February 2017 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

Behold, the 60-story Tipsy Lego Tower a.k.a. the M City Building proposed for downtown Mississauga, Ontario, Canada — Toronto’s little sister city to the west — designed by an outfit called CORE Architects. What original minds! Everybody and his uncle in the global architariat has been coming out with towers meant to appear tectonically unstable. These cute visual tricks are enabled by computer-aided-design (CAD), but just as rust never sleeps, the diminishing returns of technology also work tirelessly to defeat our narcissistic tropes.

“The design is intended to be ‘iconic yet simple — something that would last the test of time,’ said CORE Architects’ Babak Eslahjou.”

Yeah yeah blah blah, that’s exactly where he gets it wrong. This is a building that will never be renovated… that has no capacity for adaptive re-use, which is the foundation of enduring urbanism. That’s the trouble with these CAD stunts: they produce buildings so unprecedented that there is no extant knowledge about their long-term maintenance and renovation. It’s especially problematic where contemporary fabricated modular materials are concerned because the builders assume that these things will be available far off in the future. #Big Mistake. #Faulty Assumption. The bottom line will be a stupendous waste of money and, sooner rather than later, another techno-narcissistic white elephant cluttering up the urban scene.

My favorite touch in the rendering, though, is the eight-lane expressway that the building is located on. They complement each other perfectly.

Shout-out and thanks to Gary and Ingrid for the nomination.