Wednesday, March 2, 2011

"Queen's Park"


This is the Ontario Provincial Parliament building which is located in Queen's Park and is referred to here as "Queen's Park" when speaking about the provincial gov't. Designed by architect Richard Waite, it was erected from 1886 to 1892 in Romanesque style out of beautiful sandstone. It is situated on land owned by U of Toronto and sits at the north end of University Ave, offering a wonderful ending to that wide boulevard!

9 comments:

LĂșcia said...

This is a very nice building!
It's so good to see this beautiful snowy shot, wonderful blue sky...
Here it has been rainning and cloudy all week, I think the season changing has already started. :(

Sharon said...

What a grand and stately building perfect for goverment use.

Denise SCARAMAI said...

I loved the latest posts!
increasingly, I am fascinated with this beautiful city! is captivating because it has all the beautiful and functional!
these buildings, patios, facades ....... ohmygod! ;¬) I'm crazy!

congrats!

EG CameraGirl said...

Architecture that all Ontarians can be proud of!

Halcyon said...

Beautiful! Just drove by it the other day and had no idea what it was. Now I do! ;-)

Randy said...

That really is beautiful!

Jack said...

It is an impressive and attractive building, similar to the style called Richardsonian in the US. H. H. Richardson designed numerous brownstone buildings with rough-hewn block facades and arches. I don't remember Richardson using turrets like the ones in this building, but I'm not an expert.

I like the building. Are we going to see the statues in front, up close?

Virginia said...

Hmmm, stlll under snow are you? Well I hate that. Maybe you'll see signs of spring soon? :)
V

A.Roz said...

It's definitely a grand and impressive building and a great axial view terminus up University Avenue. However, the effect is severely compromised by subpar public realm design along University Avenue. At College and University, there's so much ugly clutter that's a major distraction from the vista: big yellow traffic signals hung above the roadway, way too many cheap road signs (some of them are, of course, crooked), overhead wires, posters, and redundant poles.

You have to make an effort to get the clean perspective seen in this photo. Even then, the cheap concrete path leading up to the front entrance is a major disappointment. It should be a fine granite, with the drive up for cars paved in setts or at least pavers. It's very unfortunate, that when we achieve fine architecture like the legislative building, it's obscured by the subpar public realm. In reality, our architecture is great, something that we can promote and be proud of, but in walking the streets, the eye is drawn to all the clutter and generic elements of the public realm and the mind gets the feeling that there's nothing special to see.