Re: Waterfront winner chosen
And a longer version of Hume's article:
West 8 waterfront winner
Jun. 2, 2006. 06:11 PM
CHRISTOPHER HUME
URBAN AFFAIRS COLUMNIST
Waterfront revitalization is starting to look like a shore thing.
The winner of a $20-million competition to redesign Toronto’s central waterfront was announced today; the blue-ribbon jury unanimously chose West 8, a Dutch-Canadian team headed by Rotterdam landscape architect Adriaan Geuze.
The wide-ranging and civically ambitious proposal would remake the waterfront at every level, big and small, micro and macro. The over-arching goal is to ensure “continuous public access†to the waterfront.
That includes lighting standards as well as the dismantling of the Gardiner Expressway. Though the latter goes well beyond the competition’s terms of reference, it indicates the scale of West 8’s approach.
“The competition was focused on the slipheads,†Geuze points out. “But we were convinced we couldn’t find a solution without having a larger concept in mind.â€
In his scheme, Queen’s Quay Blvd. becomes “the backbone of the waterfront.†It would be reduced from four lanes to two and the southern half turned into a pedestrian walkway separated from the road by the streetcar line, which stays where it is now. Geuze envisions that it could become Toronto’s version of the Ramblas, that celebrated pedestrian route that extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the heart of Barcelona.
“I think we have to start now,†he said today. “Our scheme is very do-able. Our strategies are deliverable.â€
He suggests that half of Queen’s Quay be turned over to pedestrians, skate-boarders and various activities for the summer. That way, Torontonians will be able to see for themselves what the waterfront could become.
Like many Europeans, Geuze came to Canada with ideas about this country and its close relationship with nature; that means lakes and trees. That’s why he was so surprised to find that Toronto “turns its back on the waterfront†and that the waterfront is all but treeless.
“I was shocked,†he admits. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. There are no trees on the waterfront. And this is Canada! Even the Music Garden doesn’t have enough tall trees.â€
The West 8 team wants to plant thousands of trees, to create a “green foot†for the city. It would be located south of Queen’s Quay, between it and the lake, where an 18-meter wooden boardwalk would run along the shore extending out into the water. The sides of each slip would be connected by a wooden bridge, to allow the promenade to run in a straight line along the water’s edge.
Further north, after the Gardiner has been torn down, Geuze imagines a Champs Elysees-style boulevard in its place. The CN Tower would be connected directly to the waterfront with another wide pedestrian avenue.
To celebrate Toronto’s main thoroughfare, a market building and a new ferry terminal would be built at the foot of Yonge St.
But this is a mere $20-million competition, which required entrants to concentrate on relatively small waterfront elements such as the slips situated between Bathurst and Parliament streets, lighting, paving, the streetcar lane, a promenade and the extending the Martin Goodman Trail.
These are critical aspects of waterfront renewal, but Geuze has cleverly positioned his scheme to raise the larger issues such as how the waterfront relates to the rest of the city and how to enhance that relationship.
Perhaps because he’s Dutch, where much of the land has been wrestled from the sea over centuries, Geuze isn’t scared to think big. That may be terrifying in Toronto the Timid, but as much as anything, that’s why this competition is so important to the future of the city.
West 8 is a call to arms as well as an answer to a proposal call; it demands we wake up to the vast potential of the waterfront and take action -- now.
Of course, the cynics still refuse to believe anything will happen, but time is passing them by. Even the politicians have grasped that something important is going on, that momentum is building, and they don’t want to be left behind. Indeed, the press conference was originally planned for last Wednesday but was postponed to Friday afternoon to allow Treasury Board president John Baird to catch a flight from Ottawa.
“My priority is to see more action,†an obviously enthusiastic Baird said today. “This is an important project not just for Toronto but for the country. A key to the next phase of the project is leadership.â€
Baird’s got that right. But, he insists, Toronto is a priority for the Stephen Harper government. He points to the fact that the finance minister, Jim Flaherty, comes from the GTA. Torontonians underestimate the importance of that appointment, he argues.
“We have a champion in John Baird,†said Ontario’s infrastructure minister, David Caplan, who has quietly done his bit to ensure the province is a waterfront ally. He has been instrumental in the West Donlands plan, a mixed-use community now underway that will provide housing for 10,000.
Mayor David Miller was also on hand for the announcement. A member of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. since February, he got off to a bad start but now claims it is his “first personal priority.â€
“(West 8’s scheme) will start to change the waterfront,†he said. “The idea for Queen’s Quay is brilliant; it will force us to re-examine the Gardiner.â€
The need now is to keep the momentum building; though interest has never been higher, neither have expectations.
“I’m not afraid of that,†Geuze declares.
But then he hasn’t to deal with a political culture that historically has kept Toronto, let alone Canada, from realizing its potential. If he succeeds in nothing more than getting Queen’s Quay reduced to two lanes – just for the summer -- he will have achieved something the city has never managed to do.
Jury chair Brigitte Shim, one of Toronto’s most respected architects, lauded the clarity, practicality and bold simplicity of West 8’s scheme.
It’s a plan, she said, that can implemented sooner rather than later.
Now comes the hard part, but also the fun.
AoD
