defend the indefensible: ocad expansion

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http://www.ocad.on.ca/OCAD_extresized.jpg
ontario college of art & design
this is the ugliest thing i have ever seen
42 million
why, god, why¿

― dyson (dyson), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

That building looks like it belongs in Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm all for the OCAD expanding but that really is damm ugly. I wish they had worked in Henry Miller since the AGO has tons just laying around.
Honestly, that design belongs over here: Where do *you* draw the line between "I don't want to see that" and "That should not exist"?

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

perhaps, but i'd hate to derail that thread from the kiddie porn debate.

― dyson (dyson), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

moore moore moore not miller. Damm between him and Owen Hargreaves I'll never get a name right.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

That building is horrendous. What was the designer on, for fuck's sake?

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Hope Im not the only one thinking that polkadoted top section is a giant death trap for when a fire starts up there.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Nah, everyone just slides down the poles, like firemen.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the big red thing is a glass stairway but I'm not sure. Its at the right decline for one.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

when a fire starts¿¿¿
mr noodles, you're not getting any funny ideas are you¿

although a fire could only improve it aestheticly.

― dyson (dyson), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

and yes, the red thing is a stairway. a stairway to hideous.

― dyson (dyson), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Im just waiting for the pigeons from The Grange to turn that ruby red staircase to grey.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 19:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Thankgawd this won't be visible over the other buildings from Spadina or Queen West.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

oooh, wrong you are. this thing is high in the sky. i can see it from queen - i have to look at its ugly progress everyday.

― dyson (dyson), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

It's still hard for me to believe that this is a real building and not a b3ta photoshop nightmare.

― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a little of both right now.

― dyson (dyson), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Isn't there a giant ugly apartment building just east of it? It should still be safe to walk down Spadina, not that it could make Chinatown any more gawdy.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually thought it was pretty cool in a "wow, I've never seen that before" kind of way - except for the technicolour nougat bar aspect of it.

― Kim (Kim), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

It looks like a big bathroom from the 80s!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

jesus thats ridiculous looking

― robin (robin), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 23:34 (twenty-one years ago)

my bad. you can only see it from queen when you're at the bottom of mccaul. still that's 2ice a day i have to pass its horrific visage. ugh.

― dyson (dyson), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I kind of want to live there. And coordinate my clothes to match.

It's still terrible and indefensible, though.

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

What are you all talking about?! It resembles a Checkers Hamburger box perched on giant Pick-Up Stix = it is clearly the greatest design triumph ever conceived. Sometimes i wonder if you all really do love everything after all.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

(42 million could buy a LOT of Checkers hamburgers though.)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

You probably don't want to live there unless you mean right in the thing.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I wanted to start something for the ROM expansion since they are ruining a perfectly good building for the sake of being modern but can't find any pictures of it.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Right in it, yeah! It'd be like living in one of my better shirts. I'm imagining a kitchen with counters and appliances in those colors and wallpaper like the pizzabox-looking thing on top.

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I love how it "integrates" with the red-brick building, too!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a certain irony in its being a building intended to house a school of design. Not exactly what one would call effective advertising.

― mouse, Wednesday, 15 October 2003 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

it's an ironic design school now (ociad). i can't believe i'm saying this, but thank god i went to george brown¡

and noodles you're otm re: the rom. they totally got the wrong guy for the job on that one.

― dyson (dyson), Thursday, 16 October 2003 13:13 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.ocad.on.ca/large_OCAD_ext.jpg

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.ocad.on.ca/large_highangle.jpg

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:12 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.ocad.on.ca/large_entrance.jpg

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:12 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.ocad.on.ca/large_foyer.jpg

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

man, i really hope when i get back to toronto EVERYTHING looks like the sims

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I may be a total wuss, but I am completely serious when I say that the close-up pictures Mark P. just posted were completely terrifying. I would be afraid to even go near that building.

― Nicolars (Nicole), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I love how the artist decided to drop tons of lovelee ladiez in the second one.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

This can't be real, holy fucknugget. It looks like if Dali was god and did a bunch of really horrible acid and puked regurgitated brainpoop all over reality.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)

i love how you noticed that. i was all dystracted by the ugly - but you've manged to find the beauty. that's probably why they were thrown in.

― dyson (dyson), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

haha no ocad student in the history of art has EVER dressed like any of those girls

ps. nic that's about as dali as a telnet screen

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I just kinda plucked the first name to come to mind from my head there ha ha.

Nicole was so extremely OTM with her first post up in here that I'm hearing Danny Elfman clowns-in-hell carnival-nightmare music in my head now.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

its so offensive i cant really find it in my heart to hate it

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

ha haa. very true.
i was thinking it looked like someone was trying to pull off a post modern gaudí look. with horrific, horrific success.

