[wyliepoon]

Miketoronto brought me along for a trip to Mississauga City Centre on Friday because he felt like going there. I tagged along and took a couple of photos and videos. Enjoy!

Departing from Union Station

At Mississauga City Hall...

Views from the 12th floor cafeteria

Updated Mississauga City Centre model

Walking around outside

At Square One

At City Centre transit terminal

GO Bus station

Videos

Afternoon crowds at the City Centre terminal

City Centre terminal panorama

City Centre from Rathburn Rd

On the Gardiner Expressway heading out of downtown

 

[Canuck 36]

Thanks for these... I'll admit I'm envious of CityGate.
Sexy buildings.

Oh, and I love that they update their model. Imagine if the one at Toronto city hall was updated with frequency/accuracy like this.

 

[Observer Walt]

Thanks for the good pictures Wylie.

That model has been on display at City Hall for many years. Rumor is that Hazel personally updates it, late at night when no one is watching.:lol

Seriously, for those not familiar with the area, some parts of this model should not be given too much credibility. It shows existing development, and several which are coming soon (white buildings west of City Hall), but also some *very* hypothetical future developments, some of which are not likely to be built any time soon, if at all.

 

[fouratjajou]

Great pics Wylie, I really love the tapered stairs in city hall. I always do a Rocky Bal Boa routine, running up the stairs of philedelphia city hall....er...um....mississauga city hall, and jumping like a champ :hat

 

[miketoronto]

Great pics Wylie.

Gotta admit though guys that Toronto has nothing to worry about. Mississauga City Centre is really nothing but buildings with no activity.

MCC for all the plans just does not fit the downtown bill. Its the centre of Mississauga, but does not have that downtown feel.

Basically its still Square One with buildings surrounding it. It was not that exciting. The buildings make it look exciting, but there no substance at the bottom.

MCC won't have a Yonge Street anytime soon.

 

[ganjavih]

Gotta admit though guys that Toronto has nothing to worry about.

But you're the one who's always worried.

 

[heckles2]

I see buildings that weren't complete on my first visit to Mississauga back in 2002.

Are all of these buildings approved or just proposed?

 

[scarberiankhatru]

"MCC won't have a Yonge Street anytime soon."

I don't know...it's definitely getting closer to Yonge Street as it is in North York Centre, which is a better comparison. There's a lot less vacant land and that helps immeasurably.

 

[Observer Walt]

Heckles: Many of them are not approved, and are not even "proposed" as real, concrete planned developments on anyone's drawing board. This would apply to most of the gray-colored models in the photos. They would have to be called only "conceptual" at this time. Of course these concepts are quite likely to change as time goes on.

Much as many people would like to see more office space in the MCC, based on the current economics of office development I would anticipate that some of the properties originally proposed for offices (for example north of the CIBC building at 1 City Centre Drive) will more likely end up being condo apts., hopefully combined with some decent street-oriented retail space.


Scarberian: There is still a significant amount of vacant space in the City Centre, and lots of opportunities for good design, which the City is now insisting on. However the really interesting story, IMO, will be not so much the development of the vacant space, as the redevelopment of some underutilized and / or poorly designed existing space. Expect some big changes to the Square One parking lot, for example, particularly along the west side near City Hall.

As mentioned before the MCC is a very interesting, probably almost unique, situation in Canada. Anyone interested in urban development and land use will find things to follow here over the next few years.

 

[Darkstar416]

simply Dan and myself made a similar trip on Saturday. I'll post the pics soon!

 

[Chuck100]

There are some enviable buildings going up, and it's great to see Mississauga's plans coming into action - usually talks of new downtowns are nothing but hype. But this picture says it all:

Mississauga will always be Mississauga until they nuke Square One as we know it, and rebuild a vertical mall like the Eaton Centre with not one surface parking spot.

 

[ahrvojic]

Gotta admit though guys that Toronto has nothing to worry about.

Since when was Mississauga competing with Toronto? The GTA is effectively one city and Toronto proper will always be "downtown". Mississauga's still a very nice place to live even if it does have a long way to go in the urban development department.

That said, they really do need to rip out and redevelop the entire Square One parking lot if not the mall itself.

 

[miketoronto]

The only thing that needs to be redone in MCC, is Square One. That mall should be knocked down, and no regional mall rebuilt. The mall is the only scary thing in the MCC, because that is the one thing you can see that eats away at downtown Toronto.

MCC should be a western version of Yonge and Eglinton, with a little shopping, some cafe's, etc.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

^ It has a ways to go before it resembles Yonge & Sheppard/Finch...invoking the goal of Yonge & Eglinton is premature.

 

[Ontarian1976]

I hope to move back there some day. Even if it doesn't have the panhandlers, etc. that give that "real city" feel :lol