Tuesday, November 4, 2008

To Me, It Looks Like A Rollercoaster

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in downtown TO, has been undergoing a pretty sizable renovation for the past few months. I mean, it hasn't taken as long as my bathroom did but, still :-)

The other day I took a few snaps of this lauded, still under-construction, Frank Gehry design:





Mr. Gehry, for all his outstanding international clout, has the dubious honour of being a TO native who has never actually designed anything in Canada before.

I am trying to keep an open mind, but I gotta say, I've seen this thing go up and I don't like it yet. I mean, it isn't the monstrosity that is the Chin Crystal (I won't even link to this piece of crap - sorry to offend you if you like it...), but its glassy, unidimensional modernism doesn't thrill me in any way. Of course, I welcome your opinions!

Exciting News! The AGO is offering free admission for 3 days (November 14 - 16 2008). How on earth it's going to be ready to open, given snaps above, is beyond me. So check the website (see link above) for more details before trooping out.
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10 comments:

  1. K.LineNovember 4, 2008 at 9:26 AM

    Test

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  2. AnonymousNovember 4, 2008 at 2:37 PM

    Gehry is so revered, but most of his buildings give me headaches. I prefer a good Calatrava, meself. ;)

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  3. La Belette RougeNovember 4, 2008 at 3:56 PM

    I am a HUGE Gehry fan. So much so that you might be seeing me in 2009, K.line. ;-)

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  4. ElizabethNovember 4, 2008 at 9:31 PM

    I'll be interested to see how the finished product looks.

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  5. SongyNovember 5, 2008 at 12:55 AM

    it looks cool. I want to go there.

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  6. Ms UnreliableNovember 5, 2008 at 7:56 AM

    Gehry hasn't worked with so much glass in quite some time, it's nice to see him finally having a break from ultra-environmentally unfriendly titanium.

    I'd wait until the building was complete, because my guess would be that lighting behind these glass facades could make this quite a beautiful building.

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  7. K.LineNovember 6, 2008 at 11:26 AM

    Sal: I'm so ignorant about architecture - Isn't calatrava a wine :-)

    Belette: Come to TO! Visit me!

    E: Me too. Let's do a trip with Belette...

    Songy: And you come along too!

    Ms. U: This is really good advice. I'll keep you posted on my feelings about the final.

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  8. DaleNovember 8, 2008 at 2:45 PM

    I'm not a fan of Gehry's at all but I like the documentary about him done by Sydney Pollack called Sketches of Frank Gehry.

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  9. K.LineNovember 9, 2008 at 10:51 AM

    Hi Dale: Thanks for your comment. I'll have to find that at the video store. They just did a long segment on him / AGO update on the news a couple of nights ago. I'd never seen this news channel profile anything so completely. It was bizarre...

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  10. Imelda Matt - The Despotic Queen of ShoesNovember 11, 2008 at 2:54 AM

    hmmmmmmmm...mmmmmmm

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