mysteryman
Active Member
There may be no places to park on campus but there's plenty of parking in the area. The idea of students driving to Ryerson however seems pretty silly given the proximity to the TTC.
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Venti de Milo
Banned
That parking garage is just awfully distracting and ugly.
As I said it before...they should have taken it down...and have all the shops on the street levels from Timmy to the Bookstore, and use the underground levels as parking...connect its space to the Dundas Sq undergound parking space...making it one giant undergound parking.
As I said it before...they should have taken it down...and have all the shops on the street levels from Timmy to the Bookstore, and use the underground levels as parking...connect its space to the Dundas Sq undergound parking space...making it one giant undergound parking.
wyliepoon
Senior Member
Though I have used the TTC for pretty much the entire time that I was at Ryerson (because I'm scared of driving downtown), there are legitimate reasons why some students might drive. Some programs (such as Architecture or Fashion) require students to make large-scale projects that aren't easily transportable by transit, especially during rush hour. Many night school students drive to Ryerson- perhaps the time between when they get off their day jobs and the start of class doesn't allow them to get to school by transit (but with the massive traffic jams on Victoria Street every evening as they line up to get into the garage, I wonder how many of them actually get to class on time).
Tuscani01
Senior Member
Exactly... I had a bunch of tools to carry to school and back until I finally got a locker. Carrying a huge T-Square on the subway in rush hour traffic isn't fun. Projects could also not be transported via public transit because they would just get crushed by everyone.
scarberiankhatru
Senior Member
I completely understand why the parking lot was retained and built around, but it's still been strange to watch it through to near-completion. At least the garage offered a spectacular vantage point for Metropolis construction. If memory serves me correctly, the business building contains a parking garage that replaced a parking garage, but I guess since it wasn't Ryerson parking, it was ok to have a period of parking down time.
Some students can't get to Ryerson by transit in less than 90 minutes or so...you might get a lot of reading done spending 3 hours a day on subways and buses, but that kind of commute can become soul-crushing very quickly considering the same commutes can be done by car in less than half that time.
Some students can't get to Ryerson by transit in less than 90 minutes or so...you might get a lot of reading done spending 3 hours a day on subways and buses, but that kind of commute can become soul-crushing very quickly considering the same commutes can be done by car in less than half that time.
indense
Active Member
Removing the parking garage would have given them the incentive to excavate and rebuild the garage underground immediately. It may have then sat incomplete like the BA Centre for years but the time without a parking garage at Ryerson would have likely been 1-2 years rather than the whole time that we've been waiting for Metropolis.
duper
Active Member
The incorporation of the parking structure is, in my opinion, one of the greater successes of Metropolis. Rather than stop building at the edge of the parking structure, they built up and around it, hugging Dundas street and creating a streetwall. Call me easily impressed, but that was terrific use of space.
mysteryman
Active Member
It's an impressive feat of engineering and use of air space, but all that effort was for a pathetic little parking structure. It's kind of sad that we never see the same attempts to save buildings in the city that actually have architectral merit.
Sir Novelty Fashion
Senior Member
I don't think anyone would consider encasing a heritage building underneath a giant multiplex "saving." As it stands, our tolerance for having heritage buildings stuffed and mounted on the outside of glass boxes is starting to wane.
mysteryman
Active Member
I wasn't suggesting building a 'metropolis' type building around a heritage building (that would be like putting a sumo wrester on a unicycle) but I do think that more effort could go toward saving heritage buildings rather than the facadism that most projects resort to these days.
The first version of the Bay Adelaide Centre actually relocated the entire building that is now the Hong Kong building on Temperance Street before the development was put on hold. It's kind of odd to go to those lengths, but it's better then having just the facade remain.
The first version of the Bay Adelaide Centre actually relocated the entire building that is now the Hong Kong building on Temperance Street before the development was put on hold. It's kind of odd to go to those lengths, but it's better then having just the facade remain.
adma
Superstar
Actually, the inverse is true of the Hong Kong building (i.e. EJ Lennox's Aikenhead store): (a) it basically sits on or around the site where it sat before, (b) all that's left is the facade--it's just that the new building behind is "in scale", thus eliminating the "postage stamp" effect of many facadectomies...
Babel mentioned to me once that the Tip Top facade that's part of Scotiatower on Adelaide previously stood on King.
AndreaPalladio
Senior Member
I didn't know that that had been a Tip Top, ie, where Winners is now. Interesting, because the old facade on the Yonge Street end of Scotia Plaza (the Plaza Club is in it now) still has the old Fairweathers singage on it.
JasonParis
Moderator
It was the "Fairweathers Building." A 4-strory emporium with a Big Steele Man on the top floor.
