Comment 76785

By lawrence (registered) - website | Posted May 11, 2012 at 11:03:42

You know I wonder with the Board building, if much of societies shrugging it off as nothing architecturally significant has been in large part because it is not a street wall building like the Lister. The Lister Building is beautiful. Don't get me wrong. I didn't think so before it's restoration but now I see what we fought so hard to save it.

But even now in all it's glory, if Lister was set back like the Board building, would it's presence still be as strong as walking right by it with no choice but to sense it as we pass. We can look over or down or nose to the air, but we are not allowed to ignore the significance of it's beauty.

What if there had been a walkway from the Art Gallery that cut across the front of the building and over to the side of Bay so that you could walk right up close to it without having to walk on the grass? Would that have highlighted it's beauty and made it's significance more notable? What if all that grass (not that I am against blank grassed surfaces, had been used creativity to compliment the Board structure and help bring out more of it's allure.

What value is there really in Lister, if not for James St N, the shops on King William, and the life that exists around it each day and night? How much of the day are people really walking or hanging out around the Board site? Sitting across form it on a bench staring at it in all it's historic glory?

I don't know much about the architect but maybe he or she never amounted to anything significant? Maybe there is no 'era' associated with this design, but as far as I am concerned beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and I know I am not alone in my love for it and the value of it's presence downtown.

Ward 3 Trustee for HWDSB.

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