Four Seasons Centre - Exterior Facade

Exterior Facade

The myriad of different materials used within the FSCPA contrast and combine to create a multi-faceted piece of architecture. The most exquisite and detailed exterior cladding is also a central part of the architectural design: the City Room glass walls. These monumental transparencies are curtain walls held by steel fixtures. These apertures are situated on the University Ave and Queen St sides, with the dominant emphasis of the City Room towards University Ave. The intensity of the dark brick and lack of other cladding material on the East, South and North sides have been subject to scrutiny due to its perceived lack of interaction with the rest of the street. A major part of the argument presented is the North facing Queen Street side of the building which has a beautiful view of Osgoode Hall from inside the Four Seasons Centre, but from the Osgoode Hall side of the road, the view is less attractive. Billboards advertising city events, a coffee shop, a small retail area and vast brick wall do not engage the robust and animated nature of Queen St. On a similar note, the solid, intimidating Eastern facing facade is a completely different atmosphere than the inviting, transparent Western facade. The West is the sidewalk extension City Room, which defines the structure in its context and illuminates the street, whereas the East blends too well into its office building and brick surroundings, offering no relief, but simply continuity to the adverse York Street. A multi-dimensional plane with several depressions covered in charcoal brick broken only by linear and longitudinal windows. John Bentley Mays states in his 2006 Canadian Architect article that East wall is “unresponsive to the need of vitality on the street.” The final facade in high criticism is the Southern, Richmond Street facing facade that is opposite the Hilton Hotel. This exterior wall does nothing to appeal to the buildings around it other than camouflage itself into the backdrop of office towers. In retrospect, how Diamond defends his design choice does conclude an intelligent and conscious decision in its exterior design: “ don’t get it. There’s a kind of provincial attitude out there what wants spectacle... are aesthetic barbarians, fascinated by glass baubles. want to shoot their bolt every time. Of course, there is a place for pavilion-like buildings. It depends on where they are, but you do not do it on every block. You do not make a city out of iconic pieces.” (Bently Mays, 2006). The points of interest in the quote are that this building is not a pavilion, it is a composition of squares designed to complement the geometry of Toronto’s Downtown grid and high rise architecture, the need for brilliance and extravagance on all the facades is negligible. The solidity of the North, East and South walls reinforce the voids in the City Room, truly allowing the space become an extension of the sidewalk and a light in the night time. It could be looked at in a way that the solid planes that are the less influential North, South and East facing walls guide pedestrians to the most fundamental side of the building, which is also the entrance.