How ACC square can be a winner
RICK EGLINTON/TORONTO STAR
Maple Leaf Square, under construction near the Air Canada Centre, could be the next step in Toronto's urban evolution or end up a sterile failure.
Sep 07, 2009 04:30 AM
Christopher Hume
Unlike the team for which it is named, Maple Leaf Square might turn out a winner.
The city's newest public space remains a construction site, but already it's clear the potential is enormous. The square sits at the east end of Bremner Blvd., east of York St., next to the Air Canada Centre. Across the road, an elegant twin-towered condo complex is also under construction.
Given its location next to the home of the Leafs and Toronto's premier pop/rock venue, the new plaza could mark the next step in the city's urban evolution or end up a sterile concrete space, empty except at game time.
One possibility the development raises is that of turning Bremner into a pedestrian thoroughfare extending west from Maple Leaf Square all the way to the Rogers Centre. That would be about three blocks of a road where traffic is usually light.
Given that the neighbourhood also includes an office tower now being built on the northwest corner of York and Bremner, and any number of condos, a walkway – some sort of hard-surfaced linear park – would draw from a large and growing community.
The new feature also happens to be connected to Union Station and the underground city, which makes it easily accessible.
On the other side, the obvious drawback to the square is that it's surrounded by towers. They loom over the space ominously. Though Dundas Square is also defined by (mostly) tall buildings, it works because of its connection to Yonge St. In some ways, it's little more than a viewing platform from which to watch the passing parade.
Maple Leaf Square doesn't have the luxury of such urban conditions. More people than ever now live in the vicinity, but pedestrian densities are nowhere near those of Yonge and Dundas. Except, of course, temporarily when the Leafs, Raptors, et al. are in session.
The hard part will be to attract visitors between events. On the other hand, proximity to housing, transit, hotels, shops and offices could mean instant popularity.
Interestingly, the most desirable connection of all – the one that leads to the waterfront – will never happen. Unless the city decides to rip up Lake Shore Blvd. and tear down the Gardiner Expressway, Maple Leaf Square will be naturally oriented west, not south.
Which brings us back to the Bremner pedestrian thoroughfare and why it would be such a positive addition to the emerging downtown.
Even that might not be enough to overcome the square's other great obstacle, the very corporate culture that created it. Without any natural or urban features to distinguish the place or make it engaging, there's a danger it will end up offering little more than the usual franchise suspects, the same bars and restaurants that already seem to occupy every corner in the city.
Meanwhile, to the west, Simcoe St. has been extended from Front St. down to Queens Quay. That means improved waterfront access, especially for cyclists and pedestrians. Until several weeks ago, when the extension opened, they had little choice but to use one of the various north-south streets that have turned into virtual highways below Front.
At some point soon, Torontonians will have to decide whether these still-unfinished neighbourhoods will be handed over to the people who inhabit them or continue to be polluted concrete islands marooned by expressways.
In typical fashion, we like to believe we can have our cake and eat it, too. Perhaps we can. But who wants to sit at some outdoor cafe in the perpetual shadow of the Gardiner Expressway?
Christopher Hume can be reached at
chume@thestar.ca.
Source:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/691815
