[BobBob]

Calling Metro Hall a park couldn't be more wrong in the first place.

It would be more wrong if they called it an abandoned cosmodrome, for instance.

The open space in front of Metro Hall actually is a city park, and I understand there are plans to re-design it with more greenery and a more traditional park-like layout.

 

[Nebakenezer]

Metro hall is so antisocial... not one shop or restaurant on ground level. What a waste of floor space in toronto.

 

[whatever]

What are you talking about? Penelope has a large ground floor presence

 

[ProjectEnd]

/\ What about the Greek place which fronts on King in the north building?

*edit* too late, whatever beat me to it!

 

[taal]

Metro hall is so antisocial... not one shop or restaurant on ground level. What a waste of floor space in toronto.

Clearly you haven't been there in the summer, it's full of people who bring food there to eat - also they set up a lot of tents frequently and serve foods.

 

[41stfloor]

Clearly you haven't been there in the summer, it's full of people who bring food there to eat - also they set up a lot of tents frequently and serve foods.

I swung by at lunch one day at the end of last August to watch the construction of RBC and the Ritz. I enjoyed some great fresh food from the tents and mediocre entertainment from live performers on the stage - a drum performance, if I recall. The park seemed to be teeming with people - well used and well loved. I thought its semi-expansive location with the tall buildings up and growing around it was perfect.

 

[Uncle Teddy]

The dirt path through the grass looks crappy however. Makes the place look rundown.

 

[interchange42]

It kills me when landscapers do not pave in some way shape or form the paths that people are naturally going to trod. It's not that hard to predict these things, yet so many dirt paths form in otherwise nice lawns when planners don't think about these things...

rant rant rant

42

 

[DSC]

It kills me when landscapers do not pave in some way shape or form the paths that people are naturally going to trod. It's not that hard to predict these things, yet so many dirt paths form in otherwise nice lawns when planners don't think about these things...

rant rant rant. 42

I read about a new park (in Montreal?) where they did not make ANY paths until after the first winter and then built paths along the places where people had made well-trodden tracks through the snow. Not a bad idea!

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Same idea at UW

I read about a new park (in Montreal?) where they did not make ANY paths until after the first winter and then built paths along the places where people had made well-trodden tracks through the snow. Not a bad idea!

When they first built the Math building and student centre at Waterloo, they apparently left the quadrangle in-between open, then paved the paths people made and built small hillocks around the paths. Seems like an elegant solution.

 

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

It kills me when landscapers do not pave in some way shape or form the paths that people are naturally going to trod. It's not that hard to predict these things, yet so many dirt paths form in otherwise nice lawns when planners don't think about these things...

rant rant rant

42

Speaking of which, I noticed that they finally paved the actually-used path at the south end of Philosopher's Walk... the shortest direct path that people were using through the mud instead of the pretty, inconvenient gates.

 

[Conrad Black]

I read about a new park (in Montreal?) where they did not make ANY paths until after the first winter and then built paths along the places where people had made well-trodden tracks through the snow. Not a bad idea!

I seem to recall this was the case when York University was first built.

 

[Archivist]

The small parkette beside Buddies in Bad Times theatre actually has a path that moves on a diagonal from the south west to the north east - leading to a dead end alley with no access to anything. Anybody walking from Yonge Street over to Alexander (which I do frequently) can either avoid the parkette or walk through the grassy bits covered in doggie do.

It's like the designers of the parkette, really about the size of a lot of a single house, never thought once about how a path might be used.

 

[yyzer]

here's a capture from the webcam....looks like they are working on the 2nd or 3rd floor above the setback.....

 

[toskier]

2nd which is the 24th floor