Frankly, A-OK

Bad Buildings is drifting rather lazily in the long weekend, as our week of inactivity might indicate (Bad Buildings has actually had a hella week in our real life, which is why Bad Buildings seems a little behind, but we all need a breath now and again, hm?)

In any old case, we're going to wander gently into the pending 3-day idleness that awaits with a reconsideration. Yes, we are human(s), and being so frail, occasionally make mistakes. To wit: For solidly the first year of its life, Bad Buildings had a hate on for the Four Seasons Centre, by Diamond Schmitt, our much-touted shiny-new opera house at the corner of Queen and University. All right, if not an actual hate-on, then a definite ambivalence-on for what, by any logical standard, should have been a glorious, inspiring structure, snagging the last, best site on the city's only real grand boulevard, University.

When they finally finished the old 4SC, with its charcoal brick cladding and glass facade, we felt the city let out a collective sigh of deflation. It was ... totally okay, in that bland, institutional, "you mean we weren't designing a hospital?" sort of way. But it sure as hell wasn't an architectural thrill, like, say, the Disney Centre in L.A., by Frank Gehry -- who, incidentally, ended up on the shit end of a stick that some civic big dogs like Alan Gottleib tried to use to stir the initial design competition for the 4SC in the FG's favour. Frankie backed out when other competitors cried foul; in short, his integrity seemed to have saddled us with another mediocre building in an expansive field of mediocrity.

But Bad Buildings went to the ballet the other night (not a usual occurrence, we can assure you; we prefer the Horseshoe, or on any given night), and experienced, if not a conversion, exactly, then a slight thawing of our cold, cold heart as to the 4SC. Not spectracular, no. Not jaw-dropping, heart-pounding, awe-provoking. None of that. But Bad Buildings warmed to its subtle charms, like the upper floor gathering spaces, contained only by glass, with a quietly commanding view of University Avenue. Or the actual amphitheatre itslef, which manages to be both oddly intimate and acoustically perfect, while offering clear, close views of the performance from almost any seat.

The 4SC is far from perfect; we still don't care for the aquarium style facade (from the outside, anyway), the cold, echo-y main floor lobby still puts one in the mind of a bus station more than a creative enterprise, and we don't care what anyone says -- if Diamond Schmitt thought they were doping something self-consciously capital-M Modern, like the masters, Mies and Corb, they skipped the form/function/material chapters in the guide book. But all in? Not a bad building at all.