Results tagged “pugawards”

Last night's Pug Awards for the city's best and worst new architecture had it all: Big buildings! Big winners! Big ideas! Big plans! And—thanks to Councillor Adam Vaughan—big awkwardness!

Each year, the executive committee of the Pug Awards looks to expand the scope of their initiative to further influence design in Toronto. Last week marked the introduction of PIMBY (Pug In My Backyard), an interactive and ever-evolving blueprint for growth that aims to cover as much of the city as possible. The intention of this project is to provide the general public, landowners, and city decision-makers with a framework for planning future development in the region, while promoting an ongoing dialogue about the importance of good design.

              

It’s that time again: The annual Pug Awards are back for the fifth consecutive year! Over the month of May thirty-two projects (fourteen of which are featured above) will face off in a battle for bragging rights as the 2009 people’s choice for best and worst new buildings in Toronto. The projects are divided into two categories. Twenty-four buildings fall in the residential category and there are eight in the commercial and institutional categories. It is up to the general public to choose the winner by voting online.

The biggest losers? The spectacularly boring and unbelievably beige 76 Shuter (above, bottom), with only 14.7% of voters saying they loved it, presumably because those 14.7% don't know what love is. The beige-painted, orange-bricked, green-tinted Battery Park didn't do much better, scoring a 15.2%. Perhaps most telling: of the twenty-one nominated buildings, only eight scored higher than 50%, and only four scored higher than 60%.

The Pug Awards are back! Now in their fourth year, the awards name the best and worst new buildings in Toronto, as determined by visitors who choose whether they love or hate the 21 nominees on the Pug Awards' website. In the previous three years, Toronto Police Service 51 Division's building, the National Ballet School, and Gardiner Museum have all been winners, based on percentage of positive votes; Wellington Square, Glen Lake, and—most spectacularly—Be Bloor have all come out as losers.

It's time to vote again on who's been a good dog and who's been a bad dog this year. The Pug Awards are back with their third annual crop of architecture, and if there's anything that Torontonians like to do, it's bitch and judge. And I say that with endearment. That's why I'm gonna trash the Pug website in a sec.

The Pugly Awards results were finally announced for this year. They scout out the best and the pugly architecture around the city based on your votes. To qualify, the building must be completed the year prior to the award cycle.

Well, we don't know what practicing artist and soon to be OCAD President Sara Diamond has on her OCAD to do list, but one of those line items will definitely include defending Will Alsop's tabletop from Pugly commendation (see below). In keeping with OCAD's tradition of hiring practicing artistes, Ms. Diamond is both video/installation artist and current director of research at the Banff Centre and artistic director of the Banff New Media Institute. She also looks a wee bit like Betsey Johnson.

The PugAws are advised by a supreme council of pugarbitors, all of them 'individuals who are experts in their respective fields who share a passion for improving architecture and urban planning in the City of Toronto.' And indeed, who could deny that Geddy Lee and Jeanne Beker are experts in their respective fields. We're more than happy to pug along with these cultural savants. Bring on that crystal monstrosity!