the illusion of choice ‘Here is urban renewal with a sinister twist, an architecture of deception which, in its happy-face familiarity, constantly distances itself from the most fundamental realities. The architecture of this city is almost purely semiotic, playing the game of grafted signification, theme-park building.Whether it represents generic historicity or generic modernity, such design is based in the same calculus as advertising, the idea of pure imageability, oblivious to the real needs and traditions of those who inhabit it.’ building the new society
Michael Panacci
architecture | branding by michael panacci
– Michael Sorkin, Variations on a theme park: the new American city and the end of public space 1
For years the streets of Toronto have been used as a cheap stand-in for many North American cities – Manhattan, Chicago, Baltimore and Boston among others, in major films. A recent urban design proposal for a new residential neighbourhood around the Pinewood film studios on the waterfront would push this phenomenon even further. The proposal calls for residential streets and buildings to mimic neighbourhoods of London, New York and Chicago and to act as living movie sets. People could buy a house in Toronto designed to look like SoHo in New York or the Loop in Chicago. 2 While this may be the first occurrence of Toronto developers actively aping other cities’ architectural identities, it is the continuation of a trend in the marketing of Toronto’s new condominiums. Perhaps it is the absence of a self-perceived civic identity that compels a developer to borrow one, because condominiums throughout the Greater Toronto Area have long projected the imagery and themes of distant international cities as a means to market themselves.
Disconnected from either project or city, exotic locales are cynically bandied about with little reference to the actual location. Condominiums in North York, Mississauga and Etobicoke are named Malibu, French Quarters, Chicago, South Beach – even Emerald City, the fictional city of Oz, is manipulated for its exotic connotations.The glamour of a seductive lifestyle promised by these names depends on a dissolution of place, evaporated in a miasma of exotic and unreal locales. Image > Reality In Toronto’s saturated condominium market, real estate developers have had to search for any edge, any distinction that will set their condo development apart, although many of a condo’s built qualities vary little from one development to the next. Aesthetic appearance, square footage, unit cost, amenities offered, location, finishes, security, parking, storage: all of these are products of the market and as such, remain consistent within the market.The reality of condos is that, for the most part, they are more similar than not. This is exacerbated by the nature of condo development that requires that most units in the building be sold before construction begins.
11
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator