Today Sun Mon
It is forcast to be Chance of Snow at 10:00 PM EST on February 11, 2012
Chance of Snow
-4°/-8°		 It is forcast to be Chance of Snow at 10:00 PM EST on February 12, 2012
Chance of Snow
0°/-4°		 It is forcast to be Clear at 10:00 PM EST on February 13, 2012
Clear
3°/-2°

27 Comments

news

Sure, It’s Nice. But Where Will the Crack Dealers Go?

By Andrew Pulsifer

20080610Crack.jpg
Every so often a building is unveiled that causes Torontoist to twitter with preteen enthusiasm: “OMGz!!! WTF is that!? That is sooooo cool!!!” The ROM Crystal is one of them, the AGO is too, and so is the building pictured to the right. That building wasn’t so much unveiled as stumbled upon by Urban Toronto Forum member current, who saw the poster and thought it seemed pretty neat. But wait just one second—where’s the website? Where’s the contact info? Is this for real?
According to the people at the Berkeley Church—the building underneath the glass behemoth—it is, or will be. Actually, they were pretty vague on the details. We do know they are called the Berkeley Playing Fields, and that they will be condominiums. We also know that it looks spectacular. Nestled right between Regent and Moss Park on Queen Street East, this building would give a much-needed jolt of non-sketchiness to the area.
We can only assume from the lack of a condo office, contact info, and the cryptic “A Stone’s Throw Away” tagline that the Berkeley Church is still in talks to getting this thing built. The empty lot right next to the church and the poster are the only real hints that it might actually happen. All we can say at this point is please, please build this. We like big things that are nice. Don’t you?
Photo by Andrew Pulsifer

Comments

  • Svend

    I think the contrast is disturbing, the main reason I don’t like the ROM addition.
    It’s like having strawberry ice cream on top of your roast beef dinner – each is great, but why combine them?

  • matty

    Don’t throw stones in glass houses.

  • rek

    Good, more sterile glass rectangles; I was worried they were going out of style.

  • David Newland

    The idea that highrises prevent sketchiness went out with St Jamestown – the putative home of the swinging sixties jet set in its day.
    The entire urban core -even the GLASS buildings! – could be sketchy again in mere moments of urban time, for reasons that have little to do with architecture.
    Am I the only one who thinks enfolding an old church like this is garish?

  • rocketeer

    I can’t decide if it’s awesome or terrible. The contrast between buildings does look kind of sketchy in the poster, but I think in practice it comes off much better. Granted, I’ve never seen it on this scale before.

  • Robsonian

    If this was still a consecrated place, the idea of building a condominium above it would be, to my mind, abhorrent. And I don’t even believe in God!
    As it is, Not bad. Certainly a step in the right direction when you consider the alternative (i.e. facade-ing the church.)

  • Gloria

    This might be cool. I’m tired of glass rectangles only because so many of them are so lazily executed, but this actually looks interesting. I hate most balcony designs, but I like how they are used here. Not sure it fits in the neighbourhood, but with the condos burgeoning on King St, I guess it won’t be too long until the area is paved with these.
    I agree that some juxtapositions are too jarring — goes beyond “working” somehow — but does it matter it’s an “old church”? It’s a building, like any other. The parishioners left long ago.

  • David Newland

    Go inside that building and appreciate the way the light fills the space, the way the vaulted ceiling soars. Churches are built that way to speak of the sublime. Whether you’re a believer or not, that effect is going to be undermined by the awareness that there’s an enormous building looming over you – even if it doesn’t block out the light.
    Why be cheeky with one of the few humanly scaled, interesting architectural entities in that neighbourhood?
    If the alternative is really facading, (as opposed to just letting it be) we’ve really lost our way.

  • leercat

    Wow. The first thing that came to mind was ‘Imperial Walker emerging from a block of ice and defending its ecclesiastical meal’, none of which makes much sense I realize.

  • Andrew Pulsifer

    Don’t forget, the Berkeley Church is not a Church anymore, it’s an event space that is used by the likes of Dalton McGuinty and Gothic rave organizers. Does that make it better? Probably?

