Skeezix
Senior Member
I exaggerate with the word "scourge", but only a bit. ;p
Increasingly, retailers are covering up ground floor windows with signage adhesives which effectively transform the windows into walls. It generally has a negative effect on the streetscape, turning planned groundfloor animation into opaque walls or billboards. It is a suburban/big box design solution, being transplanted into urban, pedestrian-oriented areas. Like many things, it can be inoffensive/non-problematic in moderation, but some retail and service tenants are going to town with it.
The issue came up this morning in the Shoppers Drug Mart thread, and I posted this photo of the SDM in Regent Park on Dundas Street East. This building was designed, and obtained site plan approval, on the basis that there was fenestration along much of the ground floor, allowing people to see inside the various shops and services. SDM has now transformed a good portion of those windows into signage:
It doesn't help that its standard imagery which SDM uses on many of its stores. In addition to helping kill ground floor animation, therefore, the window film is also undermining the sense of place. This could be anywhere. Although I suppose yet another SDM outlet may largely accomplish that in and of itself (I have no issue with SDM, BTW), window film aside.
On the flankage of the store, SDM has installed window film with historic photos of Toronto druggists. Again, no windows facing the public square next to the building (with all the potential impacts that entails), but it's certainly a step up from the bland photographs on the Dundas side.
Once you start to look for it, you really begin to notice the deadening effect it having on the streetscape. SDM is by no means the only offender. It's all over the place.
One of my "favourite" bugbears is the Rabba on the SW corner of Charles E. and Jarvis. X2 brought some much needed urbanity to that corner, only for its retail tenant at the corner to cover all of its windows with opaque film. Some of the film closer to the Charles Street corner of the building is slightly less opaque than the rest, but only slightly.
(Rabba Photo Credit: Google streetview)
It's not the end of the world. And the public art largely hides the impact as one drives by. But it does have a negative effect. Thank God for the pizza and coffee shop next door which appear to have opted for a more transparent, friendlier approach to the sidewalk and street.
I don't fault retailers. They want to maximize their floor space, with as much flexibility as possible, and window film allows them to put shelving, storage, etc. right up against windows, with no need to think about how it looks. It also assists with everything from branding to promotion. I get it. Absent any controls, I don't blame them. They have to defend a bottom line, not impacts on ground floor animation.
I do think that the City of Toronto needs to get off its ass and introduce some controls, either through the City of Toronto Act and/or the Planning Act. Planning staff are expending all this effort on ensuring an appropriate relationship between developments and the street, which includes fenestration and other ground floor animation elements. If the windows all get covered with signage, those efforts are to an extent being undermined. I wish Planning would worry a little more about how buildings read from the street, and how to secure that, rather than all the hand-wringing about height and what buildings look like from drones.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
Increasingly, retailers are covering up ground floor windows with signage adhesives which effectively transform the windows into walls. It generally has a negative effect on the streetscape, turning planned groundfloor animation into opaque walls or billboards. It is a suburban/big box design solution, being transplanted into urban, pedestrian-oriented areas. Like many things, it can be inoffensive/non-problematic in moderation, but some retail and service tenants are going to town with it.
The issue came up this morning in the Shoppers Drug Mart thread, and I posted this photo of the SDM in Regent Park on Dundas Street East. This building was designed, and obtained site plan approval, on the basis that there was fenestration along much of the ground floor, allowing people to see inside the various shops and services. SDM has now transformed a good portion of those windows into signage:
It doesn't help that its standard imagery which SDM uses on many of its stores. In addition to helping kill ground floor animation, therefore, the window film is also undermining the sense of place. This could be anywhere. Although I suppose yet another SDM outlet may largely accomplish that in and of itself (I have no issue with SDM, BTW), window film aside.
On the flankage of the store, SDM has installed window film with historic photos of Toronto druggists. Again, no windows facing the public square next to the building (with all the potential impacts that entails), but it's certainly a step up from the bland photographs on the Dundas side.
Once you start to look for it, you really begin to notice the deadening effect it having on the streetscape. SDM is by no means the only offender. It's all over the place.
One of my "favourite" bugbears is the Rabba on the SW corner of Charles E. and Jarvis. X2 brought some much needed urbanity to that corner, only for its retail tenant at the corner to cover all of its windows with opaque film. Some of the film closer to the Charles Street corner of the building is slightly less opaque than the rest, but only slightly.
(Rabba Photo Credit: Google streetview)
It's not the end of the world. And the public art largely hides the impact as one drives by. But it does have a negative effect. Thank God for the pizza and coffee shop next door which appear to have opted for a more transparent, friendlier approach to the sidewalk and street.
I don't fault retailers. They want to maximize their floor space, with as much flexibility as possible, and window film allows them to put shelving, storage, etc. right up against windows, with no need to think about how it looks. It also assists with everything from branding to promotion. I get it. Absent any controls, I don't blame them. They have to defend a bottom line, not impacts on ground floor animation.
I do think that the City of Toronto needs to get off its ass and introduce some controls, either through the City of Toronto Act and/or the Planning Act. Planning staff are expending all this effort on ensuring an appropriate relationship between developments and the street, which includes fenestration and other ground floor animation elements. If the windows all get covered with signage, those efforts are to an extent being undermined. I wish Planning would worry a little more about how buildings read from the street, and how to secure that, rather than all the hand-wringing about height and what buildings look like from drones.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
