To have a triumphal arch, don't you also need a precedent set in, you know, actual historical triumph? I mean we did beat the Prussians twice, just like the French, and they have an Arch of Triumph. That would be pretty cool actually - a monument to testify the killing of hundreds of thousands of Teutons.
Is the triumphal arch police going to halt the project due to non-compliance with a major military victory?
Why can't it be an anniversary arch celebrating the 150th Anniversary of 1867?
To have a triumphal arch, don't you also need a precedent set in, you know, actual historical triumph? I mean we did beat the Prussians twice, just like the French, and they have an Arch of Triumph. That would be pretty cool actually - a monument to testify the killing of hundreds of thousands of Teutons.
We won the war on Rats.
Legit. No one else can say that.
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Most cities have a Triumphal arch. Surprised that tradition didn't carry over. There's one in Central Park but I think that's the only place I've seen one in North America.
Those are all over Europe because they celebrate war victories, conquering other countries, emperors coming back after having killed thousands of people, etc.
It doesn't really vibe seeing how we have Memorial Trail and we aren't glorifying that sort of thing.
Yup. love the plaza as well. Think it looks great until the taggers get to it. That exhibit should be covered in security cameras so that when a tagger tags, they itdentify him/her, track him/her down, and then tie him/her up at the exhibit so we can all tag them.
I too like Poppy Plaza (the cor-ten works in the sense of recalling war and destroyed machinery), but as Table5 said it needs the Parks building on it to get a cafe/restaurant or something in it to draw people to the site. Almost every time I go over with the kids with a picnic or something we have the place to ourselves, and get the odd skateboarding group through doing their thing.
There are so many wasteful and stupid art pieces in Calgary, there are some good artists here but some of the stuff in our city is just embarrassing imo. This rusty crap just goes into that list.
There are a lot of good artists but the constantly outsource art work from outside Calgary/Canada
I don't mind the rusted sculpture look, but I agree that it can be overused and misused. Most places go with copper as their aged metal sculpture medium, but we don't have the humidity to get to that awesome green copper in a reasonable timeframe.
Poppy Plaza is a little strange. I find it a nice space in itself, but right at the center of a busy intersection and busy bike/pedestrian paths doesn't make it the sort of solemn, contemplative experience that a war memorial should be. But I do really like the red lit birch-tree effect there, and the inner-lit lighting. It's really at its best after dark.
Something I like about the metal parts of the Poppy Plaza is that it's heavily reminiscent of brutalism. And Calgary's got an awesome history with brutalism, but sadly a lot of those structures (like Centennial Gardens) are reaching the end of their lifespan. I'm going to guess that in general, the people who find Poppy Plaza really ugly also hate Centennial Gardens, the old Planetarium, and other brutalist sites around Calgary.
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Well, yeah, it stops at maximum rust. That's not a good thing if something gets as ugly as possible, then stays there forever.
Exactly, if it keeps rusting, then eventually it will disintegrate into nothing. So artists, please use full-rust steel, so it eventually reaches it's maximum level of aesthetically pleasing at the very end.
Wasn't there a coffee shop in there before? I recall they even had a patio set up during the summer.
I don't believe so, unless that existed before it was redone into poppy plaza. The first summer of poppy plaza the parks service had folks building wooden canoes inside, looked really cool.
