I’ve long had a love-hate relationship with the Robarts Library in the University of Toronto St. George Campus, otherwise known as the Giant Turkey on Hoskin, or Fort Book. The building puts the Brutal in “Brutalism”.
Forty years on, and it’s time to expand. Rather than tearing the thing to the ground, the University is proposing an expansion. The result, to me, looks like lipstick on a pig.
I shouldn’t be too hard on the current architect, though. I’m betting the inside will look great with all that natural light. And there probably isn’t the budget to tear the whole building down and start again. Still, trying to work with the Robarts’ original design seems an insurmountable challenge.