Ugly Canada 2 (Only architecture, planning and design faux pas)

[megadude]

Not ugly, but tacky, in an interesting and fun way. Real kitschy house and van from Christie Pitts area of Toronto.



https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wood-cake-house

https://globalnews.ca/news/6104301/t...van-decorated/

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by biguc

Some of these condo towers must be some of the ugliest buildings in the world. They're like if these meth-smoking-rapist jeans were buildings.
I have special hatred for 224 King street and it's cross-alley neighbour on Adelaide (centre-left, first picture), which may be the ugliest building in the world.

I'm not seeing it. Am I missing something here?

What's wrong with this?
Theatre Park by Marcanadian, on Flickr

And is this the other building you hate?

19 Duncan Street, Toronto, December 17 2025 by Dillan Payne, on Flickr
If so, what's wrong with it? How are these the ugliest towers in the world? I can think of 100's or more that I'd call ugly before these.

[O-tacular]

I would take almost any of the gimmicky Toronto balcony maze pattern condos to replace every single tower in this picture from Calgary:

[Wigs]

Man, none of those Calgary residential highrises aged well!

Ottawa is not alone in the faux Venetian villa multifamily schlock or whatever you want to call it. (not to be confused with Edmonton's The Venetian crime against your vision)

In St. Catharines, Ontario, this is being built:
Royal Tuscan Two 5-storey buildings enveloping a central courtyard. Was originally 116 units, now 78 "residences", 19 of which are "penthouse suites"

Renderings



Construction from Sept 2025


There's 6 units for sale on realtor.ca between $502k - $1.069M
https://www.realtor.ca/map#ZoomLevel...0&Currency=CAD

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Man, none of those Calgary residential highrises aged well!

Ottawa is not alone in the faux Venetian villa multifamily schlock or whatever you want to call it. (not to be confused with Edmonton's The Venetian crime against your vision)

In St. Catharines, Ontario, this is being built:
Royal Tuscan Two 5-storey buildings enveloping a central courtyard. Was originally 116 units, now 78 "residences", 19 of which are "penthouse suites"

Renderings



Construction from Sept 2025


There's 6 units for sale on realtor.ca between $502k - $1.069M
https://www.realtor.ca/map#ZoomLevel...0&Currency=CAD

Tacky? Yes. But can’t hold a candle to the OG Edmonton crime against humanity!

[Wigs]

you Goatse'd The Venetian.
My eyes will never recover.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

I would take almost any of the gimmicky Toronto balcony maze pattern condos to replace every single tower in this picture from Calgary:

I'm not a Toronto booster, O-tac, but yeah, those are unsightly. I don't know if there are worse highrises in all of Toronto. Possibly the NY Towers, or the black hole of City Place. Or many of the hundreds of 1960s Norilsk-style commie blocks.

[Wigs]

Me and niwell have discussed this many times before, but the Commie Blocks get such a bad rap.

Usually they are solidly built (can't hear every neighbour around your unit) and have spacious, well laid out units with spacious balconies (balcony space is important when living in an apartment building). Much better than the shoebox condo craze of the past decade or so, and bulidings with the worst unit layouts on the planet.
Pretty? No, but if we had a concrete apartment tower building boom across the country again we wouldn't have a rental affordability crisis in our most populated and rapidly growing Metros (Edmonton and Winnipeg excluded)

[biguc]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Man, none of those Calgary residential highrises aged well!

Ottawa is not alone in the faux Venetian villa multifamily schlock or whatever you want to call it. (not to be confused with Edmonton's The Venetian crime against your vision)

In St. Catharines, Ontario, this is being built:
Royal Tuscan Two 5-storey buildings enveloping a central courtyard. Was originally 116 units, now 78 "residences", 19 of which are "penthouse suites"

Renderings

5 storey buildings and 1/4 of the units are "penthouses". Even the math is ugly

[biguc]

Those penthouses are probably studios for the kind of guy who hangs pictures of cars with LED taillights. Once the construction glue and vinyl plank has gassed off they'll forever smell like Dior Sausage and Proper 12 soaked porno couches.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Wigs

you Goatse'd The Venetian.
My eyes will never recover.

