{"id":17806,"date":"2011-02-10T14:30:35","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T18:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=17806"},"modified":"2013-01-21T15:16:40","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:16:40","slug":"no-mean-city-will-alsop-subways-and-context","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/02\/10\/no-mean-city-will-alsop-subways-and-context\/","title":{"rendered":"NO MEAN CITY: Will Alsop, subways and context"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cross-posted from <\/em>No Mean City,<\/em><\/a> Alex’s personal blog on architecture<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m happy to see that the Toronto Star has stirred up some debate<\/a> about architecture. The topic: Will Alsop<\/a>‘s design for the new Steeles West subway station. (The TTC website has only a big PDF<\/a> of images. Check\u00a0 the CBC’s slideshow here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Christopher Hume calls it <\/a>“a structure of enormous character,” and he points out – correctly – that the planning of the station as a piece of infrastructure, and the planning of the area around it, are far more important than what the architecture looks like.<\/p>\n

I am a fan of Alsop, but I think this design is self-indulgent and frankly ugly. The interior spaces look fine – rational and well lit, with a sprinkle of Cor-Ten on top – but the exterior is a pointlessly provocative crumple. It’s an expression of the forms and materials that the architect is playing with these days, nothing more; the architecture is totally unbounded by any sense of place. It would go just as well on Mars.<\/p>\n

So I have an argument with Alsop, and also with the attitude expressed by Hume that is making his building possible.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hume writes that the station “will stand in stark contrast to the surroundings, which are barely suburban.” Many of the public comments on this design<\/a> take this premise for granted: that the station and the subway are going into a vacant wasteland. And I think Alsop’s design itself, with his sculptural forms even more unhinged\u00a0\u00a0 than usual, is driven by the same assumption.<\/p>\n

But is that so? The Steeles West station will be at Steeles and Northwest Gate (Google map<\/a>), on the edge of York University’s main campus. Right now it looks like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n(from Google Earth<\/em>)<\/p>\n

This is not city, and by rights it should not have a subway. But that doesn’t make it tabula rasa. York’s campus is right there. And while the university’s architecture is an unfortunate mishmash, it began half a century ago with a set of ambitious modern buildings dropped into a field. The city is now studying them all for historic designation<\/a>. Some have held up better than others, but their monumental brick-and-concrete forms are a valid starting point.<\/p>\n

More recently, York has commissioned a few gorgeous and innovative structures. Hariri Pontarini’s Schulich School of Business, a short walk away, suggests a much more urbane reaction to suburban banality. They’ve created a complex of buildings that fight against Horrid Suburban Banality with tailored, glassy elegance.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s also the entry pavilion by Teeple Architects<\/a> and a couple of other buildings that deliver pleasant (if cool and corporate) spaces and forms.<\/p>\n

Why not use these as a jumping-off point? They are as relevant as the strip malls and warehouses across the street.<\/p>\n

And more to the point, those strip malls and warehouses (and empty fields) will be gone within a decade or two.<\/p>\n

The subway will bring some development to an area that is already, in the broader scheme of the city region, quite central. The real edge of the GTA is another 40 kilometres north of here. The immediate context of hydro lines and oil tank farms have helped make these sites unattractive to builders – but that will change. There will be something somewhat like a city here someday. It deserves our respect and forethought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex’s personal blog on architecture I’m happy to see that the Toronto Star has stirred up some debate about architecture. The topic: Will Alsop‘s design for the new Steeles West subway station. (The TTC website has only a big PDF of images. Check\u00a0 the CBC’s slideshow here.) Christopher Hume callsContinue reading “NO MEAN CITY: Will Alsop, subways and context”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4088,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21759,20],"tags":[6296,174,75],"class_list":["post-17806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-features","category-urban-design","tag-alex","tag-no-mean-city","tag-suburbs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNO MEAN CITY: Will Alsop, subways and context - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/02\/10\/no-mean-city-will-alsop-subways-and-context\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NO MEAN CITY: Will Alsop, subways and context - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex’s personal blog on architecture I’m happy to see that the Toronto Star has stirred up some debate about architecture. 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