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My God, is it ugly. Not a daring and radical ugly: an obliviously boorish ugly.

The proposed addition to the Château Laurier is the type of ugly that causes offence offhand but has neither the nerve nor imagination to genuinely appall, the type of ugly that shows up to an event to which it hasn’t been invited and bumps into a tray of canapés but doesn’t overturn the table or light the curtains on fire. It hasn’t even the decency to make a true spectacle of itself.

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That, at least, would be something to look at. This ugly isn’t a fascinating study in contrast; it’s a clumsy exercise in clashing, a casual debasement of common standards, the ugly you witness if a salesman – a little inebriated, plenty brash – strides up to an elegant woman on the street and, only vaguely appreciative of her beauty but quite sure of his own right to free speech, globs on.

“Well wouldya look at that, our exteriors are the same colour!“ he might say, believing himself to have found an in with the prettiest thing in town. She ignores him but can’t escape him, and everyone looks the worse for it.