James M. Flaherty Building (90 Elgin) | 17 Fl | Completed

[Davis137]

I think this is a great looking building overall, and the execution is similar to the BDC building...looks both classic and modern at the same time...

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by McC

I find it a little odd and awkward, like a gangly teenager, hopefully it grows out of that as the landscaping matures and the materials weather. But I think the sides (i.e., along Slater and Albert) will always be a little weird, with all of the different articulations; it's not so much that something's missing on those sides to my eye, but that they're too busy.

Yeah, there's too much going on, and nothing especially interesting. It's like po-po-mo or something.

[Urbanarchit]

*

[J.OT13]

That's actually one of the angles I don't like. Looks fake.

To me, this is a building you need to look at up close.

[mac_junkie1]

I usually hate what all these new buildings look like, but I find this one was done very well... Its got a great style and its not all glass, which is even nicer. Its coloured panels blends in well with the Lord Elgin hotel also... Well done on this building. For once, something new that doesn't annoy me when I look at it.

[Urbanarchit]

Originally Posted by mac_junkie1

I usually hate what all these new buildings look like, but I find this one was done very well... Its got a great style and its not all glass, which is even nicer. Its coloured panels blends in well with the Lord Elgin hotel also... Well done on this building. For once, something new that doesn't annoy me when I look at it.

Why don't you like all-glass buildings?

I really do like this building, but it's excessive the number of buildings that use the same teal colouring everywhere, and it's getting to be just as bad as all the concrete or the reflective glass district. I like Performance Court because it's deep blue colouring adds to Elgin Street and the skyline.

Teal-coloured buildings:
Jim Flaherty Building
EDC Building
Manulife Tower
World Exchange I
World Exchange II
Berger Building
Claridge Plaza I and II
City Hall
Fusion's glass tower
All copper/ teal-roofed buildings.

[McC]

That's a very broad definition of "teal."

[J.OT13]

Yes, it is.

I would actually put the Manulife Tower and Burger Building in the same category with the blue glass district. Now that's used in excess!

EDC's more of a light blue; fairly unique in Ottawa.

Sure there are a lot of Teal/Greenish buildings, but at least they all have different detailing/designs and materials.

[Urbanarchit]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Yes, it is.

I would actually put the Manulife Tower and Burger Building in the same category with the blue glass district. Now that's used in excess!

EDC's more of a light blue; fairly unique in Ottawa.

Sure there are a lot of Teal/Greenish buildings, but at least they all have different detailing/designs and materials.

Neither Berger nor Manulife are blue, though; they're both opaque and reflective. But EDC is definitely green (with a hint of blue perhaps), but that could be the sky.

[J.OT13]

Looking at the EDC again and ya, the opaque panels look greenish.


http://urbsite.blogspot.ca/2011/08/edcs-trees.html

It does look blue sometimes.


http://www.manulife.com/public/realestat...tyId=3&navId=672000&artId=146102,00.html

Manulife and Berger are so damn reflective, I can't tell.


http://wikimapia.org/4817484/Manulife-Place



http://wikimapia.org/4817484/Manulife-Place


http://urbandale.com/corp/wp-content/uploads/100-Metcalfe.jpg

[mac_junkie1]

Because I'm able to appreciate brick and mortar architecture a little more. Everywhere you look now its glass... Its getting to be such a generic and boring look. Some glass buildings are beautiful if its done properly, but others are just boring and generic and could've had a little more effort put into them. Everything these days are just all glass... Like be a little more creative in it. That's why I like this one. Its a very prominently placed building and it been built in a way to respect the character of the area. There has to be a balance between the old and new in the city and there isn't. Its either really really old or really really modern. There's no "middle" ground to it.... So if something new is gonna pop up in an "older" district it should partially try to match the established character of the area. Seems to me that "too much" is being approved these days and there's no though in the final look...

I don't care if you like all glass buildings.... Its a personal preference. To each their own. I don't fully hate them, but just find more imagination could be used on some of them.

Also, as for colours go, the Teal glass is the nicest to use....

Originally Posted by defishel

Why don't you like all-glass buildings?

I really do like this building, but it's excessive the number of buildings that use the same teal colouring everywhere, and it's getting to be just as bad as all the concrete or the reflective glass district. I like Performance Court because it's deep blue colouring adds to Elgin Street and the skyline.

Teal-coloured buildings:
Jim Flaherty Building
EDC Building
Manulife Tower
World Exchange I
World Exchange II
Berger Building
Claridge Plaza I and II
City Hall
Fusion's glass tower
All copper/ teal-roofed buildings.

[Urbanarchit]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Looking at the EDC again and ya, the opaque panels look greenish.


http://urbsite.blogspot.ca/2011/08/edcs-trees.html

It does look blue sometimes.


http://www.manulife.com/public/realestat...tyId=3&navId=672000&artId=146102,00.html

Manulife and Berger are so damn reflective, I can't tell.


http://wikimapia.org/4817484/Manulife-Place



http://wikimapia.org/4817484/Manulife-Place


http://urbandale.com/corp/wp-content/uploads/100-Metcalfe.jpg

Manulife and Berger(I had a picture of this one but I deleted it) are green, but they appear to be blue in those pictures because of the sky.

EDC is perhaps more turquoise, but green is still predominant (I'll take a picture in the back alley where it's all green).

