Toronto X The Condominium | ?m | 44s | Great Gulf | a—A

Marcanadian said:
Thanks for the pics. Looks like we're just about half way until topping out.
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It looks like they're pouring the 23rd floor, so the structure is indeed half way there!
 
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Mike, thanks for the picture.

Despite the faux Mies, I really like this building. I like its 'fun' element (a blatent rip-off of Mies, with a few colours thrown in).
 
Check me if I'm wrong, but I believe the design of this building was intended as a tribute to Meis, not a rip-off. You can pay homage by using an artists elements.

And a fine tribute it is.

I seem to remember the thought that it is the introduction to downtown toronto at the top of Mt. Pleasant. Downtown toronto being very much influenced by the TD towers.

Did I read something like that?
 
One can call any rip-off a tribute and any tribute, a rip-off. Tributes though may tend to not be so direct a copy.
 
alklay said:
One can call any rip-off a tribute and any tribute, a rip-off. Tributes though may tend to not be so direct a copy.
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Additionally, I think that the difference lies in whether the artist claims that it is his own original work or whether he claims that he was inspired by someone else's work.

Clewes openly admits that he was inspired by Mies' TD Centre. That makes it a direct tribute. If he had claimed that the idea of a sleek black box just came to him in a dream, then I'd call it a rip-off.
 
Ramako said:
Additionally, I think that the difference lies in whether the artist claims that it is his own original work or whether he claims that he was inspired by someone else's work.

Clewes openly admits that he was inspired by Mies' TD Centre. That makes it a direct tribute. If he had claimed that the idea of a sleek black box just came to him in a dream, then I'd call it a rip-off.
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Also remember that Mies himself was trying to achieve a somewhat Platonic ideal of a "building" itself that would transcend "style". He used the expression "almost nothing" (I forget the German translation) to describe what he was trying to achieve. Ironically, his architecture was so unique (from the Barcelona Pavilion to the Tugendhat House to the Seagram Tower) that the word "Miesian" was born. In the same self-referential way the term "International Style" was coined to describe a movement that was not about "style".
 
There were plenty of Mies "rip-offs" when Mies was designing corporate buildings and everyone and their brother wanted a Mies-like building. I think the term "faux Mies" was appropriate enough in 1960 when ill-proportioned copies were sprouting everywhere. But the passage of time, and the place of the TD Centre in our design history and architectural iconography renders this even more clearly an homage, not a copy. Clewes has appropriated a design language and done something new with the form, and tipped his hat to Toronto's built heritage. The fenestration proportions, the colour of the glass, the Broadway Boogie-Woogie dashes of colour, and the arrangement of balconies aren't characteristic of what you'd expect with a copy.
 
Gaps

If you look closely. There are minor gaps between every strip that protrudes out between each window & floor. I assume that this is difficult to cover due to the fact that they are unable to work on the exterior of the building at this time. And will cap later. Have I just answered my own question!:confused:
 
the gaps will remain as they are present to handle the long and short term deflection of the floor slabs as well as the floor to floor discrepencies in the concrete. if they weren't there, and the spires were touching they would inevitably buckle and distort.
i find that this small gap is not unsightly at all.
 
Well, they could hide the gap with a splice plate, but on a condo I doubt they'd go to the bother
 
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