Market Square

[BuildingScout]

The first article presented the new development as a welcome change from the heavy-handed, Kremlin-wall architecture of the original building

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I'd have no idea how to track it down, but I recall reading an urban planning article about Market Square and its history and that is where I saw the information that the architect had originally proposed the concrete exterior.  If I recall correctly, it was either community pressure or City Council members, feeling the pressure, who insisted that warmer materials be used.  It would be interesting to compare the project to other Oxlea developments of the period.

EDIT:  I found the article and it is excellent!   http://numerocinqmagazine.com/2011/11/22...-storring/

(turns out it was Council and the developer, anticipating negative public reaction, who hired an artist/designer who came up with the idea of using brick to soften the structure)

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Thanks for the reference. The other example of brickalism that I posted was the Peterborough shopping mall. By the way did you see the footnote in the article:

Similar shopping centres to the Market Square have been built in Brantford, Chatham, Guelph, Hamilton, London, Peterborough, Sarnia and Waterloo, all with the hopes that they would bring new life to the downtown.

Edit. This is how that excellent article describes the brick brutalism style: the heavy-handed, Kremlin-wall architecture of the original building