[SD2]

I don't see why choosing West 8 means no room for something iconic...that can be done after. West 8 doesn't own the waterfront.

Besides, an iconic building is supposed to be at the foot of Jarvis. Lets see what they come with (the brown spheres were just a concept...).

 

[SD2]

By the time this project gets underway the plan will be reduced to "planting some trees". Congratulations to West 8. Personally I thought the floating leaves were the best part of the plan because of their uniqueness. If the plan is to create a basic footbridge or plant trees then a picture of the waterfront becomes a picture that could have been taken anywhere. Any good plan for a project which is designed to draw visitors should create something that becomes a recognizable symbol of itself. There is nothing iconic about a row of trees and a walkway.

Well, if you're assuming that all that will happen is trees, then you're right, it won't be a place that draws visitors.

While I can see some of it being scaled back or modified, I see no reason why their other ideas, such as the small scaled pedestrian areas, etc. won't be implemented.

I think the waterfront will become quite a destination with this plan.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Lisa Rochon on the state of the waterfront, from the Globe:

CITYSPACE: RIDING THE WATERFRONT: PART II
Trail of broken promise
A jaunt along Toronto's stretch of shoreline, writes LISA ROCHON, shows an extraordinary great lake that's variously inaccessible, ignored or abused

LISA ROCHON

The hard truth of the Toronto waterfront came at me while riding and walking along its edge for 50 kilometres. The spectacle, the meditative beauty, a lake scaled to resemble an ocean: Standing next to it, feet in sand, it's easy to fall in love with her shores even while this great body of water is abused enough to be repulsive.

Riding east from the old Toronto neighbourhood of Mimico, my journey takes me into the wild west of architecture. There is an attempt at high luxury living at Grand Harbour condominiums by way of a roman arch stretched out of scale like a tortured Gumby. There are awkward piles of concrete and glass graced by green-coloured dunce caps. Palace Pier was once designed as a flamboyant piece of Moroccan-style architecture with a 90-metre dance hall extended over the water on a pier. Fire destroyed the hall in 1963 -- its replacement is a couple of sinister looking apartment towers, surely descendants of the Addams Family.

The Humber River Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge, designed by Montgomery Sisam Architects, is one of the rare architectural icons on the waterfront. Steel webbing connects its white steel arches, resembling the arched spine of a fish. After that, the book on contemporary architecture with meaningful alliances to the water is virtually closed. In search of architecture of place, architecture that connects, it's necessary to go back in time and search far and wide. On Centre Island, there is a wooden grandstand that descends directly over a long, narrow, regatta course. There is the Avenue of the Islands with its majestic fountain, sharply angled shrubs and visual axis driving hard to the lake in a fine piece of civic boosterism. And for the way they sit comfortably and without pretension on the beach, there are the duplex and four-plex apartments located next to the boardwalk in the Beaches. The lifeguard station house, once slated for demolition, is a beacon of grace on the water.

What surprised me along the waterfront bike path had nothing to do with the awkward piles of concrete and glass -- they're hard to miss from the highway -- but the enchantments of the city's waterfront public space. Along the segment of the path known as the Martin Goodman Trail, there are lush plantings of native varieties and the impressive shoreline naturalization at Humber Bay. There are wild roses, prairie grasses and cattails. The roar of traffic is omnipresent. Even the bohemian rhapsody of Ward's Island is rudely interrupted by the noise of airplanes landing or taking off from the Toronto Island airport.

It amazes me that a waterfront dining experience is limited to French fries, hot dogs, pizza and soft ice cream. The Sunnyside Pavilion café serves spanakopita, too, but the plastic furniture and vinyl tablecloths are shoddy, the filthy washrooms unfortunate. Is this all that can be mustered within the splendid confines of a historic beach pavilion? Having recently returned from Vancouver and an excellent meal of grilled salmon at Watermark Restaurant, a wooden pavilion and lifeguard facility designed by the award-winning firm of AA Robins that floats over the sand and massive logs at Kitsilano Beach, I'm wondering why eating along the Toronto waterfront damns us to an eternity of high-fat mediocrity.

