pathways?

And what on earth is going on with the surface under the overhang... I was envisioning something like flagstone with patio seating for some reason. What they've put there looks like something you'd find under the Gardiner Expressway and I suspect it's going to reek of urine very quickly from the nightly frequenters of Queen's Park.

That part of the path has historically been asphalt. I'm guessing the ongoing flooding down there means they'd rather not invest in a higher quality walking surface. There will be a more curvy walkway that leads from Hoskin up to the new building on the southside that, based on the photos and work going into it, I'm guessing will be the same stones that are on the rest of the path.

 

[Benito]

Base for the pathways are going in.

 

[Marcanadian]

Saturday:

Jackman Law by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Jackman Law by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Jackman Law by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Jackman Law by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Jackman Law by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Jackman Law by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Jackman Law by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Jackman Law by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Jackman Law by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

The building looks like it's always been there, but it confirms yet again the ground floor didn't work at all for me. The Queen Park Crescent is fairly brutal.

AoD

 

[modernizt]

I can't believe I'm saying this about a Hariri Pontarini project, and one I greatly looked forward to - but this does nothing for me. If it had the detailing and materiality of other HP projects such as the McKinsey & Co. building nearby, it would be more in tune with what I'd expect from the firm.

 

[Miscreant]

The ground level facing the street is at a height that you'd usually see on the back end of a building, not the front. It'd look more inviting if the window portion was just a few feet lower. Otherwise, I quite like it. As I said above, it reminds me of a lot of the architecture in St. Mike's built around the 50s and 60s.