August 9, 2007
No Tabletop For This Alsop
Last month, we reported on the mammoth new film studio development being installed in the portlands—plans which included a flagship building designed by renowned British architect Will Alsop at the entrance to the complex. Alsop's renderings were just unveiled, and while not as brash as his OCAD "tabletop" building, the new Filmport landmark will be tough to ignore.
Alsop's recent motifs (most visible to Torontonians in his West Side Lofts sales office) have involved organic "cloud" shapes and bubble-like orbs, and those elements are also present in the Filmport design.
Swooping lines are meant to allude to the shipping history of the portlands, and while one side is bracketed by what looks like a gigantic, curved red punch card, the opposite is all glass, including a striking four-storey transparent amoeba at grade. The glass blob hearkens back to Alsop's ill-fated design for a structure in Liverpool, which was canned due to skyrocketing costs, but which the architect also claimed was one of his best. The gloopy window cutouts are similar to those perforating The Public Gallery in West Bromwich, England.
The Filmport structure is intended to be used not only for offices, but for public events and exhibitions in an attempt to create a "convergence district" that incorporates the general public into the new studio district.
Not everyone finds the Filmport design appealing. Robert Ouellette of Reading Toronto calls it "perhaps one of the most poorly considered designs [he's] seen since leaving the first year architecture studio at university." Ouellette feels that Alsop likely had something entirely different in mind before he was hobbled by a dwindling budget.
Perhaps, but the building actually shows remarkable utility in its mixed-use plan, and we can imagine it as an iconic centre for film premieres, TIFF parties, and hopefully even some film-related retail stores. Studio lots can hardly be dubbed attractive, with their hangar-like boxes and utilitarian roadways, which is why the Alsop structure should be welcomed. Filmport wanted an arresting entrance to the complex, and they're getting it.
Of course, Alsop is an acquired taste and Torontonians are only just getting used to the idea of audacious architecture. However, had the waterfront redevelopment included the exact same design intended for an avant-garde art gallery or whimsical children's facility, we'd guess that many of the naysayers would be celebrating it instead.
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The first thing I thought when I saw this was: West Side Lofts, but way better. Sign me up.
I'm not a fan of Alsop, but this isn't bad. The side windows could be a bit more... you know, normal.
I am always struck by how many instant architecture experts there are (particularly those associated with academia)when there is something actually happening architecturally but they are never around to decry the usual bland crap that is built in this city.
Isn't this what should be built where the TEDCO-Corus site is, and stick Jack Diamond's anonymous block out into the Portlands?
"However, had the waterfront redevelopment included the exact same design intended for an avant-garde art gallery or whimsical children's facility, we'd guess that many of the naysayers would be celebrating it instead."
Imagine yourself saying, "People hate this table, but I bet they'd love it as a chair".
That would be one failure of a table.
When building designs become interchangeable irrelevant of purpose, architecture loses its relevance.
Ooooh, has Bad Buildings been muzzled? That's what I call audacious.
Bad Buildings is currently on vacation! I love it, personally, but I don't know what BB thinks of this thing.
I was referring to Bad Buildings being audacious, and judging from the comments on their last article...
I like this building, but guest #5's comment is also worth thinking about.
Hopefully Mr. Alsop also devotes some brain cells to where and how the window-washing apparatus gets deployed for both concave and convex sides.
If it were meant to be a hospital and it was just a gloopy blob, that would be one thing, but it's an industrial office building that would normally be an ugly, utilitarian box.
The purpose of having an audacious design is so that the building serve as an iconic landmark to the facility, which I think is especially appropriate for what is essentially a creative development. It's unusual that a film lot would have anything other than nondescript, unidealistic soundstages and low-slung business-park-like offices. As for the "neighbourhood," it's all scrapyards and dumpy scrubland, so perhaps this is one of those occasions where a landmark structure could encourage more imaginative future construction in the areas around it.
i think Alsop should be given carte blanche to redesign all of toronto.
his ideas are fresh, interesting, bright and funny.
imagine if he designed a lakefront condo instead of the glass monstrocities we are stuck with??
I don't object to the design and would be happy to see this built SOMEWHERE ELSE for SOME OTHER USE, but the intended purpose and the site are just wrong, this is to be built as a combined office space/retail/event space where members of the public can "mix and mingle" with the film industry folks who will work here. Huh? Does anyone in the film industry want this? is anyone in the public actually that interested? especially given that by the time this is built we'll already have Festival Hall and the Corus building attempting to do the same thing?
I don't think the intention is to create a space that is predominantly intended for public events or tourism—it's an office building, first and foremost. The "convergence district" Filmport touts is more of an attempt not to ghettoize the soundstages as a purely industrial area on such an important site that is facing further and substantial development.
I'm not really sure why the Alsop design is seen as inappropriate to the site, when the rest of the site will mostly look like a block of industrial warehouses. I think it's much better with than without, and I don't think the design is overly bizarre.
Yes, I think I like it.
THIS CITY NEEDS MORE GLASS BLOBS!
If we're getting a slab of nondescript warehouse soundstages, we might as well be compensated with a big, bright eye-catcher like this. I don't understand how it could be wrong for the location, whether or not it's multi-use.
I like the glass blob too. But I wonder, how did this guy from England take over Toronto? And more importantly, why? What on earth would drive a guy from London, to come work on Toronto; the town that fun forgot.
Cool! Love it! Keep it up!