Archi-yechhh-ture
Friday, October 10, 2003When the final design of the to-be-refurbished Ontario College of Art and Design building was proposed, I thought it was a joke.
I still think it’s a joke. It’s as if they held a contest, and of all the proposed designs, they chose the loser.
I see the construction on it every day when I walk to work, when I look out of our office windows, when I go to lunch.
I half-expect the architects to pop out from behind at any minute as I stare slack-jawed at the monstrosity of steel girders and candy-coated pillars and say, “HA! We’re just messing with you!”
But instead, a billboard depicting the finished design mocks me by illustrating just how horribly and ironically the fine people at the OCAD plan on polluting the Toronto landscape with its floating dalmatian-spotted box perched atop a rainbow of… I guess those are paintbrushes.
Yes, I’m aware that art is supposed to provoke discussion and opinion, so surely there’s somebody out there who thinks this is good design.
Occasionally Bud says:
Dear lord, someone is actually building that? And I remember the uproar in Ottawa when they built the monstrosity that is called the American Embassy. Poor Toronto (I never thought I’d say those words).
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Erik says:
Wow. That really does look crappy. Quite an eyesore!
Anyone with an eye for design wouldn’t dare fund the construction for that project.
It looks like a McDonalds Happy Meal with a lepers disease.
MongoLloyd says:
Lookit all the pretty colours!
Zombie Claire says:
I LOVE IT
It says “THE 80’S IS HERE TO STAY!”
“And I raaaaaan I ran so far awaaaaaay. And I raaaaaan I ran all night and daaaaaay (I gotta get to OCAD!).”
Johnny, I am surprised you don’t like the design, Tim Burton would!!!
The only problem with it is that the awesome 80’s extravaganza has a parasitic Normal Canadian Building attached to its abdomen. What the hell--if you are going to put a normal building under the crazy one, at least paint it white or something. Not Normal Canadian Brown Institutional Brick. It looks wrong!!!!
This building suffers from a slight case of the Not Crazy Enoughs!!
emily says:
Are people supposed to exist, move around and interact inside the black and white checkered roof or is this huge construction simply for aesthetics? (’Aesthetics’ being an arguable choice of words, of course.) ‘Cause if it ain’t utilitarian then we’ve really got a problem.
josie says:
Nooooo! And it has a flat roof too! Totally wrong for the heavy snowfalls we get. Glad I graduated from there a looong time ago.
Ry says:
For some reason looking at the design makes me want to go and find a newspaper.... work on a crossword puzzle or something.... I can’t quite put my finger on it… Strange.
Also, who wants to be stuck in the top part when a fire, earthquake, hurricane or the inevitable terrorist strikes? Not I, said the Ry.
fink says:
And if you cant get enough of the OCAD building, check out the extension theyre building onto the ROM. Its like a pretty crystal explosion which of course completely matches the style of the rest of the building.
Link
josie says:
...yeah, and that top part is going to be a pain to heat and keep cool without other floors as insulation. Maybe they could put the president and/or board members there, or whoever approved the thing.
s2pid says:
Took a gander, cuz I figure how bad can it be? I wanted to be rational and give it the old ‘devil’s advocate’ treatment and look for the positive ... It’s positively ugly.
Ryan says:
They’re still using BaseNine for their link images. That is so 1999.
Something about it reminds me of a malt shop. Or closer yet, after I had used my legos up and mixed all the sets together, all of my creations would end up being monstrosities devoid of colour meaning. Y’know, it’s sposda be a spaceship but it’s a mix of reds blues and mostly yellows. However this building seems to also be devoid of meaningful form.
Anna says:
The worst part is that they’re thinking it’s really OUT THERE and OVER THE TOP, but it’s not. I mean, if they really wanted to make something truly garish and hoaky, they would have needed to go much further. It’s not fair to compare it to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, becuase that at least was fun and cool (for a reason) and really well thought out. This building, however, is going to be a piece of garbage.
It’s all so obvious and lame. Seriously, if the kid who designed this (I refuse to believe it was anyone over 14) presented it in one of MY design classes, it would be immediately discarded and forgotten, other than when his classmates talked about how lame it was for 2 minutes after the end of class.
Zombie Claire says:
Nobody feeling the ‘80s love for the craaaazay OCAD building.
:-(
Don’t worry freakish Monstrosity, I still have the love for you.