Thursday’s Headlines

8 comments

1. Snubbing Snohetta on Yonge? Not a good move. I look forward to the future banquet at which Kuitenbrouwer eats his words.

2. I don’t know. I do not proclaim to know the details of the building, but from the images I think Kuitenbrouwer has a point about the building’s interaction with Yonge Street. It looks like the building puts up a defensive wall to Yonge Street, rather than meeting the street with open arms. I think the building looks really cool, but it will be experienced at street level – mostly by pedestrians walking along Yonge.

3. “Ryerson’s learning centre a glass-skinned ode to ancient Greece ” I cant believe that somebody wrote this, especially about an ugly building.

4. I agree – a terribly ugly building. How will we ever get over the fixation to build things so unique they are ugly monstrosities we have to look at for decades? Just reflects egos of architects who want to be remembered, no matter the aesthetic cost to onlookers.

5. I don’t look forward to walking along the blank concrete wall – I think Kuitenbrouwer has a point about it killing the street. Stairs leading down to basement-level retail never works – there are stretches along Dundas (Ossington to Dufferin) and Bloor (same range) that were built this way and the stores are either empty or kinda creepy. It’s just a really bad public-space experience … and along Yonge street the basement steps will probably smell strongly of pee and vomit!

   As for the ode to ancient Greece comment, it refers the agora concept of learning that will happen within the building, not architectural style of the building.

6. Any talk of knockout walls for future connections to PATH from either Yonge or Gould sides? Doesn’t sound like it, and the Ryerson newspaper says no subway connection to Dundas either (although given the notorious crowding in the evenings…)

7. Actually I like the Ryerson building in general. The pictures I saw did not show the Yonge facade that well, and it may well need some tweak, but overall it looks great and the interior space feels fantastic. What I like the best is the staircase leading up from Gould, a natural meeting ground boarding a pedestrian street. It is about time that Toronto gets some of this kind of public space.

8. The Gould Street facade of the proposed Ryerson building looks inviting, but in order to have that ideal view, the southeast corner of Yonge and Gould across the street is going to have to either be a park or remain undeveloped.

   I agree that the concrete wall along Yonge will kill that stretch of the street. It took a long time to open up the Eaton Centre to Yonge Street, but it looks like Snøhetta was unaware of and Zeidler didn’t learn anything from that lesson. Beats me how a concrete walI “expresses the vibrancy of Yonge Street.”