Unfortunately for all Edmontonians (and anyone on this forum) the Venetian goasties us all!

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Man, none of those Calgary residential highrises aged well!

Ottawa is not alone in the faux Venetian villa multifamily schlock or whatever you want to call it. (not to be confused with Edmonton's The Venetian crime against your vision)

In St. Catharines, Ontario, this is being built:
Royal Tuscan Two 5-storey buildings enveloping a central courtyard. Was originally 116 units, now 78 "residences", 19 of which are "penthouse suites"

Renderings

These look remarkably similar to the crap built in Calgary's Quarry Park:









Just be thankful it doesn't back a blvd with ketchup and mustard coloured stucco :

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Qu...oASAFQAw%3D%3D

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Gresto

I'm not a Toronto booster, O-tac, but yeah, those are unsightly. I don't know if there are worse highrises in all of Toronto. Possibly the NY Towers, or the black hole of City Place. Or many of the hundreds of 1960s Norilsk-style commie blocks.

Calgary's first condo boom in the 00's produced some unfortunate results. They could have been even worse though. This thankfully got shelved:

[O-tacular]

This is probably still the worst from that time:



It's only redeeming quality is that it's not a twin or triplet like so many of the others.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Me and niwell have discussed this many times before, but the Commie Blocks get such a bad rap.

Usually they are solidly built (can't hear every neighbour around your unit) and have spacious, well laid out units with spacious balconies (balcony space is important when living in an apartment building). Much better than the shoebox condo craze of the past decade or so, and bulidings with the worst unit layouts on the planet.
Pretty? No, but if we had a concrete apartment tower building boom across the country again we wouldn't have a rental affordability crisis in our most populated and rapidly growing Metros (Edmonton and Winnipeg excluded)

Yes, without question. I was alluding strictly to how they look. They don't inspire gaiety.

This is probably still the worst from that time:

It's only redeeming quality is that it's not a twin or triplet like so many of the others.

Atrocious! Especially the haphazard colour and design changes at the top. If an architect designed that, he or she should banished from ever barfing out another "design".
The twins in your previous post at least had some height. I could live with those. Brown is not the most appealing colour for a highrise, but, here in Toronto at least, it would make a welcome change from all the blue, seafoam, and grey.

[Wigs]

What was the gargantuan POS named again, O-tacular? I forgot about it. When I was told a friend of a friend lived there I burst out laughing because it's such shite.

And Quarry Park, Yay, you live next to a corporate office park?
Nothing says "Champagne" like Chevys parked out front.

And the ketchup and mustard stucco lol should've added some relish faux green to round it out hahah

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Wigs

What was the gargantuan POS named again, O-tacular? I forgot about it. When I was told a friend of a friend lived there I burst out laughing because it's such shite.

And Quarry Park, Yay, you live next to a corporate office park?
Nothing says "Champagne" like Chevys parked out front.

And the ketchup and mustard stucco lol should've added some relish faux green to round it out hahah

Vantage Pointe condos by Pointe of View Condominiums. How was the unit inside out of curiosity?

To make Quarry Park even classier there’s an active landfill and a trailer park beside it. And north of Glenmore is Ogden.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Vantage Pointe condos by Pointe of View Condominiums. How was the unit inside out of curiosity?

To make Quarry Park even classier there’s an active landfill and a trailer park beside it. And north of Glenmore is Ogden.

Vantage Pointe

Like the French say about Montparnasse, that notorous '70s? skyscraper of Paris - the best thing about the building is that once inside you don't have to look at it

Because it was a friend of a friend I never saw the inside.

Another friend of that guy lived in these rounded ones with the yellow-ish pyramid shaped roofs. Those ones I was always curious about unlike Vantage Pointe which is a modern block mess. I would have liked to see the curved balconies.
Zoomed view from across the Bow River on Memorial Dr

[TorontoDrew]

I've never disliked those enough to consider them ugly; I actually appreciate them more each time I see them.

[MolsonExport]

Those god-awful Chryslerisque-buildings in North York along the 401 are some of the worst.


Mississauga City Centre has a ton of similar buildings. The cheap, gimmicky post-modern rooftops have aged poorly.