| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
Art Reviews |
June 2006 |
COC opens its doors
By Alidë Kohlhaas
At the corner of University Avenue and Queen Street stands a remarkable new building which, in its understated elegance, is a structure that asks for a closer look. Although quiet in nature during the daytime, it sparkles like a jewel at night when its lit interior reveals something out of the ordinary to those passing along the avenue. The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is an opera house that employs the latest technology to give opera enthusiasts a modern home without sacrificing the most important aspects of an opera house, its sound and sight lines inside its performing space.
While the exterior front of the house facing University Avenue and the side facing Queen Street consist of glass, its remaining two sides are mostly faced in a darkish blue-brown (some call it black), glazed brick. The brick takes on a different color at various stages of the day, depending on whether it is sunny or cloudy, or exposed to morning or evening light. Having photographed the building during various times while under construction, I was amazed to discover at how much this unassuming brick is really not that humble in its reaction to light. The glass walls of the building reflect the facing streets: the leafy green of the trees on Queen Street (from the park facing Osgood Hall), while on University Avenue it is other buildings and traffic. It is a seemingly unprepossessing building that plays with the onlooker's senses as a good piece of art should.
Its chief architect, A. J. (Jack) Diamond, a partner in Diamond and Schmitt Architects, has chosen materials that not only fit the site — small for an opera house — but also the location and the type of buildings to which it plays neighbor. To some, who fail to see the intricate nature of the exterior design, the opera house may seem too undemanding, too ordinary to be called an opera house. To the discerning onlooker, however, even the simple exterior is a piece of ever-changing art, which — in a way — deserves its name, Four Seasons. The building will look different in each of Toronto's four seasons of the year.
But, enough of the exterior. Let us go inside, where Diamond and his crew of architectural partners have created something quite marvelous. They have used wood and glass on the five levels of the building, where the public will mingle during performance intermissions, to create intimate, alluring spaces. One of its great features is a semi-opaque glass staircase that seems to float in the air. This is a unique feature to this building, one not seen anywhere else. It is a staircase suspended from steel rods attached to the ceiling rather than being supported from the ground as normal staircases are. All sorts of very Canadian . . .
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