In 1988, public dismay over the development of federal waterfront property -- the shameful apartments thrown up on Queens Quay -- led the government to establish the Royal Commission on the Future of the Toronto Waterfront, with David Crombie as its chairman. Four years later, Ontario established the Waterfront Regeneration Trust; among its many recommendations was the need to create a continuous waterfront trail along the Lake Ontario shoreline. In 1995, the trust opened the Waterfront Trail, a 350-kilometre path connecting hundreds of parks, cultural sites and wildlife habitats from the Ontario towns of Stoney Creek to Trenton. More than 10 years later, the trail in Toronto has large gaping holes. With the recent announcement of a winner of the international design competition for the central waterfront -- the Dutch landscape firm West 8 in joint venture with du Toit Allsopp Hillier -- the downtown lake strip could finally be integrated into the larger trail by next year. So far, the Portlands has been abandoned, as has Scarborough.

I bike from the Beaches out to the Scarborough Bluffs, travelling past the gorgeous Rosetta McClain Park on Kingston Road. The neighbourhood roads carry signage indicating no access to the Bluffs. I take a steep road which has been barricaded against traffic. The forest is thick, green and ecstatic; bark from massive trees has been peeled by the force of the weather like strips of leather and chucked into the wilds. Though it is one of the great moments of Lake Ontario, this is one of the many areas of shore in the city made accessible with considerable reluctance. Instead of a beach, there is a shoreline reinforced with an endless rows of massive boulders. Three combined sewer overflows, fronted by graffiti-covered concrete faces, discharge a mix of storm water and human sewage into the lake. At the end of the sharp descent, I am alone with spectacular views of the craggy bluffs. The isolation is both wonderful and unnerving. What I hear are the gentle waves of the lake, and footsteps of a homeless guy coming down the road.

Lake Ontario is a place of massive deception. It looks monumental and clean, and the shorelines are undergoing laudable naturalizations. If it weren't for the railways, the highways and the Gardiner Expressway, we would be there all the time. But, in many ways, there's been little progress made in cleaning up the beaches. Mark Mattson is head of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, an environmental group whose mandate is to test the water and its sediments and advocate for a healthy lake environment. According to the group's research, beaches in Toronto were closed 37 per cent of the time during the summer of 1995 and 44 per cent of the time during the summer of 2004. The Leslie Street Spit is of great concern to Mattson. Sediment samples taken from its Triangle Pond indicated severe-effect levels of oil and grease, iron, lead and fluranthene; mercury, cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, zinc, anthracene and a host of other chemicals and metals were also found to a lesser extent in the pond. But the Leslie Street Spit continues to expand as a host not only to so-called clean construction debris but to the stuff dredged from the Keating Channel in the Portlands. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) is planning further bike trails for the spit, but Mattson would like to see the entire brownfield capped and lined to prevent further leaching into the lake.

Two of the most disarming, magnificent beaches in Toronto are the eastern beaches at Bluffer's Park and at Rouge Park. They're also the beaches with the highest e-coli levels. In 2004, Bluffer's Beach was closed 84 per cent of the time. A drainage ditch that runs between the two lifeguard stands is filled with e-coli, says Mattson. Last year, it was closed 93 per cent of the time. In 2004, Rouge Beach was closed 69 per cent of the time and 85 per cent of the time in the summer of 2005. Not much progress there.

Rouge Beach is reached via a steep road that descends from the end of Lawrence Avenue. A vast, bucolic marshland with water lilies greets the visitor before the Rouge river unwinds into Lake Ontario. The beach is rich in a coffee-coloured sand and the water looks pristine under the hot afternoon sun. But it depends on where you're looking. To the west, verdant forest. To the east, Pickering Nuclear Generating Station presents as something formidable and nasty: A series of hulking, dust-covered concrete domes. The lifeguard chairs have been seriously vandalized and a red flag warns swimmers away. In the shade of the lifeguard station house, a concrete-block shed, two lovely young women in dark shades have gathered by a radio for conversation.

