Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
While trying to decide whether to be dazzled or mildly offended by the LED installations currently ornamenting The Bay's Queen Street store, Torontoist was taken aback to find that the dire predictions about a possible ripple effect have already become (partially) true, in that another building further south on Yonge has followed its lead by adorning its facade with its own light display – albeit one without the relative class of The Bay's.
On approach from the north (see left photo), the shimmering face of 137 Yonge Street (at Temperance) is merely puzzling. When viewed from straight-on, however, the seventeen columns of neon tubing, each climbing eight floors of the building, are downright gaudy (right). While the fact that it is neither an advertisement, nor has the potential to be turned into an advertisement, is commendable (and very much a relief), the sheer inexplicability and terrific inappropriateness of the installation are offensive to the public-space advocates in us on a whole other, less well-defined level.
Photos, which make blasted thing seem much prettier than it actually is, by Daniel Quinn.
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I thought they looked pretty cool when I saw them from down the street..
If you are offended by gaudy flashy things, why are you walking down Yonge steet? To me, that's part of it's charm.
Wow! Gorgeous! :)
I liked how it looked the other day when I saw it lit and throbbing and animating. It kinda reminds me of a building I saw in Rotterdam that has light patterns. The building beneath the new lighting scaffold is superfugly, so I'm digging it. Better than a neon ad, no?
I don't mind it so much. Better than spelling out ads in neon on the side of the building, or projecting advertisements onto the building.
I don't mind it, either...could be way, way worse.
Yeah, exactly.. it's a big improvement over the building it is covering, and it's not selling anything, so where's the problem.
I realize it wasn't the same author and all that, but doesn't it seem a bit hypocritical for Torontoist, on the one hand, to be commending someone for spraypainting their name all over the city's planters, but on the other hand to be criticizing a business for putting up a light display because it seems to resemble an ad?
They're actually quite pretty coming along Adelaide St too. Sometimes gaudy is good!
Now that obscenely bright ad screen perched just above eye level at the SE corner of Adelaide & Yonge is something that just needs to go.
They'd look better without all those wasteful interior lights burning away in the dark. Besides, what says world class city more than a neon horizon?
Aren't these a part of the Cavalcade of Lights?
I'm always a fan of anything (except advertising) that makes the ordinary look a bit more whimsical.
That said, that headline on this post is possibly the greatest headline of all time. Headlines are my least favourite thing to do. I always find myself drawn to alliteration for some reason, and then I remember that I hate when other people use it.
Has anyone considered calling this light display "the Arcade Fire"?
(BTW I don't mind it--and even have a soft spot for the neat-enough c1960 stainless steel curtain wall it adulterates. Even if said curtain wall dents easily, judging by the service entrance on Victoria. And even if it replaced a much-lamented Victorian-era Arcade building. Now if only they'd reinstate the horizontal seriffed signage that once adorned the front. Oh, and even if not bi-levelled like it once was, it's by far a better old-school downtown retail experience inside than anything PATH-wise, complete with the vintage-camera passport-photo guy...)
Well, aesthetically, I think it would look better with the lights in the windows off. Environmentally, ditto.
Mostly though, if they make us actually look up and notice something, good on 'em.
I like the Monty Python reference... the lights I could take or leave...
I kinda like em!
It looks fabulous. I saw it when I was driven home from the airport after a flight from Nanaimo. People who whine about it shouldn't live in cities. They should move to the west coast where the granola's high.
I lament the day they renovated the retail floor. I also lament the day Mr. Dressup's wife was killed in a freak accident out front.
Vintage passport photo guy took the wickedest posed passport photos.
I lament the fact that the Passport office won't accept those anymore.
I drove up Yonge street and saw it for the first time last week and my reaction, along with everyone else in the car, was overwhelmingly positive. I'm not sure I see the travesty you do.
The Bay? Class? Shurely you jest.
I think the lights are awesome. They are gaudy but they give the place a presence...something to talk...or blog about no? Anyways, I really hope this encourage more places around Toronto to do this sort of thing...without advertising!
Hooray for blog articles that try to pass off quirky opinion as accepted fact. You, sir, are in the minority and just lost credibility.
"Lite Brite, making things with light"
From the side, when the colors blend, it looks kinda like a backround to one of my favorite KISS photos...so as a child of the 70's, and as one who is also glad that it's NOT an ad. Why not? Cool.
Hooray for commenters who read said articles accusing them of passing off quirky opinion as fact, when they really aren't, and then accusing them of being in the minority when it appears that the majority agrees with them.
I'm quite a fan of the lights and am not quite sure how lights on a building are somehow offensive to public space. The City just spent the last month lighting up Old City Hall, the Louvre in Paris gets lit up, Hong Kong City Hall has a similar light display, etc... All of these contribute to a dynamic public space.
Here's another shot btw;
http://kompot-photo.blogspot.com/2007/01/arcade-building.html
Another vote for liking them. I'd even like to see them extended to other spots in the city.
strange, how we look at something that's interesting, different, and we instantly think "what's this selling?" stranger still that when something is revealed to be decoration (art, even!) it is criticized as being ''offensive'' because of its ''sheer inexplicability"? so glad that the rest of you have taken this blog, and this post, to task.
I think it's fabulous and perfect for Yonge Street.
I like 'em. They had blue with white "falling" bits the other day which is close as we've seen to snow yet.
I think they're marvelously tacky :). Speaking of ads vs. art, I remember when they first installed the media tower at the Eaton Centre and they were running it in "test mode"... big closeups of flowers and whatnot on the video screen, and colourful geometric patterns on the scrolling-panel dealie. It looked quite nice. And it kinda makes me wonder if this thing on the arcade is just running a test pattern right now :P.
I haven't seen this with my own two eyes yet, but from the pics it looks neat!
I saw this about a week ago, and my feeling was that this boring building finally had something interesting about it. The location on Yonge is appropriate for this and it is done well so I am not entirely sure where the problem lies.