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Old Posted Jan 4, 2012, 6:25 PM
Nowhereman1280 Nowhereman1280 is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Pungent Onion, Illinois
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^^^ Eh, 311 is one of the worst in Chicago. I like it personally because it's adventuresome, but that doesn't make it not fugly. I like a lot of ugly things for reasons that lie beyond straight aesthetics.

Also, I'm glad you all like Trump Tower Chicago. Though its unquestionably the best/least atrocious Trump Tower, I have very mixed feelings about it. It has some MAJOR flaws in my opinion and could have been much much better.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMaxMan View Post
Let's talk again in a decade or three and we'll see. I'm betting the people of Toronto will come to be fond of the quirky onion dome and the spire jutting out from it. It will never be revered as some sort of classic icon but it will be more than merely useful, enduring 'infill' for the density crowd.

The thing about modernism is its heavy use of glass. Glass has a hard time with pollutants - stone will clean up nicely if attention is paid to it but glass discolours, fades, gets pitted and stained. Sure, stone needs to be replaced too but not as quickly as glass facades.

I suspect most high-rise owners tend not to pay much attention to the long-term aesthetics of their buildings - if a given glass tower becomes a blight, then and only then might they begin to budget for the tremendous capital expense of revitalizing its exterior appearance. And that's usually only for special 'signature' properties; lesser towers are usually left to their own devices. The cost of fixing these eyesores is just to astronomical and there's usually more money in tearing something down and putting up something even higher in its place.

Trump and others like it here in Toronto may age poorly because of their chosen materials, but they'll be in good company in cities all around the world.
Eh, are you sure you know what you are talking about re: glass. Glass does not pit or stain which is exactly why it's such a widely used material. There are dozens of 50+ year old glass towers (and some that are 100+ years old like the Reliance Building) and the glass is the only thing that never needs repair. The seals need replacing, mullions need repair/repainting, but the glass just needs to be squeegied. Masonry buildings wear our far faster than all-glass ones do and are far costlier to repair.

My point with this tower is that the style will become increasingly dated and the non-glass elements of the design will begin to weather and probably only make the building look shabby AND ugly in 30 years.