Ah, but can you find a photo of Lentzos, the all-night greasy spoon that used to occupy that corner?
It looks like one of those architect’s digital mock-ups, complete with animated people crawling around the streets below.
Also, i have to admit that I quite like both this building and the new one on de Maisonneuve.
I agree with Alanah – this photograph looks surreal! Nor is it a bad contribution to the area. I gave a talk there a while back, and the facilities were quite nice (but suffering from ‘breaking-in’ issues), although it was very hard to find my way around.
This whole block will look really good when the Guy-Metro Building next to gets its recladding to match this building and the John Molson building next to it. there used to be mock-ups on the Concordia website but I guess they’ve been taken down.
I attended a lecture a week ago in one of the ground-floor lecture halls and was told that the wood-stripped interior slats are from the old York Cinema. Hence, the York Room, or something like that.
I like the building, it adds majesty and purpose to that corner.
seems architects don’t think much of the single design concept (think, place ville marie, westmount square, even the ibm marathon building), and they would rather use a dozen different and conflicting shapes and textures to make the design statement. We’ll never get beauty in architecture again, I fear.
This is embarrassing. As much as the building is nice and airy and “looks” modern, it is a testament to the ineptitude of modern architects (or at least to the cluelessness of their clients).
The building is disturbingly reminiscent of the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society building, which was built in 1932.
Yes, 77 years ago. This is as disturbing as replicating an old roman temple for a bank 100 years ago, or a gothic cathedral for a House of Commons. Perhaps classy, but annoyingly inimaginative, no matter how “green” or “energy efficient” or “user-friendly” or whatever else kicks arse about that building (the colour-shifting lighting along the escalators is particularly nice).
In the 77 intervening years, there have been major advances in architecture. Yet, an university, apparently an institution that purports to be at the forefront of intellectual prowess will stodgingly adopt a 80 year old design for it’s most modern building!
For that choice, I am not terribly impressed by the university.
Oh, wow, that’s a lot different than the design I saw awhile ago. This one is much more striking and differentiates it from the EV building more than the last design but I’m not sure if I really like it so much.
It’s not so bad as a big mass; from adjacent buildings, like in the shot above, it’s pretty handsome. At ground level, there are some gestures that are more successful than others, and it’s hard to get much of a sense of liveliness in the somewhat austere lobby (which is crucial, as Concordia’s various lobbies are the most important gathering and encounter spaces in its whole campus).
The variations in the massing and cladding do succeed in breaking up what is quite a large building. While PSFS juxtaposed its various elements to create a lot of tension in the composition, and make visible the functional separations between different parts of the tower, here they’re doing it just to jazz up what would otherwise be a hulking slab. A little trendy, but not so bad.
Those Guy-Metro mockups look nice! Now if they would just redo the interior of the Hall building I’d be happy. It’s a bit of a slap in the face that business and tech students are given comfortable and beautiful new facilities to work in but the social sciences people are expected to work in a derelict concrete shitbox with no natural light and few comfortable places to study or relax.
“derelict concrete shitbox with no natural light”
Best Hell building description ever.
It’s a mish mash that gets well balanced out by it’s sister building across the street. Concordia desperately needed to expand it’s concrete campus and they have managed to do it well, without screwing everything around it.
12 comments
Ah, but can you find a photo of Lentzos, the all-night greasy spoon that used to occupy that corner?
It looks like one of those architect’s digital mock-ups, complete with animated people crawling around the streets below.
Also, i have to admit that I quite like both this building and the new one on de Maisonneuve.
I agree with Alanah – this photograph looks surreal! Nor is it a bad contribution to the area. I gave a talk there a while back, and the facilities were quite nice (but suffering from ‘breaking-in’ issues), although it was very hard to find my way around.
This whole block will look really good when the Guy-Metro Building next to gets its recladding to match this building and the John Molson building next to it. there used to be mock-ups on the Concordia website but I guess they’ve been taken down.
I attended a lecture a week ago in one of the ground-floor lecture halls and was told that the wood-stripped interior slats are from the old York Cinema. Hence, the York Room, or something like that.
I like the building, it adds majesty and purpose to that corner.
seems architects don’t think much of the single design concept (think, place ville marie, westmount square, even the ibm marathon building), and they would rather use a dozen different and conflicting shapes and textures to make the design statement. We’ll never get beauty in architecture again, I fear.
This is embarrassing. As much as the building is nice and airy and “looks” modern, it is a testament to the ineptitude of modern architects (or at least to the cluelessness of their clients).
The building is disturbingly reminiscent of the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society building, which was built in 1932.
Yes, 77 years ago. This is as disturbing as replicating an old roman temple for a bank 100 years ago, or a gothic cathedral for a House of Commons. Perhaps classy, but annoyingly inimaginative, no matter how “green” or “energy efficient” or “user-friendly” or whatever else kicks arse about that building (the colour-shifting lighting along the escalators is particularly nice).
In the 77 intervening years, there have been major advances in architecture. Yet, an university, apparently an institution that purports to be at the forefront of intellectual prowess will stodgingly adopt a 80 year old design for it’s most modern building!
For that choice, I am not terribly impressed by the university.
Chris, the Guy Metro building has a new rendering, available on the site of the architect: http://www.kpmbarchitects.com/index.asp?navid=30&fid1=21&fid2=79&fid3=11&minyearx=&maxyearx=
Oh, wow, that’s a lot different than the design I saw awhile ago. This one is much more striking and differentiates it from the EV building more than the last design but I’m not sure if I really like it so much.
It’s not so bad as a big mass; from adjacent buildings, like in the shot above, it’s pretty handsome. At ground level, there are some gestures that are more successful than others, and it’s hard to get much of a sense of liveliness in the somewhat austere lobby (which is crucial, as Concordia’s various lobbies are the most important gathering and encounter spaces in its whole campus).
The variations in the massing and cladding do succeed in breaking up what is quite a large building. While PSFS juxtaposed its various elements to create a lot of tension in the composition, and make visible the functional separations between different parts of the tower, here they’re doing it just to jazz up what would otherwise be a hulking slab. A little trendy, but not so bad.
Those Guy-Metro mockups look nice! Now if they would just redo the interior of the Hall building I’d be happy. It’s a bit of a slap in the face that business and tech students are given comfortable and beautiful new facilities to work in but the social sciences people are expected to work in a derelict concrete shitbox with no natural light and few comfortable places to study or relax.
“derelict concrete shitbox with no natural light”
Best Hell building description ever.
It’s a mish mash that gets well balanced out by it’s sister building across the street. Concordia desperately needed to expand it’s concrete campus and they have managed to do it well, without screwing everything around it.