[Urbanarchit]

*

[mac_junkie1]

yup, I'm a diehard for the older buildings... To me, they look nicer... To each their own. I've always been one to appreciate the past more then the present. I can accept where "things are going", but it doesn't mean I have to fully embrace it. Maybe 50 years down the road I'll look to these "modern" buildings and appreciate them more, but for now, I'm young and looking into the past is more interesting then looking at the present. I can acknowledge whats going on, but not fully immersed into it. There's a lot of cool looking back.

I don't mind full glass buildings, but this "generic look" of 4 glass walls is boring. You can be creative with glass, or do a blend of materials like on this building. I like the look they've pulled off... This one I've liked from the start, but there are others that are an utter waste of space.

I can appreciate many buildings, but I'm entitled to not like everything that goes up in my city. I'm sure you don't "love" everything that's been built so far over the years. It may also take time for some to appreciate some of the others ones.

As for condos... Its a phase people are going through. There are too many being built at the moment and its taking too long for those units to sell. Look at 90 George. Its taken them years to sell all those units. Lebreton Flats is also another waste of an area. 45 years it was empty. You can't tell me they couldn't of done something better with the space. It was prime land in the downtown.

I'm not alone in my thoughts. I just don't mind being vocal about it. It doesn't mean anything in this city though... Too many cooks in the kitchen.

Originally Posted by defishel

Your response doesn't surprise me, Mike. Having seen a lot of your posts here or on news articles, you are biased against condos and rarely like anything that isn't post-1950s. Ottawa's buildings aren't the greatest, but we still have a lot of examples of great buildings, but not everyone is able to appreciate them. I'm sure most people in SSP like glass buildings, but how many like Brutalism? I love Brutalism, and have a great appreciation for Modernist and Brutalist architecture now that I have a better understanding of them.

How do you recommend they try harder with glass buildings, make them out of Murano glass?

[Urbanarchit]

*

[mac_junkie1]

I don't know if you're younger then me lol... I'm only 25.

I've come to appreciate the modern much more now then in the past, but I still can't fully appreciate it. There's some good in modern, but there's a lot of "evil"... Also as for the older buildings, a lot of them are "over-rated". Just because its old doesn't mean its worth saving. But in terms of Ottawa, we've lost a lot more then we should've in the past and present. We have a hard time preserving what's worth keeping. You can't tell me the demolition of 256 Rideau was warranted. Something could've been done to retain at the most minimum a part of it. Or they could've done like on Elgin and built around it and incorporate it. I don't see why the missing of a porch and windows strip a building of its heritageness. Our council and mayor are clueless at times and act too fast...

Originally Posted by defishel

Not everyone has to, but it's rather sad that people fail to appreciate every building, usually because the reason they can't appreciate them is that they have no understanding or knowledge on them. It's like people who go to art galleries and say, "I like paintings from the Renaissance, but hate any of that modernist stuff." Often the reason people like something is because they're either told to like it (Mona Lisa is overrated) or because they have this fantasy of the time period of artist.

Superficially a lot of old buildings might appear nice, but many are really nothing special. Look at Lowertown's Habitants houses - there's nothing special about them, but most people say they like them because they fantasize about the time period in which they were built and lived in (i.e. not for architecture, but because of their imagination of history).



A phase? Ha, what a crock! You think after people "pass through this phase" we're going to start building houses everywhere, like we've been doing with the suburbs? Condos and apartments have been around since we started living in cities (my family in Italy lived almost exclusively in apartments their entire lives, even in small towns, for centuries). We have old apartment buildings in Ottawa, there are old ones in Toronto, even New York has old ones. There will always be condos in Ottawa.

90 George not selling isn't because there are too many condos going up, but because the building and what they're asking for is crap. Look at how fast it took for the Slater to sell and build, or the Eddy, or Gotham.

And what does LeBreton being a wasted area have to do with condos? And what do you think would have been better for LeBreton, other than condos? Design it with a bunch of low-rises like what we do in the suburbs? Or perhaps building only office buildings like our CBD?

You're definitely not alone in your thoughts, as most people in Ottawa think along the same lines. It doesn't make them right or smart though. Rather I think it's said. I'm probably younger than you, and I do like old buildings (not indiscriminately) and sometimes to imagine what the past would have been like, but I recognize that none of that was real because it's just my fantasy (often the time was just banal). But while I do enjoy imagining the past, I'm not excited about the future and what new designs and concepts, new discoveries and new challenges we'll face and adapt too. Most people in Ottawa don't think the same way because they either want the current mediocrity or the idea of what the past must have been like.

None of this is to say old building suck, but many aren't anything special and I believe the reason people like them more is more because of the imaginations/ nostalgia, as well as a failure to understand anything new.

[Urbanarchit]

*

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by mac_junkie1

yup, I'm a diehard for the older buildings... To me, they look nicer...

More importantly, they *work* nicer. They turn their faces to the street, not their asses. I have never met a pre-1960s building where, on approach to it, I had to guess where the bleeping door is.

[harls]

I guess I missed it, but when did they name this place after Flaherty? Was there some kind of announcement?

(I have no problem with it, btw)

[IntoTheCore]

Originally Posted by harls

I guess I missed it, but when did they name this place after Flaherty? Was there some kind of announcement?

(I have no problem with it, btw)

The news came out last weekend. defishel had the original scoop:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=6581959&postcount=233