― dyson (dyson), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

its like god got high one afternoon and decided to "make something" with pickup stix and a krispy kreme box

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:51 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't think there is anything god-like about it tho

― dyson (dyson), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, for serious, artists did this? And not drunken oompah loompahs?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 16 October 2003 15:57 (twenty-one years ago)

AGO is to easy, we should move on to the ROM :P
The problem with the ROM is on any other building it would be great, but the ROM building is one of the best of any styles in the city already.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 16 October 2003 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

the "lady" on the left is not being especially lady-like. even I don't sit like that!
http://www.ocad.on.ca/large_entrance.jpg

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 16 October 2003 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

the rom¿ i don't exactly like the way the styles fuse, but that approach has worked in the past and maybe once it's done it might look good.
but i doubt it - the artists renderings i've seen make it look like a giant glass amoeba is consuming a old museum.

― dyson (dyson), Thursday, 16 October 2003 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

It could be a cool Quake level.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 16 October 2003 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 6 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Sean - have you seen this thing in person yet? It's partially up already. Get your butt up there with a camera for us, will you? (yes, I know that's a really questionable grammatic structure right there, but wtf.)

Zac had a really excellent question about the scary firetrap look that thing has. I mean seriously - do treehouse rope ladders or inflatable slides drop out the windows up there in case of an emergency, or what?

Oh and anyone got any visuals for the ROM thing? I only remember seeing it once and don't remember hating it.

― Kim (Kim), Friday, 17 October 2003 00:18 (twenty-one years ago)

it looks like a dalmation humping an orderly pile of bricks.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 17 October 2003 00:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe they think the bloodstains on the concrete below from all the people jumping out the windows would be artistic.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Friday, 17 October 2003 02:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Someone call Kate's Crush #127, its performance art just waiting to happen.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 17 October 2003 03:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh yeah! You're so right Sean - look, they even helpfully indicated some "x" target zones and added some disembodied intestine sculptures to make the whole "dying horribly" experience as fabulous as possible.

http://www.ocad.on.ca/large_highangle.jpg

― Kim (Kim), Friday, 17 October 2003 03:05 (twenty-one years ago)

here you kids go; rom (royal ontario museum) images from the future:

http://www.bharchitects.com/architecture/portfolio/portfolio_images/port_photos/rom-aerialcity.jpg

http://www.bharchitects.com/architecture/portfolio/portfolio_images/port_photos/rom-crystal.jpg

http://www.bharchitects.com/architecture/portfolio/portfolio_images/port_photos/rom-toeast.jpg

it's not nearly as offensive as the ocad "thing" but i'm not sure if i like

― dyson (dyson), Friday, 17 October 2003 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

It's like someone got bored with their Transformer halfway between rocketjet and robotguy.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 17 October 2003 14:34 (twenty-one years ago)

If it wasn't already the greatest building on University I'd be down with it. But having a even a world famous architect wack off on a wonderful building still means your left with his spunk all over it.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 17 October 2003 14:35 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.ubdavid.org/mailboxfolder/winners_youth/winners_graphics/GMCYaa05.GIF
"Why's that glacier engulfing the ROM, mommy? Are we all going to die?"

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Friday, 17 October 2003 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

dude, somebody's 3rd grade science fair exhibit is a success! the museum has grown it's own crystals! now, to remove the string from the solution...

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 17 October 2003 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

By request, the OCAD building in progress (click for larger versions):
http://www.armchair.mb.ca/~oneiros/ilx/ocad-beginnings-s.jpg http://www.armchair.mb.ca/~oneiros/ilx/ocad-beginnings2-s.jpg

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Saturday, 18 October 2003 00:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Field notes: the building is a lot smaller than you'd think from looking at the artist's renditions above, but it's also a lot closer to the other buildings and to the street and to things like trees and street lights etc. The upshot is that it'll probably seem very imposing in the immediate vicinity but people a block down may not notice it all that much.

Editor's comments: If this thing is actually going to stay upright after it's all put together, it'd be interesting to do semi-regular additions to it, vertically, in classic Tinkertoy style, getting more and more precarious-looking the further it goes up. The engineer who miscalculates and pushes it into instability loses the game. (And hopefully whoever designed this one actually accounted for the weight of the stuff that's going to go into it, like desks, chairs, filing cabinets, computers and people.)

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Saturday, 18 October 2003 00:42 (twenty-one years ago)

hopefully not.

― dyson (dyson), Monday, 20 October 2003 13:34 (twenty-one years ago)

courtesy of tribe mag (sorry about the size of some of these):

http://digitallove.ca/Images/large_OCAD.jpg

http://www.tribemagazine.com/dogOCAD.jpg

http://members.rogers.com/cpollock/ocadhoth.gif

http://www3.telus.net/avocado/random/ocad6.jpg

my favourite one, which i couldn't find online, has the extension as sponge bob square pants' torso

― dyson (dyson), Monday, 20 October 2003 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

The Star Wars one is GREBT!

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 20 October 2003 17:42 (twenty-one years ago)

i wish i could find the sponge bob one tho. i laughed my ass off.
well, if you wanna see it pick up a tribe mag somewhere.

― dyson (dyson), Monday, 20 October 2003 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

"If it wasn't already the greatest building on University I'd be down with it. But having a even a world famous architect wack off on a wonderful building still means your left with his spunk all over it. "

Wow, there's an image. This is why you don't send me poems, isn't it?

