Second in a series taking a second look at Toronto’s architectural showpieces 10 years after the building boom.

By the time architect Jack Diamond introduced his vision for what would become the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the leadership of the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada must have felt as though they had scrutinized more pitches than a home-plate umpire.

Since as far back as the 1970s there was movement toward building an opulent home for opera and ballet to succeed the O’Keefe Centre. The first such iteration, by Moshe Safdie, was approved in 1988 only to be killed by incoming premier Bob Rae. Momentum gathered around a new project again in the late ’90s but again plans collapsed. It was with only a measure of melodrama that the project’s late stalwart Richard Bradshaw referred to the quest to build a worthy opera house as his “30-year war.”

So when Bradshaw’s organization started the process up again in 2002, its leadership was not new to grand architectural schemes. Still, the pitch from Diamond + Schmitt Architects stood out.

“I remember Jack being incredibly articulate in describing what he visualized the opera house could be,” said David Ferguson, former president of the COC’s board of directors.

“(He conveyed) the importance of the City Room at the front of the house that faces University (Ave.), where the public could see in and we could see out — that it would bring the opera more into the mainstream of the city. He also completely acknowledged the financial constraints we were dealing with and the physical constraints of that lot.

“His vision encompassed all of that.”

READ PART ONE:Toronto still can’t decide if it likes the ROM Crystal

Now 11 years since the June 2006 opening of the $181 million Four Seasons Centre, it’s rather easy to forget its mixed initial reception. The Star’s Christopher Hume called the building “functional rather than flamboyant, much too modest to be marvelous,” while the Globe and Mail blared the headline “outside blah, inside awe.” At the time, some yearned for a statement piece, some attention-grabbing icon to rival the grandiose opera houses of Europe, rather than the elegant but comparatively discreet Four Seasons Centre.

The dazzling City Room, however, seemed unanimously admired. With its marvel of a glass staircase, the building flickers to luminescent life at night, a beckoning beacon at a critical intersection that was intended to create what Diamond + Schmitt Principal Gary McCluskie describes as a “social opportunity” for daytime and pre-show gathering.

Likewise, the building’s acoustics received only raves. The undulating five-tiered concert hall was built as a “box within a box,” sitting on two-foot-square rubber pads that isolate the hall from the building and the foundations underneath.

However, criticisms have focused on the building’s blue-grey brick-cloaked exterior, which Hume wrote renders Richmond St. and York St. “write-offs.” Others see the less lively exterior as a consequence of function and budget.

“One of the difficulties with a project like that . . . is the back of house has to be enormous,” said Marco Polo, former editor of Canadian Architect magazine and professor in Ryerson University’s department of architectural science.

“I also understand the critique that it tends to kill the street in those areas where it is back of house. Mind you, the street where it is back of house is not a particularly strong public street as it is, so the emphasis on University has been very successful as a public space.”

Alexander Neef was first contacted by a headhunter about the COC’s general director position in January 2008. He did what most people would: he looked the COC up on the Internet. It was his first time seeing the venue.

“I probably would never have even taken any interest in the COC without the building,” said the German-born Neef. “When you do opera in Canada in 2017, you really have to minimize the effort of people to come in for the first time. The building really helps us — even before you come in, you see how it is inside.”

The new venue seats 2,200 compared to the 3,400 managed by the Sony Centre — formerly the O’Keeffe Centre, then renamed the Hummingbird Centre — so directly comparing attendance before and after isn’t instructive. National Ballet of Canada performances ran at 86 per cent capacity with an average ticket price of $82 in 2015/16, compared to 76 per cent at a $56 price in 2005/06. The Canadian Opera Company brought in 105,228 customers for six mainstage productions at an average of 91 per cent capacity over 2015-16, but didn’t provide pre-Four Seasons statistics.

For the performers, size matters. Greta Hodgkinson is celebrating her 25th year with the National Ballet of Canada and her 20th as principal dancer. The O’Keefe Centre was the site of many a milestone performance for her — including her first Swan Lake and first Erik Bruhn Prize competition — and yet, sentimentality aside, she was thrilled by the move to the Four Seasons.

“The O’Keefe is not really ideal for ballet because it’s huge . . . you don’t get that intimate experience,” she said. “The way the (Four Seasons’) auditorium is designed, you really feel enveloped by the audience.

“They took all the best qualities of other opera houses to make the absolute ultimate experience inside the theatre,” she added. “The sound is non-paralleled. It’s absolutely the best quality you’re going to find in any opera house.”

And apparently, talent from around the world has taken notice.

“I’ve sung here a lot,” said soprano Adrianne Pieczonka, “and I’ve noticed that each year, the quality of casting increases.”

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In fact, Pieczonka was the first to sing in the hall in front of an opening-night audience that included Margaret Atwood and Michaelle Jean.

Eleven years later, several people who recall that evening with wonder still regret wearily what Ferguson calls the opening’s “only fly in the ointment”: some distracting streetwork being performed by the city on University.

Well, perhaps it should be viewed as a suitably subtle testament to the venue’s success that a decade-old bump in the road is still worth lamenting.

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