The Great Canadian Skyline Thread!

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by mistercorporate

Do it! If they would only reclad or replace the 2 most prominent brutalist towers, that city would have hands down the best historic skyline in North America! Tourism to Quebec City would skyrocket.

Somehow I doubt there are hordes of potential tourists being kept at bay by the existence of a couple brutalist towers.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by SkahHigh

Seriously, is there any building in Canada that could be called iconic to non-canadians apart from the CN Tower?

Maybe the Bow or Absolute World, both have won international acclaim. There are fantastic buildings that aren't skyscrapers (Perimeter Institute) that lots of people would consider iconic.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHik[URL="http://evds.ucalgary.ca/event/kasian-gallery-reception-building-curiosity"

http://evds.ucalgary.ca/event/kasian-gallery-reception-building-curiosity[/URL]er;6807937]Toronto City Hall is brutalist? Oh wow, there is one I like. Habitat isn't that bad either.

Overall, though, yeah - tend to hate brutalist and international.

I wouldn't consider that to be brutalist. This is brutalism



http://evds.ucalgary.ca/event/kasian-gallery-reception-building-curiosity

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by vanatox

Have you ever thought about changing your username... The_Architect... not very appropriate.

Anyway, I have never been a big fan myself about PVM but it is really a masterpiece from the early sixties.

I 100% agree that historical significance does not equal aesthetic beauty. But of course our perceptions of beauty are often shaped by more objective factors. It's common for someone to first encounter something and have a reaction to it either positive or negative, and then not feel the same after finding out some relevant information about it. I'm sure we've all had this experience.

But I'd never expect someone to force themselves to have the subjective/visceral reaction as to find something aesthetically attractive by explaining a list of objective facts. I'd just want to make sure they had acknowledged said info just in case.

[SkahHigh]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Maybe the Bow or Absolute World, both have won international acclaim. There are fantastic buildings that aren't skyscrapers (Perimeter Institute) that lots of people would consider iconic.

Sorry man, I like the Bow, but it's pretty far from a Canadian icon. It sure is one of the most (if not THE most) beautiful office towers in Canada, but it isn't iconic.

A representation of Canadian icons by tourists would be more or so the CN Tower, the Rockies, Niagara Falls and MAYBE the Olympic Stadium.

[vanatox]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Maybe the Bow or Absolute World, both have won international acclaim. There are fantastic buildings that aren't skyscrapers (Perimeter Institute) that lots of people would consider iconic.

Those are recent examples. Are you aware of all the buildings in Canada that have received international acclaim?

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by MeIsThomas

So true.

I don't know how people can rate Hamilton's skyline so low sometimes. Montreal and Hamilton are like twins....

There are some superficial similarities in the view from one particular angle. Enough that if you cross your eyes and scroll by really quickly you might mistake one for the other. But otherwise, there's a few orders of magnitude of difference between the quality of architecture, height, density, diversity, and quantity of towers - nevermind the immediately apparent differences in perspective from every other possible angle.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by SkahHigh

Sorry man, I like the Bow, but it's pretty far from a Canadian icon. It sure is one of the most beautiful office towers in Canada, but it isn't iconic.

A representation of Canadian icons by tourists would be more or so the CN Tower, the Rockies, Niagara Falls and MAYBE the Olympic Stadium.

It's all about personal taste, and to me the Bow is hands down the best office tower in the country. If you disagree, that's your opinion and it's not my place to say you are wrong, that's the beauty of Architecture, it's very subjective.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

I wouldn't consider that to be brutalist. This is brutalism



http://evds.ucalgary.ca/event/kasian-gallery-reception-building-curiosity

Brutalism is basically just a variation of modernism that strayed away from the core principles of modernism which include a sense of lightness and airiness (often accomplished by a steel frame and lots of glass) and instead used concrete as the main building material and therefore had a much heavier feeling and less openness and light. But beyond that there aren't any really hard fast rules about the specific design.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by vanatox

Those are recent examples. Are you aware of all the buildings in Canada that have received international acclaim?

lol, how could I be? I'm sure there are buildings that were well regarded internationally 100 years ago.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

But beyond that there aren't any really hard fast rules about the specific design.

This is true, there are no really specific rules, so the classification of TCH as brutalist is subjective, it's just not what I think of when brutalism comes up.

[SkahHigh]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

It's all about personal taste, and to me the Bow is hands down the best office tower in the country. If you disagree, that's your opinion and it's not my place to say you are wrong, that's the beauty of Architecture, it's very subjective.

Don't worry dude. You are one of the Calgary users of which I highly respect the opinion!

I think you are mistaking a beautiful, modern building with the concept a national icon.

For example, a Canadian icon in the world would be the CN Tower.
For Australia, the Sydney Opera.
For England, Big Ben.

Rarely is a skyscraper an icon, except maybe with the Petronas Towers in Malaysia and the Willis Tower in Chicago, or the Empire State.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by SkahHigh

Don't worry dude. You are one of the Calgary users of which I highly respect the opinion!

I think you are mistaking a beautiful, modern building with the concept a national icon.

For example, a Canadian icon in the world would be the CN Tower.
For Australia, the Sydney Opera.
For England, Big Ben.

Rarely is a skyscraper an icon, except maybe with the Petronas Towers in Malaysia and the Willis Tower in Chicago, or the Empire State.

Fair enough. And a building doesn't have to be beautiful to be an icon, look at the twin towers in NYC, they were butt ugly but were absolutely an icon.

[Ashok]

Whether you agree or not, it has been again and again been reconized as an architectural gem. So clearly, there something people are seeing to appreciate it.

Personally, I love the PVM. Being there is just serene. It doesn't stand up to a lot of the other international towers we see out there. The geometry, detailing and design is simply exceptional -

And to be blunt, nobody really cares what anyone of us here thinks -the tower will alway been seen as a classic in Montreal and Canada.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

It's all about personal taste, and to me the Bow is hands down the best office tower in the country. If you disagree, that's your opinion and it's not my place to say you are wrong, that's the beauty of Architecture, it's very subjective.

"The Bow is my favourite office tower" is a preference of personal taste, and those are infinitely subjective. However, saying something is the best is putting it forward as statement of fact. And while there is still room for some subjectivity here (there will never be a consensus on a single answer), there needs to be something substantive to back it up as a valid opinion, which saying that it is because it is in your subjective opinion is not.

[SkahHigh]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Fair enough. And a building doesn't have to be beautiful to be an icon, look at the twin towers in NYC, they were butt ugly but were absolutely an icon.

Exactly! I don't consider PVM an icon either. Even though it's a unique building and I would never trade it with another skyscraper.

Thank you for your neutral opinion Calgarian, always welcomed

Content removed

[TorontoDrew]

I love this building and I always will.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

"The Bow is my favourite office tower" is a preference of personal taste, and those are infinitely subjective. However, saying something is the best is putting it forward as statement of fact. And while there is still room for some subjectivity here (there will never be a consensus on a single answer), there needs to be something substantive to back it up as a valid opinion, which saying that it is because it is in your subjective opinion is not.

Does this post make sense to you? I said it's the best in my opinion which is very clear in the post that you quoted. Despite the fact that I stated it's my opinion you criticize my post as if I said it as if it was fact and you now want me to somehow quantify my opinion.

[vanatox]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

lol, how could I be? I'm sure there are buildings that were well regarded internationally 100 years ago.

I was not expecting you would know...I don' t know either. Just wanted to say that it's not because a recent building has received international acclaim that it has instantly reached iconic status.