City
Saturday Brew: Toronto's Human Egg Market, York University BRT Opens, Cameron House for Sale, Leaf Request, ROM Crystal Among Ugliest Buildings
Photo: "Fuzzy Memory" by PJMixer, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
This week's entry in what appears to be an ongoing investigative journalism feature in the Saturday Star examines Toronto's black market in human eggs. Unlike the States, Canada has banned the sale of such eggs, leaving would-be parents with fertility problems to rely on the limited supply provided by altruistic donors. Or Craigslist. There is, of course, a host of problems associated with the unregulated sale of of such a sensitive "product" (which can cost up to $10 000), but those desperate to conceive have few other options within the current system.
Yesterday saw the opening of the York University BRT, which uses the hydro corridor north of Finch to shuttle passengers between Dufferin and Keele streets away from traffic. Although it's estimated that the BRT, which also uses dedicated lanes on campus and a special exit ramp from Downsview station, will shave up to 14 minutes off the previous trip time, I'm pretty sure this'll only be true during the height of rush hour. Having had a chance to ride it yesterday, I have to say that at 3 p.m. it wasn't more than a couple of minutes faster than normal. Maybe it was my bus driver, who was plodding along at a painful pace.
The Cameron House, a staple of the Queen West arts scene, is up for sale. Owners Cindy Matthews, Paul Sannella and Anne-Marie Ferraro hope they can find a buyer sympathetic to the role the Cameron has played in helping local artists and musicians gain both a sense of community and exposure. As their listing reads, "the hippest neighbourhood in the city awaits your style and imagination." That sounds a lot like a condo ad, and I have my suspicions that that's exactly what might eventually replace the arts hub.
Toronto Maple Leaf fans, myself included, are fed up. Despite the arrival of Phil Kessel, who's played well, the team remains abysmal. Last in the league, is it possible that we might see some changes? My personal request: send Jason Blake, Rickard Wallin and John Mitchell to the minors -- that's addition by substraction.
The ROM's Michael Lee-Chin Crystal has been voted one of the world's ugliest buildings by VirtualTourist. Citing the addition's lack of congruity to the original, the site compares it to I. M. Pie's pyramid at the Louvre. This is odd to me. I've always loved this building, exploding as it does out of the original structure. What do you think?
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The criticism is fair, as are those who say 'wait and see'. I personally think the ROM was distracted by the 'starchitect' factor and wrongly bought into a building that is all form over function. More thought was put into the 'wow' factor than what the building would actually be used for. This is clear from the weird lack of space and the fact that no one thought about the impact of light on exhibits during the design.
I don't hate the building, it's an interesting sight both inside and out. That doesn't mean it's beyond criticism. I certainly think we could have had something better and we need to stop being impressed by the big names in architecture. I'm curious to see how it ages (not literally, but in our perception of it).
Okay, on to other things like helping the hungry of Toronto.
What is fugly, is the virtual tourist's photo. That's not a photograph, that's crap. No wonder it doesn't translate into the awesomeness the addition is in real life.
I have yet to see the inside [yeah, yeah, shame...], but I'm not convinced that the best design ought to be the most practical. That kind of thinking is seen in most of Toronto's architecture. Stuck in who knows where and soooo practical. Too bad it's ugly to boot. Great!
I love Alsop's OCAD addition too BTW.
I don't know if comment threads count as a discussion forum, they are usually more of a peanut gallery. I just can't believe we are still having this conversation. If people think we blundered the opportunity offered by the ROM they should be present throughout the discussions surrounding the next important public edifice.
Hating a building once it is built isn't that productive - unless you lobby to have it demolished. OCAD, the ROM and AGO have become these utterly bland touchstones around which we rally to prove how conservative we are - and guess what, hindsight is 20/20. Honestly, these (after the fact) conversations about public architecture sound like a chorus of yapping dogs to me... maybe I should move on to something more stimulating, like watching paint dry.
The awkward angles continue inside the ROM and make it virtually impossible to display the artifacts in a sensible manner, and are a complete waste of space. As well, you have to avoid walking into sloping ceilings. What a architectural nightmare.
Then when you try and exit the ROM, good luck. The exit is right out of a TIm Burton movie set. The old entrance and exit was simple, inspiring and grand. We all have a right as Ontario tax payers to voice our opinion. And as Alison said, what a shame this money was not put into other social programs that really matter, like teen drug abuse, sexual abuse, or our growing gang violence problem.