I’ve often thought that the Australians use colour in their modern architecture so much better than we do. (You can see examples here in Price Tags 52.)
Some argue it was our city planners that imposed such constrained taste (or refused to push for a bolder palate); others say it was the developers who shied away from anything that might limit their product; maybe it was simply Canadian restraint. In any event, Vancouverites got tired of the green glass that seemed compulsory in the designs of the 1990s, and we’re finally seeing some exuberance in more recent development.
Spectrum
Ritz - Triangle West
Coopers Quay from Chinatown
I’ve heard many people refer to Spectrum as the “Lego” towers.
Many people hate the orange on Cooper’s Lookout.
The red on the Ritz, apart from matching the new Shoppers Drug Mart in the podium, is also a bit bright.
The TV Towers project at the CBC has an inexplicable “mauve” curtain wall on the northwest side of the south (taller) tower (whereas the rest of the tower is a cool gray colour) – no doubt in response to the City asking Concord to “warm-up” the colour palette.
As an aside, the blue-gray mullions of the Governor’s Tower condo on Pacific Boulevard across from David Lam Park appears to being going biege during its leaky condo renovation – the windows appear to be being replaced with biege mullioned windows. I expect the whole tower to be biege or taupe after the reno. Ugh.
It looks like Vancouver has simply shifted from the seafoam green of the ’90s to a “gimmick strip” of random colour.
The gimmick strip is not much better. It just looks like a cheap way of trying to create some visual interest from otherwise forgettable and unremarkable architecture.
I think a good example of (non-tacky) use of colour on a condo tower are these buildings in Almere, Netherlands by architect Rem Koolhaas:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cermivelli/495216337/sizes/l/
The backside of One Harbour Green is probably the best recent example of a building in Vancouver that did a good job using colour on a tower.
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/1966/oneharbourgreenvancouverc0.jpg
The Shaw Tower did a good job with its light strip, but you can only see it at night, and you basically need to be in Stanley Park to see it properly, so the effect is kind of limited. During the day, the colour is basically the same as every other condo building in Vancouver.
One Wall Centre would have been a good example if it had the dark glass all the way up the building, but they ruined it.
🙂
Actually, city hall ruined the Wall Centre, as they had asked for the light glass to be used on the whole tower. In the end, a compromise was worked out that split the tour in half and turned out to be just weird and, well, kind of ugly.
While the colour is a slight improvement, it does seem a bit of an afterthought on many of those buildings. It doesn’t make up for uninspiring overall design, and by having floor-to-ceiling windows, the options are really limited in what you can do.
One Harbour Green is clad in stone – so the colour looks very “natural” – even if it is intense.
Agreed that the colour on many of the towers is merely an afterthought which is added to the “leftover” spaces on the tower.
The red pathes on the TV Towers is an exception, creating a pixelated effect, but the aforementioned mauve face of the south tower destroys the look of the complex. Renderings also show pastel balconies for the TV Towers, so it’ll be wait and see for the final result.
The downtown residential buildings with the best use of colour are the ones that are not reliant on marketing campaigns – the social housing projects.
Ditto for institutional buildings such as the BC Cancer Agency building.
The Globe and Mail’s Kelly Deck would seem to disagree with you. From her September 5 debut column:
“One mistake I see too often, even in Vancouver’s most prestigious neighbourhoods, is bold, vibrant colours in interior and exterior applications – homes smeared in terracotta, ochre and canary yellow. These Mediterranean-inspired villas, which look wonderful in the penetrating glare of strong sun, look in Vancouver like some displaced daydream of a hotter climate. Our West Coast light is inhospitable to the lustre of deep colours – the flat grey of our atmosphere makes them look sickly and forlorn.
That’s not to say colour has no place here, only that it be used subtly. Grey, brown and green form the foundation of the our palette, but there is a wide range of corals, purples, oranges and blues with which to accent and adorn.”