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A museum of ceramics may not be everyone's cup of tea [rimshot], but the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art is one of Toronto's favourite buildings. Garnering an unprecedented positive rating of 81.5%, the structure took top honours in the third annual Pug Awards, which were announced today.
The Pug Awards, despite their frustrating website, had Torontonians vote on 22 new buildings with a simple thumbs-up, thumbs-down rating. 40,000 votes later, the brilliant Gardiner came out on top while the atrocious Be Bloor condominums landed a deserved last, with only 2.7% of participants brave enough to voice their approval.
Re-opened a year ago and with 3,000 pieces in the permanent collection, the Gardiner is Canada's largest museum dedicated to ceramic art. Designed by renowned architecture firm Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB), the building alludes to the cantilevered style of Frank Lloyd Wright and the clean modernist lines of Le Corbusier. The museum also sits directly eastward from the Royal Ontario Museum's new Crystal, which will undoubtedly find a spot in next year's Pug Awards.
In second place, with a 77.7% approval rating, is the stylish One King West, which is graceful in its thin profile and boatlike prow. Third and fourth place went to the Leslie Dan Pharmacy Building and the Tip Top Lofts conversion. Participants were torn over the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts (59.7% approval) and nine out of ten of the lowest-rated buildings were condos.
The Pug Awards (formerly Pugly Awards) is also known as The People's Choice Awards for Architecture, and was started in 2005 as a means to express both displeasure and enthusiasm for newly-completed architectural projects. The handpicked design board includes rock legend Geddy Lee, Toronto Life's John Macfarlane, ex-mayor David Crombie, and National Post gossip gadfly Shinan Govani.
Gardiner Museum photo by Shai Gil, courtesy of KPMB Architects
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I actually really like the exterior of the Pottery Barn on Bloor, as they restored the façade of the old University theatre.
As far as the Pug Awards go, I was shocked by how well the Four Seasons Centre and Ryerson Business Building did. Diamond + Schmitt and Zeidler Partnership are anachronistic embarrassments that seem to get hired based on their names and reputations, even though they haven't done anything decent in this city in decades. It boggles my mind that anyone would ever choose to hire them over KPMB.
Too bad that, inside, the Gardiner Museum is probably the dullest museum ever. But I'm surprised that the Four Seasons Centre ranked so low; I (totally disagree with Jonathan and) find it absolutely beautiful.
I can't wait until next year, when the ROM is eligible for the Puglys. Here's hoping that the site will improve -- especially when it comes to photos, as a good or bad photo can do a lot to make a building seem either shitty or gorgeous, especially when people might not have seen the building before.
Opera is not bad at all - but Tip Top ... de gustibus non disputandum est, but there's sth. wrong in tastes of the voters
As usual re these things, I'll betcha a lot of them were voting for the original Tip Top building, rather than the conversion per se...
I dunno...I thought Context did a great job on the Tip Top Lofts conversion. They restored the lobby ceiling and retained the Art Deco tellers cage, as well as the lighting standards and fixtures. It looks quite similar to how it used to, so why don't people like it?
I'm also no Context apologist (I live in a Context building and their customer service sucks), but I think the Tip Top conversion is one of the best.
I'm not saying that people don't like the conversion. I'm saying that people like what it's converted from...and that, invisibly, might have guided a lot of voting choices.
And as for "anachronistic embarrassment" Diamond + Schmitt, remember that another Pug contestant was their Hudson condo which, arguably, is a more valid throwback to when they were doing so-called "decent" stuff in this city...