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the HERALD Arts Ideas Wednesday August Designs should be scrutinized not necessarily the designers Scale as related to architec ture not an easy word to define When architects talk about scale they do not mean size They have in mind the pro portions of a building as well as how the building relates to other structures nearby or to the land- scape on which it is located Take the skyline of Toronto as an example Forty years ago Toronto had a much more modest skyline than it has today Its landmark buildings the Royal York Hotel the Bank of Com merce Tower St James CatHedral to name a few had been erected over many years and they related to each other and to the lake in front of them rather well When prosperity came in the and Toronto started to transform itself into a modern metropolis I remember that for several years after the first two Dominion Centre Towers had been completed Torontos skyline was a mess The two huge black towers looked alien and ominous if you sighted them from the island The whole skyline had been thrown out of kiiter Since then many towers have been added and a new and different skyline has been fashioned Some of the towers are architectural master pieces but even the lesser ones are of the same scale All together and with the superb soaring CN tower to one side they make a grand ensemble The present Toronto skyline is one of the most imaginative ones in North America wonderful to look at in any weather and at any season Something similar happened in New York City at the same time but with a diffi outcome The gigantic twin toers of the World Trade Centre threw the New York skyline out of balance This is not because they are so high but because their design is so monolithic The Empire State Building in New York is proof that a very high building can be as graceful as a church steeple In the meantime the Battery Ideas and The Arts by John Summer Park Towers that have been built in front of the World Trade Cen tre have partly undone the damage but it will take something else I dont know what to make the New York Skyline as seen from the har bour a pleasurable aesthetic ex perience again How are we doing here in Georgetown The old Georgetown Main Street has with a few not very glaring ex ceptions an admirable scale The buildings lining the street relate well to the width of the stret The old builders had proportions in their bones and could do no wrong We by comparison are so torn within ourselves that we only rarely manage to get things right We have been lucky with the new Civic Centre The building is beautiful and it sits well on its sloping lawn with the tall trees behind We have to make sure now that any new building nearby will be of the same quality Other buildings in Gerogetown did not turn out as well People have a not unjustified fear of apartment towers because they seem to be popping up in the wrong places Yet a tower or two of the right design in the right place can give great distinction to a small towns skyline I remember that Bill wanted to build a rather elegant high tower where the squat and ungainly Silvercreek blocks are now He should have been en couraged to build even higher and more slender He would have loved to do that I know because I talked to him at the time With setbacks and a smart penthouse or steeple Silvercreek Towers could now be a Georgetown land mark visible from afar and not throwing a shadow on any homes nearby Instead he was told to lower the design to spread it out with the result that the two blocks are intruding now architectural ly on the downtown instead of enhancing it Thanks to God they are standing in a valley Scale does not mean low All the buildings on Guelph Street between the Post Office and Nor- val hill are low but the street has noscaleatall What can we learn from these examples We should not get ourselves bogged down in debating the merits and demerits of lowrises and highrises endlessly Highrise buildings are obvious ly neither a cheap nor a good way to pile poor people on top of each other Highrise buildings- work best as prestige buildings to be occupied by rich people or by of fices All the different types of lowrise buildings are best for homes in particular if you have small children What matters with any building is the design and where design is concerned a lowrise can be as flatfooted as a highrise and vice versa Lets scrutinize and criticize the designs and drawings developers are putting under our noses not the fact that they want to build something THEMcGIBBONHOm COME J AND WATCH ALL THE GAMES ON OUR SATELLITE TV CHANNELS Famous Buffet Thursday Friday am 2 pm The Halton Hills HERALD Guelph St Georgetown 8772201 BLUE JAYS You Could WIN A Pair of Baseball Tickets To See The TORONTO BLUE JAVS How To Play answer this trivia question then out the banal and deposit it at any the merchants featured here or at the Herald A winner wilt be drawn each week tram all entries received Deadline tor entries is the next Wednesday tor Ihe previous weeks question YOU CAN PRO SPORTS SAVEI SAVE On RoferMades Skates Hockey Stick Special 2for2000 Phone 8778889 JO PLAZA UNITS GEORGETOWN ONTARIO The Halton Hills HERALD Guelph St Georgetown 8772201 I This Weeks Question J MoaUeWibniinshitbyapitch in Hornby nights CLIP OFF THIS BALLOT Answer game Who the I I Name I Address I Phone Number I IB fcoM at any ot these merchants or at Ihe Herald I food stores target OPEN 24 HRS DAYS A WEEK 51 GUELPH ST GEORGETOWN PUBLIC INFORMATION CENTRE EXTENSION TO THE COMMUNITY OF GLEN WILLIAMS TOWN OF HILLS GEORGETOWN REVIEW OF PRELIMINARY DESIGN A Public Information Centre will be held DATE Thursday August TIME 300 pm 500 pm 700 pm 900 pm PLACE Glen Willimas Town Hall Prince Street Glen Williams This Information Centre is being held to provide the public with an opportunity to review the preliminary design drawings for the proposed watermain extension Interested persons are invited to drop in any time during the above hours to view and comment 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