Claridge Icon [505 Preston St] | 143m | 45 fl | Completed

[rumple-stilts]

Originally Posted by Dzingle Bells

As someone who practices urban design for a living, I can tell you that is not how to articulate a building facade. Also, if they had just wrapped the whole building with the south facade, they wouldn't have had to poorly try to articulate the north side!

'Practicing urban design' sounds like a great shortcut into the architectural profession! Unlike some of the other comments, I find the north facade, especially as viewed from the north-east, demonstrates much more complexity and finesse in the design of the building than does the east or south facades, these later being design 'one-liners', based exclusively on meandering balconies!

[bambam92]

[Harley613]

I'm praying to the flying spaghetti monster that the cheapo catalog order balconies have some kind of issue and they are forced to install something remotely close to the bait-and-switch balconies from the renders.

[Dzingle Bells]

Originally Posted by OTownandDown

Sorry, I was just quoting the lovely people over at Hobin's office. I thought 'highly articulated' meant this:



Is this not articulated and slender?

oh my heavens...

What project is this? Let's hope there is some serious thought given to materials!

[Dzingle Bells]

Originally Posted by rumple-stilts

'Practicing urban design' sounds like a great shortcut into the architectural profession! Unlike some of the other comments, I find the north facade, especially as viewed from the north-east, demonstrates much more complexity and finesse in the design of the building than does the east or south facades, these later being design 'one-liners', based exclusively on meandering balconies!

It's actually been a bit of a detour for me! I could have gone right into architecture after 6 years of architecture school but the urban design field was much more enticing and has allowed me to flex my design muscles a lot more, as surprising as that may be.

And I get that. If the 'one-liner' facades are done really well, they can work (see Aqua Tower by Studio Gang or 8 Spruce Street by Frank Gehry).

[Glenlivet Ave]

[Kitchissippi]

From a distance this building just looks like a nondescript grey blob, which is ironic because an icon is usually means a simple graphic representation that is easily recognized.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

From a distance this building just looks like a nondescript grey blob, which is ironic because an icon is usually means a simple graphic representation that is easily recognized.

Cheap glazing and balconies. Hopefully the pre-occupancy cleaning will give it a little sparkle from a distance but the design was destroyed by Claridge. Remember this is a Hariri Pontarini Architects project like the incredible 'One Bloor' in Toronto and was designed to look like a mini One Bloor before Claridge's bean counters got their hands on it.

[J.OT13]

https://twitter.com/StreetDreamsOtt/status/1279512386354008064

[rocketphish]

From this angle the Claridge sign looks particularly stupid. It's too wide for the curved facade it's been attached to, and so sticks out at each end.

[harls]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

From this angle the Claridge sign looks particularly stupid. It's too wide for the curved facade it's been attached to, and so sticks out at each end.

Agreed. It looks like a name tag pinned onto a shirt. "Hello, my name is Claridge".

[ars]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

From this angle the Claridge sign looks particularly stupid. It's too wide for the curved facade it's been attached to, and so sticks out at each end.

Honestly, it looks really stupid from every angle. I know Claridge's bean counter made the building much uglier than the proposal, but that sign is the cherry on top.

[Admiral Nelson]

Yep, it's hella tacky.

[AuxTown]

If their logo wasn't so dumb looking I would have suggested they put that up their instead of the text. Only thing worse would be if they made it Comic Sans MS.

[OCCheetos]

It's extra goofy when you realize the logo isn't even flat against the building.

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by AuxTown

If their logo wasn't so dumb looking I would have suggested they put that up their instead of the text. Only thing worse would be if they made it Comic Sans MS.

Maybe they'll put huge ones on the front door

• Video Link

[UrbOttawa]

[OTownandDown]

Ugh, that south-west corner REALLY outlines all the problems with these sh*tty greco aluminum from-the-sales-section-of-the-website railings. They haven't even figured out how to finish them off, with those big gaps everywhere.

The South isn't completely barfy anymore. But fine detail is totally lost. Too bad.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by UrbOttawa

This looks like an absolute mess.

[RogueNacho]

I really don't know what to think of this tower anymore. Every positive thing I can think of comes with an equal negative:

From a distance the wavy balconies look cool; but really only when the sun shines on them at the right time of day.

Up-close gives off some nice "big-city" vibes; but you can really see the cut corners and poor quality materials.

It's kind of nice to have an all-glass building in Ottawa for a change; but they used the crappiest quality of glass.

The height is a huge plus for Ottawa; but unfortunately now you can see this monstrosity from almost anywhere in the City.

Ugh..