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.