Eyesore of the Month

[Donkey]

I dunno. I kind of don't hate the New being built directly into the Old.

[Michael]

Originally Posted by Dominick

New official harbour building in Antwerp. What were they thinking. It's supposed to be both a sail and a diamond.

That's seriously fucking ugly. Looks something like what Frank Gehry did to Toronto's venerable Royal Ontario Museum - it is absolutely hideous looking now.

Speaking of which, could that be Gehry's work? I looks hideous enough to be his style. He seems to like to put weird/ugly post-modernist-looking sculptural 'additions' onto classical old buildings. We've got a couple of them in Toronto.

[Donkey]

Looks to practical to be Gehry.

[Donkey]

Again though, I don't hate the marriage of old and new if done well. Our Museum of Art just underwent a massive overhaul, which included building an Atrium onto the old facade of the building (This hadn't been the actual facade in a while though, can't remember exactly what was there before).



You may notice that the protruding bit is a little bit "off" color. This is because the sides are weathered for almost a hundred years, whereas the protruding bit is new and a different color because it's the original coloring of the marble, since they went back to the same quarry in Italy to cut new stone for the addition.

[Dominick]

Originally Posted by dilettante

Ooof.

Really, I think the whole "diamond sail" construct would be fine...were it not so tragically straddling that other building of a completely different style.

Indeed, apart form each other both might work.

[Dominick]

Originally Posted by Michael

That's seriously fucking ugly. Looks something like what Frank Gehry did to Toronto's venerable Royal Ontario Museum - it is absolutely hideous looking now.

Speaking of which, could that be Gehry's work? I looks hideous enough to be his style. He seems to like to put weird/ugly post-modernist-looking sculptural 'additions' onto classical old buildings. We've got a couple of them in Toronto.

It's by one Zaha Hadid. I don't know much about her other than that she died earlier this year.

[Dominick]

Originally Posted by Donkey

Again though, I don't hate the marriage of old and new if done well.

Me neither, if indeed it's done well. For instance I quite like the infamous pyramid in front of the Louvre.

[Michael]

Originally Posted by Donkey

I dunno. I kind of don't hate the New being built directly into the Old.

Originally Posted by Dominick

Me neither, if indeed it's done well. For instance I quite like the infamous pyramid in front of the Louvre.

Agreed. A mixture of old and new can work very well if done right. Problem is, it is rarely done 'right'.

For example, we have many skyscraper buildings in Toronto that grow out of old 'historic' street level facades that serve as a front entrance/lobby and this generally works quite well. We've got one beautiful skyscraper that is 'attached' via an enormous glass atrium with a 1920's era art deco office building. Though, most of these are 30 or 40 years old now. Most of the newer 'mixtures' are of the garish type that don't work well (like the 'sail' above).