Now that's my kind of architecture award...

Glen Lake, 2495 Dundas St. W. This was critic Christopher Hume's pick as the worst of this year's Pugly Award nominees, "the kind of generic, anonymous building that could be anywhere, but should be nowhere."

Christopher Hume, the urban design writer for the Toronto Star, writes about the "Pugly Awards," "a chance for all Torontonians to pass judgment on the best and worst of architecture in the city." The article, "Pretty? Or pretty ugly? -- Second annual architectural popularity contest awaits your vote on 15 buildings completed this year. Our columnist offers up his picks, from the city's splendid to the tiresome," includes galleries for the two categories--Pugly commercial/institutional nominees and Pugly residential nominees.

It goes to show maybe how "bad" we sometimes have it in DC, when I think that projects that Hume derides as ordinary, seem decent, and better than many DC projects.

From the article:

The Pugly Awards, an online competition, were founded last year by Gary Berman and Anna Simone. They are yet another sign of architecture's new-found popularity in Toronto. (Last year, more than 10,000 people voted.) They will be launched on Monday and everyone can vote yea or nay at the Pugly website. Voting begins Monday and continues to May 31.

And according to the Pugly website, the contest will be featured on a local television morning show on May 1st...

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking