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Where's Carlos? (Ott)

Alex L

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I watched this documentary 'Building of the Bastille' on TVO about Carlos Ott winning the competition to build the Bastille Opera. It's fairly recent.

He has since then done numerous buildings all over the world. But here in Canada, and here in Toronto, very little. I recognize you go where the money is. Simcoe Place. Is that all. I know he worked on the 1979 ROM expansion, but I don't know if there is any others here in Toronto. Of course, there is his house too.

And why, with all of the residential and commercial construction that went on in the past ten years, that we have not seen any with his name on it. I see he's got a project in Denver, another in Miami, another in Uruguay. He seems to do the design or concept work and leave the details to other firms.

What gives? I know back in 1990, he lost a competition to build an opera house in Toronto. Considering he'd done the Bastille, you'd think he was a shoe-in. Losing to Moshe Safdie is no shame, but still.

Has he changed his mind about Toronto? Is he too expensive or too busy?

I've been working on his Wikipedia artcile, (which was a mess, and still needs work, but I'll get it up to a reasonable standard). And wondered these things. It seems like the last thing he's done in Canada is the Calgary Court House.

From looking at his portfolio, I think it is a shame we have not seen any designs from him for projects here. It's great that we got Frank Gehry back to do Forma. And Moshe Safdie did a condo by the harbour. We need to get Carlos Ott back.
 

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