They're the lifeguards -- obliged to work another day at Rouge Beach, though nobody will go swimming. But, by now, there's nothing surprising about that.

This concludes a two-part series.

AoD

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

And Hume on the matter, from the Star:

Life in the grass lane on Queens Quay
Summer plan calls for 2-lane makeover
Jun. 27, 2006. 05:58 AM
CHRISTOPHER HUME

This could finally be the waterfront summer Toronto has been waiting for.

Though they are not carved in regulatory stone, plans call for two lanes of Queens Quay to be closed for up to two weeks in August. The bottom half of the street will be resurfaced in grass and/or a wooden boardwalk and turned over to pedestrians.

The idea is to give Torontonians a sense of what the waterfront could be and take advantage of the momentum created by the international design competition held earlier this year. Members of the winning team, West 8, headed by Rotterdam landscape architect Adriaan Geuze, gathered yesterday to work out the details. They have barely six weeks to get organized, but Gueze is adamant that the waterfront transformation will be well underway by the time September rolls around.

"We want to block off the southern part of Queens Quay to traffic," he explained yesterday. "There are still a lot of problems to be solved. But we're trying to give the space to people for barbecues, picnics, walking, biking ... We want people to come and colonize the area. Afterwards, we can analyze how it functioned; maybe it will work, maybe it won't."

Chris Glaisek, vice president of planning and design at the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp., which sponsored the $20 million competition, said the time for optimism has come.

"It's absolutely going to happen this summer," he insisted. "We've had a number of very focused sessions with the city and it looks like this could work. The city has been very positive. We're talking about creating a linear park that will extend the Martin Goodman Trail from Spadina over to Bay, maybe with temporary beaches installed at the heads of the slips. We want to give people a sense of what the waterfront could become."

Glaisek calls the proposal a "full-scale mock-up." It will give local planners, politicians and residents an opportunity to see for themselves how a reduced and revitalized Queens Quay would work.

Of course, many of the condo-dwellers who inhabit the Queens Quay highrises will be up in arms, complaining that the loss of two lanes will affect their existence so negatively that it won't be worth living there. Then there are the merchants, the few who have managed to survive in this neighbourhood; if experience is any indication, they, too, will shout and scream about the potential damage to their businesses.

But as city planner Eric Pedersen asked, "How can it get any worse than it already is?"

According to Pedersen, "Even the public works people realize something has to be done."

That's good news. In Toronto, all roads lead to the public works department, which isn't known for its enlightened attitudes to urbanity. The waterfront corporation will have to obtain a temporary road-closure permit from the public works department.

But as Pedersen also pointed out, the fact the program is temporary means that approval should be that much easier. After all, if everyone hates the experiment, it will only last for days.

In the meantime, Geuze's team is meeting with event planners to organize a festival that will help animate these new spaces.

In a city as timid as Toronto, such baby steps will be welcomed; nobody has to make any big decisions or commitments to something that might actually lead to change. This way, we can ease into a revitalized waterfront effortlessly and painlessly.

If all goes well, Geuze's team will begin work on the permanent version of things this fall. That work is expected to continue for another two or three years, but what's important is that it starts.

In the meantime, land is being cleared for the West Don Lands neighbourhood and hoardings have gone up. Toronto's new "urban beach," HtO, will open at the foot of John St. this fall.

In other words, waterfront revitalization has started. Let the fun begin.

AoD

 

[Oliver Tweed]

Rochon's article is depressing, yet quite accurate I'm afraid. It didn't seem all that relevant, though, given that most people agree the waterfront is in poor shape and that is the reason for the redesign.

 

[frizzed]

Blah, blah-blah, blah, blah-blah-blah.

Those are very annoying articles. No. I will not elaborate.

 

[thenay]

Rochon says this in the article,
"It amazes me that a waterfront dining experience is limited to French fries, hot dogs, pizza and soft ice cream."