  • TokyoTuds

    Exceptionally fugly …
    Tuds

  • rek

    Old and new can blend successfully, but this fails by *not* blending them — one steps over the other carefully avoiding cooties contamination — and the “new” component is completely devoid of aesthetic value. Why not use glass and steel to continue the architectural theme of vaults and the other trappings of church architecture?
    I don’t know who is responsible, but with few exceptions I’d say this generation of architects should be taken behind the shed and beaten.

  • Gloria

    @David Newland: I was hoping you were saying so on the basis of its formal properties, not its former status as a holy site.

  • spacejack

    lol! Well, the poster at least does make it look pretty sci-fi.
    Unlike the ROM, which basically looks busted, this just looks a bit unevenly stacked. Again though, perched over that church, it does look pretty goofy.
    I’d group this, the Shoe Museum and OCAD under the category of “drunken architecture.”

  • David Topping

    I really really really want to see more.

  • ambrose

    building buildings over buildings. our city’s architecture finally eats itself!

  • Skippy the Magical Racegoat

    I think it looks kinda cool, yet I hate the ROM and AGO reworks. And the nabe definitely needs housing that’s not devoted to crack cocaine production.
    Doesn’t really bother me that it consists of sterile glass boxes. Glass is a nice addition to any home, as it allows sunlight in, essentially giving you the power to see through walls. Also, the boxy, rectangular construction is surprisingly livable. My last apartment was spheroid in shape and the accidents were non-stop. And just try finding a convex-shaped couch at IKEA!

  • Easy Writer

    “Ugly as sin” would be an understatement but for the context.
    Urban architecture is at its finest when it augments and evolves the neighbourhood and situational context in which is it built.
    As envisioned, this condo structure is an act of complete displacement and placelessness. It literally doesn’t touch the neighbourhood or lot on which it is built. It is empty and soulless like a car garage.
    How about something in the neo-gothic vein, a Gaudi of glass? That would be an extraordinary addition to the church and the architecture of living.
    There is also a great example in Montreal of an old stone church that has been expanded and converted into living space. Take some ques from that.

  • Carly Beath

    Oh no. I go by this place a lot, and I admire it every time. The buildings that are there right now are pretty cool, and there’s a really nice courtyard-type area. I feel like this is going to take away every ounce of quaint charm it currently has.

  • motif04

    Looks like the future is eating the past

  • David Newland

    @Gloria: Like your name, the old church retains the resonance of its sacred origins but is lovely on its own account. ;-)

  • Apricot

    It looks like the shiny extension is threatening to crush the church below. An unnerving allegory…

  • uskyscraper

    I rather like this, but only if they cantilever over the church. It’s cheating to drop in the columns straddling the church, never mind tacky, low-class and completely ugly and bizarre.
    However, cantilevers are generally too expensive for a residential tower because they require clever engineering or very thick slabs, hence it probably won’t happen in Toronto. Here’s a snazzy office/hotel/condo tower proposed for Jersey City that does it right. Of course, it’s also by Rem Koolhaas:
    http://snurl.com/2f5ss

  • David Topping

    That building you linked to scares the crap out of me, uskyscraper. Gah!

  • n0wak

    How about something in the neo-gothic vein, a Gaudi of glass? That would be an extraordinary addition to the church and the architecture of living.
    There is also a great example in Montreal of an old stone church that has been expanded and converted into living space. Take some ques from that.
    meh. The church is ALREADY converted. What’s at issue is the space BESIDE the church. Building over the church adds a lot of extra space without adding too much verticality. Frankly, this is a far nicer (IMO) option than just stacking those overhanging elements on top of the building. Then it’d be another boring vertical tower. But this is not boring and I like it and I hope to see it happen.
    Also, speaking of building around old buildings, I’d love to see this place:
    http://www.dezeen.com/2008/05/22/caixaforum-madrid-by-herzog-de-meuron/

  • Gloria

    @David Newland (21): Darn, that’s slick.

  • David Newland

    @Gloria (26) Aw, that wernt nothin’.