junctionist
Senior Member
A lot of the ubiquitous '60s and '70s apartments are perfectly fine. A lot of them would look decent with a few modern updates, such as glass balcony railings and new windows. Removing the years of tacked-on siding plastered over a lot of them would help too.
When the only high-rises in an area are those ubiquitous 60s/70s apartment towers, the area may very boring because of the generic architecture. But now that a lot of these areas are getting new condo towers, the diversity can improve the area a lot. The cluster of old towers becomes a dense base for the new towers. There are a lot of generic 60s/70s apartment towers that could use modern touches, but unfortunately, some of the more unique apartment towers from the era such as one of the Tower Hill buildings on St. Clair West are now losing their balcony railings in favour of modern glass versions, and the railings were subtle but important details of the original designs. There was one Uno Prii midrise apartment building in the Annex that had this unique circular motif on the balcony railings which were destroyed for generic glass in the 2000s.
In the photo above, it's also evident why opaque railing systems were originally chosen: so you wouldn't see balcony junk. The green railings on that yellow brick building compliment the colour of the brick nicely. Bottom line, sometimes glass balcony railings are fine on these 60s/70s apartment buildings, but owners need to scrutinize the original choice closely in terms of design value.
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