I'm sorry but there's more than that. There's a few restaurants down along the waterfront, there's only french fries, hot dogs, pizza and soft ice cream if your on the run and not in the mood to spend more than $8 a meal. I think Rochon has never been to the Harbourfront area... hmmm |I

 

[Archivistower]

I love Lisa Rochon, but enough about the waterfront's shortcomings. It's a bit silly to compare the food at Watermark with that at the Sunnyside Pavilion. I've eaten at Watermark, and I must say it was an incomparable experience aesthetically. Toronto offers no equivalent of the sun setting over English Bay while you are eating their marvellous food, and enjoying their amazing service. Truly a wonder.

So why compare one of Vancouver top restaurants with the Sunnyside Pavilion's food? At any rate, the general grubbiness of the Sunnyside Pavilion has it's charm as well. It's so easy to imagine the negativity if SP were turned into some version of WM:

"We remember the day when Sunnyside Beach was a casual drop-in location for any visitors, families or bathers, and charm emanated from its low key yet historical ambiance. Now it's been turned over to the Starbucks set and a reservation months is advance is hard to come by". Blah blah.

You can be negative about anything.

Finally, re: Vancouver's waterfront. You don't need to go far outside of the city (into east Vancouver and Burnaby) before the long shore of their waterfront is cut off from the city by railway tracks, punctuated with a few parks. I checked out the cycling map of Burnaby and for a great stretch of the coast on False Creek the only bike route is Barnett Road, a distance from the water and separated by tracks. That's the equivalent of the Martin Goodman trail separating entirely from the lake at around the Don Valley and never returned. But one rarely hears these things.

 

[papamanjr]

for the past couple of summers, playing in the rec volleyball league down at sunnyside, I can tell you that the highlight for most of us has always been the drinks afterwards at the pavillion with everybody there. it's not english bay, and it sure isn't watermark, but it's still nice to sit outside on the patio by a 'body of water', and relax with some friends. I believe it serves its purpose well. (they also give v-ball players half price on the pizzas.)

 

[wyliepoon]

National Post

Link to article

Public promenade to be tried out on Queens Quay
August pilot project

James Cowan
National Post

Saturday, July 08, 2006

The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation wants to convert Queens Quay Boulevard into a public promenade for 10 days this August, replacing two lanes of traffic with impromptu gardens, a bike path and a makeshift lawn.

The temporary transformation of the boulevard between York Street and Spadina Avenue, from Aug. 11 to 20, is intended to give the public a taste of the future as the TWRC begins its transformation of Toronto's central waterfront.

"This is something that allows people in the short term to start realizing the benefits," said Kristin Jenkins, a TWRC spokeswoman.

The TWRC unveiled a new plan for the shoreline between Bathurst and Parliament last month. Designed by West 8, a Dutch architectural firm, the proposal calls for the creation of a tree-lined pedestrian right-of-way along Queens Quay. The jury that selected the winning design suggested temporarily closing Queen's Quay "to create an initial version of the team's ultimate concept."

City Councillor Pam McConnell, who represents the area, said she supports the creation of the pilot-project promenade.

"The fact that you can design a road and try it out before you build it is very, very creative and may, in the long run, make for a much better road," she said.

The TWRC will need the approval of city council and its own board before it creates the temporary promenade.

If endorsed, the project will close the eastbound lanes while leaving the westbound lanes open. TWRC designers have proposed installing a lawn in the closed curbside lane and putting gardens and planters along the streetcar right-of-way. The project will also temporarily extend the Martin Goodman trail.

"The Martin Goodman Trail essentially disappears in the central waterfront right now," Ms. McConnell said. "So this will connect it between Bathurst and Jarvis."

While road closures usually provoke fears of traffic chaos, many local residents appear to be embracing the plan.

"There are people who think this will help animate the street and there are other people who think it's just going to make traffic problems worse," said Anne Christensen, president of the Harbourfront Community Association. "But we won't find out unless we run this trial."

Ulla Colgrass, a representative of the York Quay Neighbourhood Association, described the temporary closure as "a very exciting thing."

"It's worth trying out," she said. "It not only transforms the neighbourhood, it transforms the city to have an area that's not totally beholden to car traffic."

Despite the enthusiasm, some residents are concerned a full assessment has not been done of the effect on local traffic.

