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TOBoy
Active Member
WTF?
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/688681
I doubt the city would want a public square as predicted in the article. That's too much property tax to pass up on.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/688681
I doubt the city would want a public square as predicted in the article. That's too much property tax to pass up on.
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taal
Senior Member
If you read the article completely ... you'll see they indicate the chances of getting a public square only are next to nill. Instead what may be likely is a tower + square scheme.
Automation Gallery
Superstar
AKS
Senior Member
A Hullmark-like site would be nice. I wonder if the land is big enough.
Edward
Senior Member
Sure its big enough.
Homer
Active Member
I love in the article where it says that people don't have a place for lunch. Yes so lets build a multi-million dollar square so people can sit and have lunch three months out of the year.
Please no public square where tax payer dollars are used to pay for a committee to come up with ideas to attract people to a square that
they would not normally hang out in.
Please no public square where tax payer dollars are used to pay for a committee to come up with ideas to attract people to a square that
they would not normally hang out in.
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
We tough, patio loving Torontonians will sit outside to drink and eat from April to early October, so it's more like 6 or 7 months. That said I do not support a square here. AKS suggested a Hullmark type arrangement which might work but it would be shadow hell for the first half of the day plus Yonge & Bloor can be one hell of a windy corner so I'm not sure how pleasant it would be to sit outside at that corner.
If Y+B/Bay+Bloor office workers want to enjoy lunch outside they can use their legs for less than 5 minutes and find parkettes at Charles & Yonge (George Hislop Park), Yorkville Town Square (Yorkville & Yonge), Asquith Park (Park Rd. & Asquith, just n. of Bloor St.), Harold Town Park (Church St., east of Yonge), Yorkville Park (Cumberland Ave. at Bellair) and I'm probably missing a couple. There's plenty of outdoor space in the immediate area to sit outside, enjoy some sun and fresh air while eating lunch.
Redroom Studios
Senior Member
the most I would support in way of anything resembling a public square is some sort of scuplture or art component at the very n/w corner, comprising no more than 5% of the site. Maybe a couple of benches and trees and thats it...
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confusion
Active Member
I think people should start advocating for some extra space at street level with a building design that would overhang the corner or most of the ground floor, giving much of the space to the public (even though it is privately owned). I've seen some interesting designs in Europe that do this.
scarberiankhatru
Senior Member
This is what a Hullmark-type arrangement would be:
Hullmark is proposing a space that's barely 50X100 feet, maybe smaller (likely similar in size to the space at the NW corner of Y&B). It's just an open corner, with maybe a statue and some planters. One or two patios would consume most of the space, if the space were intended for people to sit in, which it really isn't.
Whatever happens, I'd like to see some flagship-type retail spaces beneath the obligatory condo, and such retail is completely compatible with a Hullmark-type "piazza" corner.
MisterF
Senior Member
There isn't much NIMBYs could do. As I understand it the proposal is already approved, both zoning and site plan. Years from now a developer could build the exact same building with minimal fuss, and council wouldn't be able to stop it.
It's not unprecedented. The corner of Bay and Dundas used to be a privately owned "park", and it got developed.
ProjectEnd
Superstar
Though you are right on all counts, I'd curb that kind of enthusiasm lest you be beaten over the head with the empty Shocker/D+S/pro-Grey/anti-'spectacle' rhetoric.
Redroom Studios
Senior Member
hilarious! I love this board!
scarberiankhatru
Senior Member
There's also precedents for parks, and not just "parks." Menkes is building a condo on top of the park and rose garden at Park Home & Yonge in North York, and it's not just some dead grass with mud pathways formed by people cutting across it. The city could have bought and saved the site but it's probably worth over $30M, so it never happened and now a condo will be built on top of half the park.
I agree with Ramako that it's probably better the interim use of the 1 Bloor site to be, say, a parking lot and not something that people will miss when the construction crews return.
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