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AlvinofDiaspar
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From the Star:
A vision beyond the urban beach
Nov. 16, 2006. 01:00 AM
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Janet Rosenberg may be in a hurry, but unfortunately Toronto isn't.
One of the city's leading landscape architects, Rosenberg desperately wants Toronto to get off its collective butt and get going. She's getting tired of waiting.
Take HtO, for example, the "urban beach" at the foot of John St. at Queens Quay W. her firm designed three years ago. The project is underway and slated to open next spring, finally, only two years behind schedule.
Much of that time has been spent jumping through bureaucratic hoops. Dealing with the various agencies alone was enough to slow construction to a crawl. Now, however, the results can be seen; the large concrete terraces that reach down to the very waters of Lake Ontario have been poured and the hole that will contain a huge sandpit has been dug and lined.
Even a few of the bright yellow umbrellas have been installed. Eventually there will be 39, the bulk still to come. Willow trees have also been planted on mounds and benches installed.
Of course, changes were made along the way. After West 8 of Rotterdam won the central waterfront redesign competition last summer, the beach was moved closer to Queens Quay in anticipation of reducing the street from four lanes to two.
Though HtO remains a construction site, its final form and even some details are visible. It will be a spectacular, and desperately needed, addition to the water's edge. Despite widespread cynicism, the reclamation and transformation of the waterfront has started. No, it's not moving fast enough and the process will take years, even decades, but it has begun.
From the start, Rosenberg has fought against the safety tyrants who rule Toronto: The sandbox almost had to go; some years ago a razorblade was found at Cherry Beach. The terraces almost had to go; someone could fall into the water and drown. The umbrellas almost had to go; someone might climb up and hurt themselves. The slope of the terraces almost had to go; if they were too steep someone could trip and scrape a knee.
"The reality in the city now is that you're always designing for the worst possible scenario," Rosenberg says. "Really good design anticipates that and incorporates it. But it's a very hard battle to fight; you want to design spaces that are beautiful, but you're always dealing with a bureaucracy that's preoccupied with the lowest common denominator and liability."
According to Rosenberg, if HtO hadn't started as a design competition, it would never have happened. Because competitions involve juries, they are somewhat immune to the city's usual way of doing business.
"I take my hat off to (councillor) Joe Pantalone, who knew there would be problems and helped us steer the scheme through many hurdles," she says. "What really upsets me is that there's no hierarchy that establishes the public realm as a priority. No one ever comes to your city because you've got great sewers. I get really frustrated that public works projects never take into account the fact that things have to be beautiful and usable spaces, not just well engineered."
Rosenberg points to the streetcar right-of-way on St. Clair as an example of how poorly the city looks after itself. "I'm angry that through all the discussions we never talked about how people feel walking on the street," she argues. "We never thought about the sidewalks and the implications for people, for how businesses can flow out onto the sidewalk and how many trees have to be removed because of the right-of-way.
"So when you make a decision to put in a streetcar that saves people seven minutes, you also have to give equal balance to the price in terms of the public realm, the streets. We really don't look at things from edge to edge. We never really look at the major trade-off that happens on the streets because of it. Our streets are really important; they're the life of the city. They give us an identity.
"Making wider sidewalks is just as important as creating a right-of-way," she insists. "So we can have places for trees, room for restaurants and stores to move out onto streets. We're so shortsighted in our focus. The TTC is a great example, but it's not alone. The Gardiner is the next disaster waiting to happen; what does it mean to take down the Gardiner without creating parks and wonderful public spaces? You can't look at taking down the Gardiner without looking at what will happen afterwards. It's an opportunity to create wonderful green people places, to create a nice strong link to the city.
"It's the thought process that's wrong," she says. "Who has a vision for the city?"
Rosenberg does. She will lecture on the New Landscape tomorrow at 8 p.m. at Convocation Hall, University of Toronto.
AoD
A vision beyond the urban beach
Nov. 16, 2006. 01:00 AM
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Janet Rosenberg may be in a hurry, but unfortunately Toronto isn't.
One of the city's leading landscape architects, Rosenberg desperately wants Toronto to get off its collective butt and get going. She's getting tired of waiting.
Take HtO, for example, the "urban beach" at the foot of John St. at Queens Quay W. her firm designed three years ago. The project is underway and slated to open next spring, finally, only two years behind schedule.
Much of that time has been spent jumping through bureaucratic hoops. Dealing with the various agencies alone was enough to slow construction to a crawl. Now, however, the results can be seen; the large concrete terraces that reach down to the very waters of Lake Ontario have been poured and the hole that will contain a huge sandpit has been dug and lined.
Even a few of the bright yellow umbrellas have been installed. Eventually there will be 39, the bulk still to come. Willow trees have also been planted on mounds and benches installed.
Of course, changes were made along the way. After West 8 of Rotterdam won the central waterfront redesign competition last summer, the beach was moved closer to Queens Quay in anticipation of reducing the street from four lanes to two.
Though HtO remains a construction site, its final form and even some details are visible. It will be a spectacular, and desperately needed, addition to the water's edge. Despite widespread cynicism, the reclamation and transformation of the waterfront has started. No, it's not moving fast enough and the process will take years, even decades, but it has begun.
From the start, Rosenberg has fought against the safety tyrants who rule Toronto: The sandbox almost had to go; some years ago a razorblade was found at Cherry Beach. The terraces almost had to go; someone could fall into the water and drown. The umbrellas almost had to go; someone might climb up and hurt themselves. The slope of the terraces almost had to go; if they were too steep someone could trip and scrape a knee.
"The reality in the city now is that you're always designing for the worst possible scenario," Rosenberg says. "Really good design anticipates that and incorporates it. But it's a very hard battle to fight; you want to design spaces that are beautiful, but you're always dealing with a bureaucracy that's preoccupied with the lowest common denominator and liability."
According to Rosenberg, if HtO hadn't started as a design competition, it would never have happened. Because competitions involve juries, they are somewhat immune to the city's usual way of doing business.
"I take my hat off to (councillor) Joe Pantalone, who knew there would be problems and helped us steer the scheme through many hurdles," she says. "What really upsets me is that there's no hierarchy that establishes the public realm as a priority. No one ever comes to your city because you've got great sewers. I get really frustrated that public works projects never take into account the fact that things have to be beautiful and usable spaces, not just well engineered."
Rosenberg points to the streetcar right-of-way on St. Clair as an example of how poorly the city looks after itself. "I'm angry that through all the discussions we never talked about how people feel walking on the street," she argues. "We never thought about the sidewalks and the implications for people, for how businesses can flow out onto the sidewalk and how many trees have to be removed because of the right-of-way.
"So when you make a decision to put in a streetcar that saves people seven minutes, you also have to give equal balance to the price in terms of the public realm, the streets. We really don't look at things from edge to edge. We never really look at the major trade-off that happens on the streets because of it. Our streets are really important; they're the life of the city. They give us an identity.
"Making wider sidewalks is just as important as creating a right-of-way," she insists. "So we can have places for trees, room for restaurants and stores to move out onto streets. We're so shortsighted in our focus. The TTC is a great example, but it's not alone. The Gardiner is the next disaster waiting to happen; what does it mean to take down the Gardiner without creating parks and wonderful public spaces? You can't look at taking down the Gardiner without looking at what will happen afterwards. It's an opportunity to create wonderful green people places, to create a nice strong link to the city.
"It's the thought process that's wrong," she says. "Who has a vision for the city?"
Rosenberg does. She will lecture on the New Landscape tomorrow at 8 p.m. at Convocation Hall, University of Toronto.
AoD