"There has been no modelling of the impact that the closure of these lanes will have on traffic," Margaret Samuel, a representative of the Central Waterfront Neighbourhood Association, wrote in an e-mail, adding later, "We will be inconvenienced, however, the response of the TWRC that I heard to this is that we need to put the inconvenience into perspective, that streets are closed all the time."

Ms. Jenkins said the TWRC is committed to adjusting its plan to address neighbourhood concerns.

For her part, Ms. Christensen said she hopes the plan might actually reduce traffic congestion in her neighbourhood.

"Queens Quay definitely has a traffic problem," she admitted. "Not only because of the growing number of people living here, but people use it as an alternate route to get downtown. If this will make Queens Quay for local traffic rather than Lakeshore and Gardiner traffic, then I think it's great."

Ms. Colgrass also noted residents have easy access to public transit and arterial roads. "We have Lake Shore with all those lanes, we have the Gardiner and we have Bremner Boulevard -- we're not exactly in the wilderness," she said.

Work on implementing West 8's design will begin this year with the transformation of eight desolate boat slips into public spaces. The federal, provincial and municipal governments have committed $20.1-million toward the project.

 

[FutureMayor]

Sorry, we don't need another traffic study and another five plus years of delays to tell us that it's possible to close down the damn road.

I'm glad the TWRC has the balls to bulldoze this one through!

Louroz

 

[garden of evil]

the floating maple leaves were (and still are) my fabourite part of this plan. Toronto needs to get past its boring, unflashy hang ups. If you want the waterfront to be something special, if you want this to symbolize the city and attract people/tourists, you are going to have to do something special. A floating boardwalk would do this. People will want to go down to the water and see it. They will want to walk on it and experience it. This would be the signature feature of Toronto's waterfront. Forget a "signature building", we have a signature boardwalk.

I agree that the tear drops on slips was a great idea, and would look cool, but I doubt that they too would have been built. Foster imagined them to be hotels or restaurants etc. The cost of building a hotel on the water in that shape would be very high, while the size would be very limiting. I just dont see it working out. The water "canals" running along city sidewalks is a neat idea, but they too would not work out. The city slopes too much as it moves away from the lake. Water would have to be pumped up under the city streets, and would then only trickle down shallow recesses in the side of the street. What with our paranoid nature, I am sure there would be barriers on both sides of the canals so noone falls in. The canals themselves couldnt logistically be very wide as in many locations building set backs limit canal/sidwalk space. Another pipe dream.

West 8's plan to shut off the south lanes of Queens Quay is a great idea, and right up there in my mind as one of the key ideas in their plan. Too bad this likely wont happen either. People will put up a fuss and think that there will be nothing but gridlock if you take away 2 lanes. I see study after study looking at this and eventually it just being forgotten. For a unified waterfront that people can WALK along, more pedestrian space is needed, and this would provide that.

Relocating the Ferry docs to the foot of Yonge is brilliant.

The curvy slip-covers are brilliant

The granite and wood materials are brilliant

The connection to the CN Tower is brilliant (although I dont really understand how that would happen as their plan shows a walkway going right through the Steam Whistle Brewery)

Including elements that are outside of the scope of the RFP shows that the West8 plan is a waterfront-wide, comprehensive plan that really is interested in connecting the waterfront to the city. Judges who discount this are discounting the importance of making this connection.

I used to be a proponent of tearing down the Gardiner, then agreed that keeping it up was not the end of the world due to the condo developments. With this plan, I am re-convinced that the Gardiner should come down, and the sooner the better. Lets just put that debate to rest and get rid of it.

I hope that ALL elements of the West8 plan are eventually brought to reality.

 

[MetroMan1000]

^ With all due respect, you don't seem to have done your research. Your comments suggest you've simply read speculation.

Foster's tear drops were meant for restaurants and stores and were designed to be implemented very early in the proposal. The city would build them and private entities would pay to use the space in them.

I too think we should think big, but the Leaf boardwalks would not be visible to those on the ground. Looking out into the lake, you would simply see a boardwalk. Only those in towers above would see the leaf.

