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Toronto ugliest highrise building

TKTKTK said:
I do think it's uglier than both the Holiday Inn and University Plaza. Sixty Lofts looks like it was put together with whatever cheap odds and ends they had lying around.
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Funny, I'd imagine that being a common critique of the Holiday Inn and University Plaza as well. (Or for that matter Toronto Life Square--if that qualifies as "highrise" at all.)

In the "thinking outside the box" category, I remember in an earlier version of this kind of thread about 4 years ago, somebody offered the Lumsden Building at Adelaide and Yonge--and you know, that makes sense. A precocious experiment in concrete construction expressed via a head to toe Aspergers rendition of Edwardian quoining, I can sure picture people through history viewing that as a hideous aesthetic failure...
 
The RU library building is plain ugly.

487px-Ryerson_University_Library1.jpg
 
adma said:
Funny, I'd imagine that being a common critique of the Holiday Inn and University Plaza as well. (Or for that matter Toronto Life Square--if that qualifies as "highrise" at all.)
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I think TLS and Sixty vie for the title of cheapest looking. They both have a disposable/recyclable quality to them - like they're made from tin cans and old sunroofs.

In the "thinking outside the box" category, I remember in an earlier version of this kind of thread about 4 years ago, somebody offered the Lumsden Building at Adelaide and Yonge--and you know, that makes sense. A precocious experiment in concrete construction expressed via a head to toe Aspergers rendition of Edwardian quoining, I can sure picture people through history viewing that as a hideous aesthetic failure...
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I actually like the Lumsden building because it's so over the top. The post-cornice flat top is pretty sad, but the rest is still there - and it looks good for its near hundred years. I also really like the Ryerson Library building.
 
And frankly, that's not the most flattering shot, from overhead and looming over the Yonge shops...
 
I'm going to be gruesomely decapitated for this, but I would have to vote for Robarts Library. It looks like a spaceship from a cheap sci-fi movie.
 
I'm surprised no one's nominated 77 Elm yet. It's a funny thing, that used to be one of the single most despised buildings on this forum, and then word got out that it was a Prii and suddenly everyone backed off.

I'll stand by what I've always thought of it: hideous, hideous, hideous. Can't wait for something to box it in so as to hide it from sight. Prii or not, the thing is ugly. The combination of the above ground parking and those random concrete projections irk me though I'll admit I'm also holding all of those blank concrete walls against it, which are really more the fault of the nearby parking lot than anything else.
 
Hipster Duck said:
BAD:
The "World Trade Centre" complex
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Are these the pomo office buildings down near the Harbourfront towers? I actually enjoy these quite a bit, and find their only weakness to be in their somewhat stubby massing. I think the graceful proportions they`d gain from an additional 20-storeys of height would make them visually prominent and pleasing landmarks in the skyline. They vaguely remind me of the World Financial Center complex in Manhattan.
 
Spoonman said:
Are these the pomo office buildings down near the Harbourfront towers? I actually enjoy these quite a bit, and find their only weakness to be in their somewhat stubby massing. I think the graceful proportions they`d gain from an additional 20-storeys of height would make them visually prominent and pleasing landmarks in the skyline. They vaguely remind me of the World Financial Center complex in Manhattan.
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Those buildings are "Waterpark Place", the World Trade Centre residences are a little east of there.
 
whatever said:
I'm surprised no one's nominated 77 Elm yet. It's a funny thing, that used to be one of the single most despised buildings on this forum, and then word got out that it was a Prii and suddenly everyone backed off.

I'll stand by what I've always thought of it: hideous, hideous, hideous. Can't wait for something to box it in so as to hide it from sight. Prii or not, the thing is ugly. The combination of the above ground parking and those random concrete projections irk me though I'll admit I'm also holding all of those blank concrete walls against it, which are really more the fault of the nearby parking lot than anything else.
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You're right, we shouldn't forget about the hideous Nightmare on Elm St. And we shouldn't care if it was designed by a famous architect... this famous architect is also responsible for that out-of-place slab in Grange Park.

I'd also vote for Ryerson's Library Building.

elm-street-sign.jpg

2378793825_7273abf677.jpg
 
Spoonman said:
Are these the pomo office buildings down near the Harbourfront towers? I actually enjoy these quite a bit, and find their only weakness to be in their somewhat stubby massing. I think the graceful proportions they`d gain from an additional 20-storeys of height would make them visually prominent and pleasing landmarks in the skyline. They vaguely remind me of the World Financial Center complex in Manhattan.
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I think the World Trade Centre is what saves the intersection.... Its a gem compared to the Star building, Captain John's and the Harbour Castle.

Has anyone mentioned the HBC at Yonge & Bloor yet? It'll look even worse when the Bazis is finished.
 
WTC's Zeidler, right? Other than being a condo on the waterfront, I reckon its biggest "sin" is that it's "dated", i.e. it's like a green glass 50s office building might have seemed circa 1978.

And since this thread's about highrise buildings, I must say: it's unfair to pick on the 2 Bloor E HBC Tower, now that this sits at the opposite end of the complex...

One old-school non-favourite that's yet to be reinvoked in this thread: the apartment/office block at the SW corner of Bloor & Dundas.
 
adma said:
WTC's Zeidler, right? Other than being a condo on the waterfront, I reckon its biggest "sin" is that it's "dated", i.e. it's like a green glass 50s office building might have seemed circa 1978.
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It's also a cheap, LoPo epigone of Pelli's World Financial Center.
 
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