August 27, 2007
Let There Be Lightbox
The arduous, lengthy, and expensive quest to name the Bell Festival Centre is over. The Star described the process for finding a new moniker for the home of the Toronto International Film Festival Group in dramatic terms: "[it] has gone on for years," wrote Martin Knelman, "involving high-priced consulting firms and a committee of board members and gurus, climaxing with a think-tank meeting at a retreat in Cambridge, Ont."
No small feat, then, determining the name. And the decision this morning, the culmination of the work of those years, those high-priced consulting firms and gurus and board members and think-tanks? The Bell Lightbox, a name that sounds more like the latest piece of Adobe software (with a software-y logo to go with it) than a proper name for a building.
The building itself has an awkward design to go with its awkward name, all weird rectangles shoved on top of other weird rectangles––maybe calling it a "box" isn't so incorrect, then. In the end, TIFF's new home comes off as more of a strange but boring five-storey condo or some overdesigned mega-club than the headquarters for a company that wants to be world-renowned for the art it curates. Nonetheless, they're still shoving a thousand-storey condo––Festival Tower––on top of it anyway.
See more renderings after the jump.
All renderings courtesy of Bell Lightbox's website.
| 
great minds think alike
"The process of choosing a name has gone on for years, involving high-priced consulting firms and a committee of board members and gurus, climaxing with a think-tank meeting at a retreat in Cambridge, Ont."
Wow, no wonder the tickets are $20.75 each this year.
Sorry guest #1, didn't realize that. I actually don't read blogTO (I know, right?), so it was an honest-to-gosh coincidence. I was looking through my music for a good name, the first step for me when I write article titles for some reason, and came across the Justice song called "Let There Be Light." You can see the original title in the URL, though, was going to be "Lightheaded," which I got from a Pernice Brothers song.
It looks like it will overwhelm the neighbourhood. It's rather out of scale to the locale. That part of King St. W. has a 3 to 5 storey streetwall.
I wonder what KPMB thinks? They're right across the street.
I like it better than the Vancouver festival building/condo.
This is right next to the Holiday Inn carbuncle on King and on the south of King along the next block is the Metro Centre, another monstrous carbuncle. Now we have this, essentially a gigantic condo masquerading as an arts building. There's no more imagination gone into this design that your average condo.
The design of the building is perhaps a step up from most condos, but that's not really much of a complement, and I agree there's something very awkward about it. There should be something iconic in the design of an arts building, it shouldn't look so much like a mall as it does in these renderings, though I suspect that's what this is.
Looks kind of fugly. Like the Four Seasons Centre with a condo tower stapled on top.
You'd think there would be something artistic and classic about a film arts building, but you'd be wrong.
Hey, rectangles!
This thing is generic extruded contemporary urban unremarkableness.
i'm not in love with this building, but the comments on this and other architecture posts on this and other websites lead me to wonder... are there any modern buildings in toronto and/or the rest of the world that any of you like at all? maybe we should return to cave-dwelling...
The architectural renderings would be more accurate if they included aggressive beggars, loadsa trash, tiny dying trees in cement planters and 1905-vintage overhead wires. OK this is Toronto so none of these endearing local attractions will ever change. On a more practical note, the sidewalk space on King looks totally inadequate to handle the crowds. What is it about this city that we hate sidewalks and public space so much? Couldn't the building be pushed back a bit, maybe with the concession of (horror) a couple more floors of condo?
Jeeff - I like a lot of the work (and unrealized proposals) of Zaha Hadid, for example, though she's also guilty of the nondescript stack of boxes look.
The Dancing Towers, the Dubai Opera House. And the O-14, the Dancing Towers, the planned Dubai Towers (all in, you guessed it, Dubai)... If it's being built in Dubai, I probably like it.
I just don't get this stacked boxes look. Google the India Tower by FXFowle Architects for a particularly ridiculous example.
I really like the look of the building but they've certainly set themselves up for a challenge separating themselves as distinct from the condo (likely the condo will try to suggest there is no distinction, like 'live here, meet celebs').
And I actually like the name but that logo is TERRIBLE. Just pathetic.
It's like whoever made it had never seen a logo before.
Andrew:
KPMB (specifically Bruce Kuwabara) is actually the firm behind this.
How can you not like the logo, #13? It's light! Going into a box! It's genius!
I assumed it was coming out of the box myself.
Toronto's architects have got to be among the worst in the world.
This building is a HUGE, HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!!!
Another missed opportunity in a city that is full of buildings that range from incredibly ugly to boring and conservative.
This would have been an opportunity to build a building that would wow the world.
What we have is another ho-hum condo!
Just pathetic!!