Yes. We have a winning reply. The building exterior long contained a bas relief design well above the sidewalk which might've looked like interlocking swastikas walking to the left. The construction preceded the German co-opting of the ancient symbol, a symbol still common today in the Buddhist world as a sign of good luck. Bell went to considerable expense to sandblast the design from the building even though it would have taken a whole lot of effort to misconstrue the little flourish.
Monday, January 19, 2009
-Q-What architectural fluorish was removed from the Bell Canada building a few years back?
Yes. We have a winning reply. The building exterior long contained a bas relief design well above the sidewalk which might've looked like interlocking swastikas walking to the left. The construction preceded the German co-opting of the ancient symbol, a symbol still common today in the Buddhist world as a sign of good luck. Bell went to considerable expense to sandblast the design from the building even though it would have taken a whole lot of effort to misconstrue the little flourish.
Water tower?
ReplyDeleteany trace of decent customer service?
ReplyDeleteNope. It was a design thing that someone feared might've been deemed offensive - seems like a bit of a stretch to even imagine how that could happen- so it was removed with great expense and effort some time in the late 80s.
ReplyDeletethe words BELL CANADA?
ReplyDeleteAn English engraving saying 'Bell Telephone Company of Canada' or a gigantic phallus inscribed with the words 'This is what ours looks like!'
ReplyDeleteThis is TOTALLY ringing a bell for me! Hahaha. But seriously, I have it on the tip of my brain but can't remember...it was a while ago but Taylor's talk of an English engraving seems to be familiar...or a flagpole or something. Was it really the 80's and not the 90's?
ReplyDeleteWeren't there fasces worked into the façade? (There are fasces visible in several places around town, including the military cenotaph in Dominion Square.) Either that or swastikas, because this building pre-dates the rise of the Nazis, doesn't it?
ReplyDeletePerhaps a bas relief of a neoclassical female figure, with a breast exposed?
ReplyDelete