[thecharioteer]

Toronto afforded the upper-middle class (even possibly middle class) goodies such as...TURRETS!!!

Don't think many middle-class Londoners were gett'n turrets.

Sure they were! (Pont Street, Kensington):

 

[freshcutgrass]

Sure they were! (Pont Street, Kensington)

Kensington was middle-class during the victorian era?

But I wasn't talking about decorative turrets...but real room-sized turrets that touched the ground.

Turrets are an inefficient use of space and land, so they were really luxuries and status symbols. Is was such a victorian passive-aggressive thing. "Hey, come over for afternoon tea in the turret eh?"

What they were really saying is..."FACK YOU...I'VE GOT A TURRETT!!!"

 

[Urban Shocker]

Who wants Yonge/Dundas to look like Bath?

Who wants Yonge/Dundas to look like Yonge/Dundas?

Stephen Teeple, interviewed by JBM in the Globe in March:

Mays: The central task of architecture in the present moment, he believes, is to get on with the business of city-building. Asked for an example of who knew how to do so excellently, Mr. Teeple reached back in time before either modernism or romanticism, and came up with the Georgian designer John Wood the Younger, who fashioned the splendid residential terraces of Bath.

“I like city-making projects,†Mr. Teeple said. “But we don’t know what [the city’s] shape should be any longer. John Wood the Younger knew what a city should look like. He knew how to shape a street into a phenomenally beautiful space. City-making is an open book right now.

It’s an interesting moment, when there are so many possibilities for making a city.â€

 

[Tewder]

Stephen Teeple, interviewed by JBM in the Globe in March:

Mays: The central task of architecture in the present moment, he believes, is to get on with the business of city-building. Asked for an example of who knew how to do so excellently, Mr. Teeple reached back in time before either modernism or romanticism, and came up with the Georgian designer John Wood the Younger, who fashioned the splendid residential terraces of Bath.

John Wood the Younger did wonderful things for the people of Bath in the 18th century, and it seems to have suited them to a tee in their context... but this is not the context of Yonge/Dundas.

It’s an interesting moment, when there are so many possibilities for making a city.â€

I agree with this statement... and the city in its diversity of ideas can embrace so much as it already does. The crass commercial circus that is Yonge/Dundas, or that it tries to be at least, is just one possibility but an important one, as distasteful as this may feel to some.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The article ( see below ) was about Teeple's work - specifically, his Gansevoort hotel design - and his sources of inspiration. Neither what Teeple does now, nor what the Woods, father and son, built in Bath then, strike me as examples of a crass commercial circus, thank goodness.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/life/h...-city-building/article1945978/?service=mobile

 

[Tewder]

A crass commercial circus did not exist in the 18th century. It is alive and well at Yonge/Dundas, however, and this is the context, one of the 'many possibilities' of the modern city. Gansevoort is not proposed for Yonge/Dundas, moreover.

 

[Urban Shocker]

You're right. The only 18th century Circus that I can think of was at Bath, and designed by John Wood Senior, and was not at all crass and commercial:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/TheCircusBath20040731_CopyrightKaihsuTai.jpg

 

[k10ery]

Oh, the "Gothicized" comment was an attempt to classify the style of those two Toronto commercial rows that you posted pictures of. They're obviously not Regency but later.

Actually the roofline in that second photo looks rather Georgian to me -- the roof pitch, the eaves, and the cute little dormers. I would guess pre-Confederation, does anyone know if that could be right at Yonge and Wellesley?

Of course the window hoods are Gothic. But I think 1980s-vinyl-Gothic

 

[Urban Shocker]

The curved tops to the window surrounds in that second photo might mean 1860-ish rather than Georgian, though yes the roof pich looks Georgian. Maybe some of our Goads atlas fans know how old he block is. Styles did run into one another too.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Below is a link to the progress on the (downtown) Yonge Street Planning Framework

http://ward27news.ca/councillor-wong-tam-launches-yonge-street-planning-framework

 

[SixPoints]

Some nice photos from the '70's in this article.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/art...fair-can-toronto-s-main-drag-stage-a-comeback

 

[Xray_Crystal_Junkie]

^ I know it won't happen under the current administration (as pointed out in the article), but I hope the next mayor has the vision to make it permanent. Or better yet, no cars during daylight hours.

 

[johnwood]

i think yonge st is way too small for 2 way and it would be better off making it into a 1 way and have one lane for bikes or something.

 

[caltrane74]

I would be happy if they just reduced the size of the lanes. And made the sidewalks wider.

 

[Jonny5]

Street trees don't have to use much space - no more than a planting bed. Here's an idea: instead of having the patios next to the buildings, have the street trees and patios in the same amenity strip area along the street edge. Something like this. That still leaves plenty of room for widened sidewalks.

I'm on the no trees side. First, I have no confidence they would survive as anything other than a mass of broken twigs and some tiny leaves like the rest in this city.
Second, I want space. It's hard enough to walk around the slow people and people who just stop and stand in everyone's way for no reason. Then you have to put up with trees, newspaper boxes, planters, lampposts, charity beggars, regular beggars, mailboxes, and other assorted crap. Get rid of as much of it as possible.

/pedestrian rage off