Quote:
Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim
Its hiedous, even more of a visual catastrophe than that penis and ball sack going up in Winnipeg. I'm not enjoying the fact that everytime I see something new going up in St. John's, its got this weird faux-historical "let's appease our senior citizens / our ancestors" element to it. Why can't St. John's age with dignity, like Quebec city for example?
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Because it's weird.
I think I like The Rooms. I mentioned before that I can't tell if its just local bias... but, even if that is the case, I think the reason is possibly because the design truly does reflect something about St. John's. It fits.
There's a haphazardness to St. John's, in every literal and metaphorical sense, that Quebec City doesn't have. It has a more rigid, conventionally Western European sternness.
I think The Rooms, not independently but in the context of the entire first hill of St. John's, plays into a local form of... confidence. St. John's may be a very popular city with tourists, but it's still a functional city primarily planned to cater to its own residents. In the off season, St. John's is no less busy. New buildings are adjusted to meet local preferences, up to and including altering designs to minimize the effect of shadows on neighbouring homes.
So I tend to see The Rooms as something that is clearly, objectively hideous and I know no one in any other city would want it for their own (except, perhaps, in cities with a similar vernacular
AND history, such as Oslo) - but, for us, it really makes sense.
Now, if it takes that long to justify a building's appearance, one has already lost... I'm aware, hahaha. But I genuinely like that, "Yeah, you're not supposed to get it... it's not for you..." tone that buildings such as this (and several others) in St. John's give off.
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