Toronto Star

It's not easy to spend $60 million rebuilding an office tower and have little or nothing to show for it. But that's what has happened on the northeast corner of Bloor and Yonge. What started as one of the most wretched examples of architecture in Toronto remains exactly that. At one of the city's most crucial corners. Ever since the 35-storey Hudson's Bay Centre appeared in 1974, it has been a blight on the urban landscape, a painful reminder of just how bad contemporary architecture can be. The '70s weren't kind to design, but even by the standards of the time, this was awful. In addition to the fact the complex has no redeeming features aesthetically, it's one of those anonymous developments that could be anywhere. The last site it should occupy is one as high-profile as this. Instead of celebrating its location, and taking advantage of the busy pedestrian life of Bloor St., the Hudson's Bay complex turns its back on the street and ignores it.