Animation of the area will be achieved bit by bit as each development gets built. Each will have something in them that will draw office workers or residents to cross the street to get to the other side. Yeah, there'll probably be a Subway sandwich shop, but hopefully there'll be a good restaurant in spot X, a bar in spot Y, and on and on. Real animation down here requires that the Yonge/York/Bay off ramps get replaced by the Simcoe off ramp. I can't wait 'til that's done.

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I agree tearing down the Yonge/York/Bay off ramps is a huge step in the right direction. I just think it's overly optimistic to think that building a huge bank tower is going to 'animate' the area. 10 and 20 Bay didn't animate the area. 33 and 55 Queens Quay sure as heck didn't animate the area. What you have down there are thousands of condo dwellers in 33 & 55 who get in their cars to go anywhere, office workers who only leave the building to smoke and tourists wandering around trying to catch a glimpse of the lake everyone's told them about. Then they find it, hop on a ferry to Toronto Island and they're done. I've worked and lived down in this area for 10 years. I find it VERY hard to believe this beautiful new bank building is going to do anything much to the sterile concrete corridor it's being built in. Sorry but it's true.
 
^^ The buildings at 33/55 Queens Quay do have retail, so it does animate the street a little. Supposedly, they will be renovating the retail and improving the way the stores meet the sidewalk, so that will also help with animating the area. The office across the street will probably help somewhat too. Things can only get better. Gosh, stop being so relentlessly negative. This city has so many great things going on, especially when you compare it to what's going on in other North American cities. Queens Quay will be pretty nice, once everything is finished construction.

That Harbour Castle Convention Centre bunker, will be torn down soon and replaced with something I'm sure, will be a big improvement.
 
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Torontovibe said:
^^Things can only get better. Gosh, stop being so relentlessly negative. This city has so many great things going on, especially when you compare it to what's going on in other North American cities. Queens Quay will be pretty nice, once everything is finished construction.
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Totally agree! A $110,000,000 street makeover is going to make QQ amazing! ANYONE who owns property down here is going to be happy from a property value standpoint when fully complete in 2015. With the new developments pushing south to Harbourfront, this area is becoming much less of an 'island' cut off because of the Gardiner. I find the Gardiner becoming less and less of a barrier because of all the new projects. Plus, the PATH bridge here should be fantastic :D
 
Apparently the all so hated buildings south of Queens Quay will be undergoing some major streetlevel renos in 2015 once the current retail leases let up as well.
 
RiverCity1 said:
A $110M street makeover is going to make QQ amazing!
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Well it can't get any worse, that's for sure. :)

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^^^ I mean that is the area of QQ we're talking about right? So now we're going to have a huge bank tower on the north side. Stunning building. But I still can't figure out how it's going to animate the street-scape on a cold November day.
 
It's not just this building going in. It's Ten York. It's One York and Harbour Plaza. It's eventually the 1 Yonge redevelopment, 60 Harbour, Bay across from the ACC. Put all of these things together—even just some of them—take down the off ramps and improve the park, redo Queens Quay and upgrade the Harbour Square retail, and there will be lots of people out and about, crossing from one building to another to get to location X, Y, or Z.

How's that so difficult to foresee?

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27 April 2013: I never knew there was a sidewalk/bike path along here! Well it's pretty crappy :p

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It got me thinking--perhaps traffic lights should be installed on the Gardiner from about Spadina to Jarvis to slow down traffic noise?

And maybe some fake trees created by artists could be placed under the Gardiner, the rail berm etc? Think big shaggy silicone rubber trees and bushes and other bright cheery sculptures with lighting.
 
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You would install traffic lights on the Gardiner at random just to stop traffic and lower noise? The traffic noise from the Gardiner isn't really noticeable above the ambient noise level anyways.
 
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Traffic lights on an expressway? That's ridiculous. Besides, it'd create more noise since cars accelerating from stop are louder than at cruising speed. Especially furious drivers would likely accelerate aggressively after being forced to stop on the Gardiner.
 
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How about people who want peace and quiet shouldn't choose to live next to a freeway in downtown Toronto? Maybe we should shut the Skydome down too. Too many people!
 
What I mean was slow down traffic via either stop lights or a slower speed limit. The same for Lake Shore--it's extremely noisy something must be down to beautify the strip, create a more human-scale atmosphere and yes, make it quieter.
 
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