News

In the brief time Daniel Libeskind spent in Toronto this week, he found 15 minutes between meetings to stop in at Bootmaster, a Yonge Street shop that requires no further explanation. By the time he arrived for a walkabout through the middle of downtown, the architect - still high from the sales launch of his boot-shaped opus, the L Tower condo - had slipped into a new pair of chocolate-brown alligator cowboy boots. "They didn't need breaking in," he said, otherwise sporting his usual black attire.

If anything, Mr. Libeskind seemed relieved to have a break from conventional interviews. And as he strolled the St. Lawrence neighbourhood and the financial district, the one-time Torontonian - Mr. Libeskind and his family lived here sporadically through the 1970s - offered his thoughts on a city where he is trying to make a major impact.

Mr. Libeskind's current project, named after both its creator and its unique shape, is being presented as an iconic statement that will reinvigorate the Hummingbird Centre, from which it will slope upward. But could his mark on the city be as broad as Peter Dickinson's - the architect responsible for the Hummingbird and scores of other modernist buildings? "I've just seen a tremendous resurgence of design interest in Toronto," was Mr. Libeskind's roundabout answer. "People want Toronto to be a great city, and it is."

Walking around the area, Mr. Libeskind assessed the surrounding area and explained how he sees the 55-storey building fitting into the streetscape. "When the original theatre was built, the façade was the focal point," said the architect, pausing mid-stride to point toward the Hummingbird, which has been missing major tenants since the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada decamped to the Four Seasons Centre. "Now, we're turning away from that façade and doing something in the round."

Upon reaching the wedge-shaped Flatiron building, now 115 years old and the first of its kind in any major city, Mr. Libeskind marvelled. "It's a damn good building. It's memorable because it has form; it's not just an extrusion. And it's well crafted."

Indeed, as he embarks on his first condominium in Canada (he has three in the States and others in Europe and Singapore), he will be abiding by the same principles applied to his entire architectural oeuvre, which began with the Jewish Museum Berlin and most recently includes the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum.

"It's an expressive building. It's got curvature; it's got spatial and geometric complexity," said Mr. Libeskind, who outright rejects the notion that a condominium should be less about its designer than its denizens. "You have to make a great building. I've never been a believer in a neutral box. I've never admired it because neutrality is not admirable and not a value I share."

He does, however, hope that all Torontonians will share in the L Tower's impact, both aesthetically and culturally. "I want to provide great apartments and also provide great use for people who are not lucky enough to live in the building but are walking on the street or seeing it from a distance or being attracted to it because of its programs."

That will come - if the Hummingbird Centre meets its fundraising goals - courtesy of an event hall and multimedia "arts lab" that will explain how various cultures in Toronto have contributed to the arts.

The importance of defining a dynamic street level is not lost on Mr. Libeskind, who noted that cities where "working" and "living" environments co-exist represent a modern notion of sustainability.

"Sustainability means bringing high-density development to an area 24/7," he said, having just passed the St. Lawrence Market. "You don't have to drive cars; you contribute to the inner workings of an urban space."

When Mr. Libeskind reached St. James Cathedral on King Street, he stopped to bestow reverence. "I love old buildings; what would cities be without them?" he remarked. "The challenge is to treat them in a creative way and not as relics."

Toronto, he added, is a place that boasts "great architecture and vision." He reasoned that the city does not need to be constantly improving upon itself to merit this distinction. "There was a huge vision at one time [in Toronto] and now the momentum is back. It's not about gradual development; there are quantum leaps when a city reinvents itself."

By this point, Mr. Libeskind stood cater-corner with the Toronto-Dominion Centre, designed by Mies van de Rohe at the end of his career. "It's fantastic," he said. "It's from another time, but look how elegant. And the pavilion is spectacular, almost as good as the National Gallery in Berlin" - completed by the architect at roughly the same time.

But Mr. Libeskind reserved his greatest praise for Santiago Calatrava's galleria in the atrium of BCE Place. The two architects are currently working together on the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site. "His inventions," as Mr. Libeskind called Mr. Calatrava's work, "they bring scale to the human level. They make you take notice of how it feels to be walking though a building."

And as he neared the end of his tour, hot from the midday sun but striding onward in his new boots, Mr. Libeskind underscored his love for the city, which pales only in comparison to his wife's. (Nina Libeskind, daughter of NDP co-founder David Lewis and sister to Stephen Lewis, was born in Toronto.)

"If I don't watch out, we're going to be moving to Toronto because she still considers it home," he said. "We've lived in New York and Berlin and London and Milan and she loves Toronto beyond all of them." Whether or not they will take an apartment in the L Tower is yet to be determined.