Great Canadian Skyline Thread II

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

And sadly will be lost as well.

Yes, I'm very disappointed by that. The new arena is a bland shell compared to the Dome. The acoustics and bathrooms may have sucked, but looking down from the top stands with the curving roofline was one of the coolest experiences I've had in any kind of large venue.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Most of the signature towers in Canada's skylines are PoMo. I don't get the hatred for it. There are some bad examples but mostly I like them. Montreal and Toronto are full of brilliant PoMo towers. Vancouver's Central Library is PoMo. Calgary's skyline was dominated by Petro Canada and Bankers Hall for decades. Like you said, early 2000's is the worst. I don't know what to qualify it as since it was built over a decade after the peak of that style in the late 80's early 90's.

Post Modernism is all encompassing; everything built after 1988 to now can be called Post Modernism. Toronto's market crashed too early. Bay Adelaide was halted. Thankfully, the Opera House was canned too. PoMo hasn't aged well. IIRC, the revolutionary Graves designed tower in Portland is being considered for a reclad. Mississauga City Hall is classic PoMo and has appeared in ugly thread many times. Let's not forget about the inspired The Rooms.

As you say, so many late/post modernist favourites were built during these years. Bankers Hall is solid but, the competition is fierce. Montreal just rocked the era.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Post Modernism is all encompassing; everything built after 1988 to now can be called Post Modernism. Toronto's market crashed too early. Bay Adelaide was halted. Thankfully, the Opera House was canned too. PoMo hasn't aged well. IIRC, the revolutionary Graves designed tower in Portland is being considered for a reclad.

If you want to be a purist about it then yes we have been living in a post modern world since after the 80's. The architectural styles from then until now are so vastly different that I have a hard time lumping them all into the same category though. Brutalist buildings rose in the era of post modernism. Would you classify them the same way? Similarly there's no way that Starchitecture is the same as buildings from the 90's.

Mississauga City Hall is classic PoMo and has appeared in ugly thread many times. Let's not forget about the inspired The Rooms.

Yes there is no shortage of PoMo uglies. Would The Venetian also count?

As you say, so many late/post modernist favourites were built during these years. Bankers Hall is solid but, the competition is fierce. Montreal just rocked the era.

Montreal has my favourite PoMo towers in the country. 1250 Rene Levesque, Le 1000 de la Gauchetiere, Le 1501 McGill College and my all time favourite: Le Batman.

[MolsonExport]

1250 Rene Levesque,

great tower.


officespacemtl

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

If you want to be a purist about it then yes we have been living in a post modern world since after the 80's. The architectural styles from then until now are so vastly different that I have a hard time lumping them all into the same category though. Brutalist buildings rose in the era of post modernism. Would you classify them the same way? Similarly there's no way that Starchitecture is the same as buildings from the 90's.

Post modernism isn't just retro styled consumer designs. Structural Expressionism is futurist. Brutalism is actually 1960s, modern era, futurism and the precursor to Structural Expressionism.

[Nouvellecosse]

I've heard some debate about these classifications with some considering POMO to be limited to buildings with retro-design elements and placing neo-futurism as a separate category. There's generally an easily recognizable difference between them so I'm somewhat partial to that interpretation and if it does become the consensus, it would mean Foster's works like The Bow would not be considered POMO, meaning that POMO is pervasive but not encompassing of everything after modernism.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

The tops of Bankers Hall don't look like cowboy hats by any stretch. Just the classic pyramid shape we see on many other skyscrapers. Saddledome looks like a saddle. Enough that I have a hard time believing that wasn't deliberate.

I wonder if the Capital Centre was also saddle shaped as a salute to DC's cowboy culture?

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I've heard some debate about these classifications with some considering POMO to be limited to buildings with retro-design elements and placing neo-futurism as a separate category. There's generally an easily recognizable difference between them so I'm somewhat partial to that interpretation and if it does become the consensus, it would mean Foster's works like The Bow would not be considered POMO, meaning that POMO is pervasive but not encompassing of everything after modernism.

It's just confusing and it's not limited to post modernism either. There's so much crossover between architects and styles in the traditional era.

