Toronto Wants To Be A Great City

The outcry over designs of the Royal Ontario Museum (Daniel Libeskind) and the Art Gallery of Ontario (Frank Gehry) has been "almost more interesting than the buildings themselves" according to cultural theorist Mark Kingwell. According to Kingwell, Torontonians have a "desire for greatness but too often shrink from paying the price." The result is star architects delivering less than stellar buildings. "Civic architecture has to ennoble and challenge.... If a city is to be great, its buildings must prompt thoughts of greatness."