The Pugly Awards
If you live in this city, you most definitely have a favourite building you hate. Well, now there's a place to actually voice your opinion on that matter and see if others share your pain. The Pugly Awards were created to allow the public to vote for the good, the bad and ugly buildings that have been added to our city in the last year.
The "Puglies" are taking votes today until March 31st. I like this idea... it's to raise awareness of this city's architecture by the public- not the tight-lipped experts. I didn't realize that architects had a certain code of ethics that states they can't diss a recently built structure as not to sound petty! Praise isn't a problem, but criticism is a serious faux-pas. Uh, if that system was applied at my work, there would be a serious ego-battle going down. Don't you need to let people know when they've mucked up to keep things in line?
The advisory board for the Puglies is a diverse one, ranging from RUSH's Geddy Lee, FT's Jeanne Becker to CEO Charles Cutts (Roy Thompson/Massey Hall). Visit the website for more entry details and restrictions. There will definitely be loads of cross-over with who hated and who loved what... As an example, I posted a picture of the new OCAD building which I personally love. It's a bit flimsy looking, but if it resembled something that was built by Dr. Snuggles, it's OK by me.
Comments (9)
what a great site! i agree the OCAD building is amazing. on the ugly side of things, we could probably include almost every condo development - cityplace, chocolate factory....the list goes on.
say waht you will about the building but dont knock it untill you've walked up the massive staircase. from the outside this staircase is the big orange thing that connects to the main building. i ended up walking up it while it while the building was still in construction, i guess somebody left the door open, the walls were completely white, dont know if they still are. it was my first and only time in the building. so my point. Walking up that stair case was a phenomenal experice, i mean i havent clibed everest or anything but it was absolutley amazing. please if you havent walked the stairs do so. also my apologies for the spelling i am one lazy computer writer.
later and love
sally
The outside of that building reflects the attitude of most of the new students at the school: Back home they were outsiders and they dressed to shock. But in Toronto it's just ugly.
The outside of the building it ugly, the inside is even worse. The halls are narrow and in the centre of the building, that staircase has NO WINDOWS, the air is all recycled and those "cool" little windows scattered about are never where you want them to be when inside.
That building was built ONLY to attract the attention of pedestrians on Queen St. It's shameful really.
If there was ever an architectural metaphor for design screwing the arts, this would probably be it.
As a long time resident of Toronto, I'd have to say that the buildings don't 'bother' me and what value can be served by giving them a thumbs up or thumbs down??
I'd think we'd be better served by providing some of our neighbourhoods with some free expert advice on how to improve the general (and specific)look of the buildings that are there. Like they do on Town Haul, the Trading Spaces show.
What difference will slagging the building do, when the problem might well be debris, the burden of ugly, signage and a lack of co-operative aesthetic? Perhaps some flowers or greenery?
Maybe these new self-styled pundits could get out there and actually lend a real helping hand, instead of creating another photo op for themselves! This is the worst sort of designer fluff.
LOL. The chocolate factory in the city no longer exists.. it's now a condo/loft complex. Queen and Ossington-ish.
But for the record, there is a Nestle factory in the boroughs.
This award smells like an ill-conceived marketing/smear campaign for Gary Berman et al. Making derogatory and unhelpful comments about various buildings does not help our city in the least.
I also find it fishy that 3 out of 20 buildings nominated were built by Plazacorp. I'm shaking my head over the Wellington Square building. It's nothing spectacular but it certainly isn't the glass and steel monstrosity of the Waterclub.
Seriously, several condos in those results should be ranked much lower.
I find this whole Pugly thing questionable in its usefulness. Like Darius said above 'this is the worst sort of designer fluff'.
A big THUMBS DOWN on the Puglys!!
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