I consider PoMo to be the avant garde designs that died in the 1990s and not these retro inspired office towers like Banker's Hall. Mississauga City Hall takes many cues but it doesn't really try to be retro. It's conservative compared to most PoMo (aside the clock tower) which tends to look straight out of Tim Burton's Batman. Classical architecture motifs that are exaggerated in forward looking massing/designs

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by esquire

I wonder if the Capital Centre was also saddle shaped as a salute to DC's cowboy culture?

Nothing more American than cowboys! Homage to Lyndon B. Johnson?

[Nite]

Eastside of Downtown Toronto
• Video Link

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Nothing more American than cowboys!

Not sure if you're serious or joking. Just in case you were serious, the cowboy tradition was imported to this continent from Spain. It spread from Mexico north and south. The US is just one of many countries where the cowboy has become deeply ingrained. And one only need move to Alberta before that becomes plain as day. I'm always surprised how many eastern Canadians are oblivious to this. Perhaps, they've been watching too many American movies.

[905er]

Originally Posted by isaidso

You've been watching too many American movies. Cowboys originate in Mexico. The US is just one of many countries where the cowboy has become deeply ingrained.

...so what you're saying is American cowboys are really Mexican?..

[WhipperSnapper]

Europe made the best "American" cowboy movies. Most thought Bush was my president in the late 80s/early 90s. Can't blame them for not realizing cowboys are Mexican.


The original cowboy culture in Mexico take place in territory that is still Mexican or in territory that is now part of the United States of America?

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by 905er

...so what you're saying is American cowboys are really Mexican?..

The historical record shows that they don't belong to any one country. They're Canadian, American, Brazilian, Mexican, etc. and variations on the same thing are found in other countries like Australia.

[Hackslack]

I once saw a comment on a thread from someone out east that said Alberta was just a try hard Texas with the cowboy culture. Completely false of course. More showing that individuals lack of knowledge of western culture.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I've heard some debate about these classifications with some considering POMO to be limited to buildings with retro-design elements and placing neo-futurism as a separate category. There's generally an easily recognizable difference between them so I'm somewhat partial to that interpretation and if it does become the consensus, it would mean Foster's works like The Bow would not be considered POMO, meaning that POMO is pervasive but not encompassing of everything after modernism.

The Bow fits more in line with what I'll call Structural Expressionism (sometimes termed High Tech). It's certainly not as blatantly obvious as something like The Lloyd's Building in London (UK) or HSBC in Hong Kong (another Foster Building and maybe my favourite by him), but Architecture, Art, Music, and Literature can all be over categorized for me to the point of being a genre-splitting argument with little useful information.

I'm totally agreeing with O-tacular in Montreal having fantatic Po-Mo buildings. All the ones he listed are always in my brain when someone asks what my favourite skyscrapers ever in Canada and all would be at least in the Po-Mo umbrella.

When I dislike Po-Mo it is a certain colour palette and specific era within the larger umbrella. Things that harken to mall-chitecture like Portage Place in Winnipeg and the Investors Group Building here, which is starting to grow on me.

[ZeDgE]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Yes, I'm very disappointed by that. The new arena is a bland shell compared to the Dome. The acoustics and bathrooms may have sucked, but looking down from the top stands with the curving roofline was one of the coolest experiences I've had in any kind of large venue.

I'm not, blow it up.

I hate those nosebleeds tucked in the roof where it slopes down and you cant even see the other side of the arena, and the scoreboard is even cut off, its awful. Feels like you're in a separate building. Its so hard to see the puck too.

[WhipperSnapper]

This is PoMo

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2c/e8/2d/2ce82d8b41d526a62325b070e3732a09.jpg

which bears little in common to Bankers Hall

new attempts at reviving PoMo sometimes called Post PoMo are even more over the top whimsy taking cues from every era rather than being traditionally inspired (fitting as the current era is anything and everything goes )

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

When I dislike Po-Mo it is a certain colour palette and specific era within the larger umbrella. Things that harken to mall-chitecture like Portage Place in Winnipeg and the Investors Group Building here, which is starting to grow on me.

Yes that is bang on!!! Missingsausage shitty hall reminds me of mall-chitecture. It's the teals, and blues and reds and yellows with fussy metal accents like railings and clocktowers. Reminds me of mall foodcourts and elevators from the 80's / 90's.

[Chadillaccc]

From the morning a few days back…