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Toronto ugliest highrise building

/\ Actually this building came late in Prii's career within which he became something of a proto-Clewes. He has over 250 high-rise structures accredited to him with 16 of those listed as heritage properties.

With so many truly bad buildings in Toronto, it perplexes me why so many chase after this quite good one.
 
Archivist said:
Speaking of those suburban buildings, there is more variety among them than is commonly recognized, and I think some will rebound to some extent and become, well sort of OK again. A tepid endorsement, I know.

This kind of stuff though, is awful. I hate it when the commie towers have that *^&$ brown siding on the upper floors. Anybody know why they do this? I assume there is some problem with the brick and the cheapest way to stop deterioration is to side them.

CapriTowers.jpg
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Ah, 5 Capri Rd. That was done strictly for insulation purposes.
 
I think the current winners are any number of the 60s and 70s oppressive apartment slabs. The uninviting colours, liberal use of metal siding, flaked-paint metal balconies, and general state of disrepair puts them ahead of most other buildings on the ugly scale. Their habit for popping up in the middle of previously established neighbourhoods doesn't help their case either.

Our one hope for all of them is a serious movement with the re-cladding and retrofitting plan. Some more Regent Park style redevelopments for some of the larger complexes would be nice too. I'm thinking Alexandra Park, Parkdale, St. Jamestown, and the many slabs in the Vic Park/Danforth area would be a nice place to continue the trend.
 
egotrippin said:
I think the current winners are any number of the 60s and 70s oppressive apartment slabs. The uninviting colours, liberal use of metal siding, flaked-paint metal balconies, and general state of disrepair puts them ahead of most other buildings on the ugly scale. Their habit for popping up in the middle of previously established neighbourhoods doesn't help their case either.
Click to expand...

Of course, you're judging their present condition--they didn't have metal siding originally...
 
adma said:
Of course, you're judging their present condition--they didn't have metal siding originally...
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Well, disregarding the siding, the metal balconies, dull colours, small prison cell windows, and unfinished mechanical levels and boxes on the roofs don't help much. There are some that I like however, usually the brown brick ones, and I believe the buildings still have potential in the future.
 
Yeah, he talks about "continued" retrofiting and recladding of these towers when the end result will likely be the steel cladding or acrylic stucco we all hate. I don't see anything in Miller's tower renewal plan that says to expect better than what has been used and is still being used for the past 20 years.

P.S. I haven't been to midtown for the longest of times. Anyone have any recent pictures of 25 St Mary which seemed to be getting reclad in synthetic stucco?
 
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I think it was Patricia McHugh who said that it looked like it has suspenders on. I've never really recovered from that image. It's sort of like the Airman's memorial - once a "Gumby goes to heaven", always a "Gumby goes to heaven".
 
I most often like to discuss, share photos and debate the good side of Toronto but this building stands out and has been on my mind for a while to include in this thread. At 86 Gerrard E., the condo portion has good to great two storey suites but the outside is an eyesore.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.

 
It doesn't help that it looks like an addition to Neill Wycik but yeah, it's not aging gracefully. IIRC, the building has only one elevator which is also a huge turnoff.
 
It seems to have been a well-meaning experiment in tight-site highrising, even if it effaced Rita Letendre's landmark mural--so, I can't really deem it "ugliest"; it doesn't seem nasty like the student res across Chruch...
 
Interesting that 86 Gerrard would be proposed - it's a Barton Myers (who designed the AGO's now completely removed 1990's frontage - but had a few good projects around town before decamping for LA).

I've never thought of it as especially ugly. I once co-hosted a really party in that building and the units are quite nice. But hard to heat. Most people who move into it move out again after one winter's worth of paying the incredibly high heating bills for electric heating.
 
Oh, it was Myers. Definitely seems to have an architectural POV going--and a lot less self-conscious with the concrete form-making than Uno Prii's Nightmare...
 
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