(That star wars thing almost killed me! Holy crap! hahaha)

― Kim (Kim), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:17 (twenty-one years ago)

The last poem I ever wrote was when I was taking OAC English 3 (Creative Writing).

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:25 (twenty-one years ago)

that building is great!!! (i may not think this if i actually had to live by it)

obv. the designer has many fond memories of the 80s. first two things i thot of, the store they had on Facts of Lfe that George Clooney worked in, (kinda like Spencers but only the kiddie stuff, notthe headshop and sex posters stuff) and the Rhino 80s box http://www.rhino.com/covers150/78/78239.jpg

― H (Heruy), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 09:26 (twenty-one years ago)

it was a missed opportunity not to replace the legs of that Hoth walker with Giant Pick-Up Sticks

http://www.mastersgames.com/images/giant-pick-up-sticks.jpg

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 10:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I love this thread.

I love the Star Wars one, and H is inerrantly on the money with the Facts of Clooney comparison. Maybe that's why I want to live there, there might be vestiges left of my teenage big-hair-Blair crush.

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 10:24 (twenty-one years ago)

i actually think i had bedsheets that were that exact design. i've been searching on google for an example so i can post it

― H (Heruy), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 10:39 (twenty-one years ago)

first two things i thot of, the store they had on Facts of Lfe that George Clooney worked in, (kinda like Spencers but only the kiddie stuff, notthe headshop and sex posters stuff)

It was called Over Our Heads.

I think this is the saddest piece of trivia that I can remember.

― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 11:11 (twenty-one years ago)

who knew it would take a thread on architecture for me to find out that clooney used to be on facts of life¡

― dyson (dyson), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 12:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Did anyone read the write-up in the NY Times??? It was insane. It's like the writer completely ignored the fact that the rendering (at least) is the ugliest thing ever! Have we talked about how it looks like an early 90s corrupted auto-cad file?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 3 November 2003 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

OCAD...AUTOCAD. Coincidence? We think not.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 3 November 2003 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Link! Link! Link!
We demand a hyperlink!

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 3 November 2003 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Link is: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/02/arts/design/02BLUM.html
but you'll need a login to see it.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 3 November 2003 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I just hope this bastard doesn't win the contest to design the International Human Rights museum here.

― Bryan (Bryan), Monday, 3 November 2003 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the architect has been inhaling his coincidentally namesake air duster.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 3 November 2003 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

That article does a great job of not saying how ugly the thing is.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 3 November 2003 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

http://www.thestar.ca/images/thestar/img/040128_ago_design_250.jpg
The AGO expansion is probably not going to be the next Guggenheim but it is going to look even better next to the mess that is the OCAD.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 29 January 2004 03:47 (twenty-one years ago)

...but i think it's a c o o l eyesore...
they called the eiffel tower and the gugenheim (sp?) eyesores too..now look where they are. i think this ugly thing has potential, hehhee..

― Jonna Pedersen, Friday, 30 January 2004 04:02 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

http://members.rogers.com/mark.pytlik/ocad00.jpg
http://members.rogers.com/mark.pytlik/ocad01.jpg
http://members.rogers.com/mark.pytlik/ocad02.jpg
http://members.rogers.com/mark.pytlik/ocad03.jpg
http://members.rogers.com/mark.pytlik/ocad04.jpg
http://members.rogers.com/mark.pytlik/ocad05.jpg
http://members.rogers.com/mark.pytlik/ocad06.jpg

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

horrendous.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 01:19 (twenty-one years ago)

right now it doesn't really work like i hoped it would.

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

It still looks not quite real. Does it have that effect in person?

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

a little bit, i guess, but not as much as i'd hoped. more than anything it just kind of feels gaudy and extraneous. i'm still glad it exists though.

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

(btw are the last two photos in that strip coming up warped to scale or is it just me?)

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I still can't believe that it's real and not someone's idea of a joke.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

It must feel like a stage of space taxi.
http://screenmania.retrogames.com/c64/01/c64_0003_11.png
hey, taxi!

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

hideous!

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Just fixed up the sizing of the last two.

I think I've mentioned before, but the "artist's renditions" of the thing don't really do justice to the claustrophobic feeling you get when you see the thing in the neighborhood itself. The image at the top looks positively airy, but the real thing, as you can see, is blocked by buildings and wires whenever you're trying to actually look at the thing.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 02:36 (twenty-one years ago)

my god, until i saw the latest photos, i thought you people were KIDDING!

this reminds me of that Marlboro ad with the guy sticking his head up his own ass.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 04:32 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.lan-i-am.org/images/head-up-ass.jpg

― Dave M. (rotten03), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe its negative reinforcement for the students?

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 12:41 (twenty-one years ago)

and I bet its a bitch to heat in the winter.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 12:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I think my grandma had a table that looked like that...about thirty years ago.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh yeah, and OCAD, eat your hearts out .

I just paid a visit to this & it is so cool.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Here is a better gallery for the new IIT buildings.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

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