As for doubting that Queens Quay will close off 2 lanes, not only is it going to happen, it is going to happen this August. Additionally, contrary to the statements above, the local community is embracing it, agreeing that it will not create gridlock, it will actually relieve it. Drivers will avoid using Queens Quay as a cross town street like they do now. It was never intended as that, Queens Quay is a local street that will become less congested, quieter and cleaner with the implementation of this plan.

I look forward to seeing the beginnings of West 8's proposal become reality.

 

[papamanjr]

and so it begins...

A start on shoring up lakefront
Jul. 14, 2006. 05:54 AM
CHRISTOPHER HUME


The dream of a green waterfront will come true, if only for 10 days in August.

The bored, er, board of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. has approved a plan that will close the two southern lanes of Queens Quay W. from Aug. 11 to 20 and turn them into a "linear park" between Spadina Rd. and York St.

The scheme, proposed by Rotterdam-based firm of landscape architects, Team Eight, and its local collaborators, was the winning submission in an international design competition held earlier this year.

As the TWRC board heard yesterday, the idea behind the proposal is to give Torontonians a chance to see for themselves the vast potential of the waterfront. It will also give planners a chance to build a full-scale mock-up and learn where improvements could be made.

Though it seemed to come as news to at least one befuddled board member (who asked whether this road closure would become an annual summer event), the hope is that it will be a prelude to a permanent reconfiguration of Queens Quay and the surrounding area.

But until then, Queens Quay will be reduced temporarily to two lanes of one-way traffic, westbound. The Martin Goodman Trail, which currently ends at Spadina and doesn't start again until east of Jarvis St., will be extended through the central waterfront.

It will become a four-metre-wide roadway for bikes and rollerbladers. Directly south, there will be a grassy strip. It will be enhanced along the sides of various slip heads with small sandy beaches, not intended for swimmers but more than enough for kids to play in.

The cost of the 10-day experiment will be $900,000, a lot of money, for sure.

But as one board member rightly pointed out, "This is our chance."

Indeed it is. Though opposition can be expected from the NIMBY brigade, i.e. some local residents and merchants, the issue goes beyond mere convenience of drivers who park in underground garages. Though they can rest assured, they will all have access to their spots.

More important, however, are the future of the waterfront, its revitalization and the completion of the city. Torontonians have listened to promises for years about how the waterfront will one day be reconnected with the city and once again become part of their lives.

Though that would necessitate the removal of the Gardiner Expressway and the burial of the railway tracks that separate the city and the lake, these are unlikely given the general feeling of civic poverty, the lack of political leadership and vision, inadequate funding for public transit and widespread automobile dependence.

But there are still things that can be done to bring the waterfront to life.

That's what the Team Eight plan is all about; it starts with the premise that much of the land along the water's edge should be handed over to people, not cars. This will be an extremely contentious issue in August and all eyes will be focused on whether the needs of pedestrians are ultimately given precedence over those of drivers.

This is what everyone says they want, but they could easily change their minds. Getting Torontonians out of their cars isn't easy; board members themselves seemed more concerned about parking than, for instance, programming during the 10-day closure.

"We have the support of most of our partners," said TWRC vice-president for planning and design Chris Glaisek.

"We need to give people a sense that this part of the waterfront has been handed back to them," Glaisek added.

All that remains is city council approval for the road closure. That is expected to pass easily, especially as community council recommended the move Tuesday.

One thing no one raised was the possibility the plan might succeed too well. What if Torontonians decide they want the rest of the city handed back to them, not just the waterfront? What if they decided they're sick of overcrowded streets, endless gridlock, underfunded transit, overly narrow sidewalks lined with dead trees and breathing filthy, exhaust-filled air?

Where would it end? Not just Toronto the Good, but Toronto the Green. And to think, it could all start on Aug. 11

www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1152827412769&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist969907619189

 

[jcapitain]

The cost of the 10-day experiment will be $900,000, a lot of money, for sure.

Crikey, it better look damn good for that amount of money.