[Edward Skira]

You can view the page at http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2010/03/photo-day-disera-drive-vaughan

 

[bAuHaUs]

This is a new format SMART Centres site anchored by a Wal-Mart to the far right....and it's on Centre Street opposite The Promenade shopping centre.
There's office use on the second floors with access to the retail shops on the ground from both sides of the building.
It certainly works with the residential community just north of the site since Disera Dr connects northward. This is what SMART Centres had proposed for Leslieville (however the local community quashed it down).

Thanks for the pic, I haven't seen this perspective.

 

[kettal]

Now if only the same could be done for the parking lot on the other side of Centre Street.

 

[CityPlaceN1]

Looks kind of neat from this picture. Will need to visit next time I'm in the area.

 

[jswag]

Still looks Disneylike and I have serious concerns about it, being seemingly surrounded by parking lots. I wonder what the pedestrian activity is like.

 

[Disparishun]

Still looks Disneylike and I have serious concerns about it, being seemingly surrounded by parking lots. I wonder what the pedestrian activity is like.

I go here all the time and think it's great. Fully a step in the right direction. There are some easy things that they could have gotten right without too much change and didn't, like putting residential instead of storage on the second stories, and maybe adding a third storey. Similarly the Promenade Shops across the street and the YRT bus terminal, also across the street (both immediately south -- this photo is looking north) really need to be better integrated with this, as that would substantially improve everyone's experience and, here's something they really ought to understand, improve business for all three sets of stakeholder.

Yep, surrounding by parking lots -- people park and then walk around. If you thought they could build this and everyone would just amble over from the subdivision, jswag, you don't really understand the suburban built form really well.

There are a bunch of high-rises built just up the street and ringing the Promenade adjacent. There are walkers and bikers around, but they are certainly fewer than those who drive and walk around. Hopefully the ratio will improve over time. It certainly won't get worse.

Now let's see the next pedestrian-friendly kind of thing build on this.

 

[savevp]

It is a very walkable ara and a nice shopping street. Good restaurants are everwhere. I will definately try to get you some new photos ASAP.

In the mean time, check out www.thornhilltowncentre.com

 

[jswag]

Yep, surrounding by parking lots -- people park and then walk around. If you thought they could build this and everyone would just amble over from the subdivision, jswag, you don't really understand the suburban built form really well.

Yep, you're right, I don't understand the suburban built form except for the 20-odd years I have spent living in its midst. Please, save your self-righteous indignation.

Sure, it is a "step" but not much of one. This form is exactly like a suburban mall-- the same malls we are striving to redesign so that they are more open and accessible to the community around them. While this is connected on one or two ends with a street, otherwise large gaps remain between it and the surrounding community in the form of these parking lots. There is no environment more hostile to pedestrians than a parking lot and as such I think we can and should do better.

 

[kettal]

How would you make it better? Parking is not optional, it's required by law. These are some of the better placed surface parking lots I have seen. Very few pedestrian visitors would need to cross a parking lot to access the shops.

A suburban mall invariably requires one to traverse a parking lot. These shops don't.