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Why The Design Of Toronto's
Downtown Waterfront Fails - Badly
There are very specific elements that are needed to attract people to the Public Realm - and just as important, there are very specific elements that are needed to encourage people to STAY in the Public Realm for long periods of time or to move onto another well designed Public Realm. Dr. Jan Gehl has a simple analogy to explain how to design a USABLE/LIVABLE Public Realm. He says that designing a good Public Realm is just like putting together a good party. Click here to listen to a talk given by Dr. Gehl on this exact topic.
Instead of being an extension of people's living rooms (which is what the Public Realm is all about - as demonstrated in all great cities in the world) - Toronto's Downtown Waterfront has been essentially privatized and has been turned into a theme park. What is the resultant visual message that the current Downtown Waterfront sends out? A very confused visual image. Is the Downtown Waterfront area visually a BUS STATION? - a TENT CITY? - a BOAT DOCKS? Or all of the aforementioned. What visual signals are being sent out that "this is your Downtown Public Realm on the Water's edge"..."this is your free Public Realm to come and STAY on"..... "come down with your family and hang out on the water"... "and do absolutely nothing" ... "or even talk to strangers".
HERE IS THE EVALUATION:
Notice the scoring beside each failed element - the scoring goes from MINUS 100 to PLUS 100 - a bare pass is ZERO.
1. PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLICLY OWNED PUBLIC OPEN
SPACE - THE PUBLIC
REALM (and the property, provincial and federal taxes from the middle
class to go along with the Public Lands). It appears that the entire
Toronto Downtown Waterfront has been taken out of the Public Realm and
has been privatized. Don't believe it? Then click here
to listen/see a video - that captures one of the countless
private security guards at Harbourfront Centre carries out his duty!:
{can't go any lower} SCORE:
MINUS 100
2. NO SITE LINES BETWEEN TORONTO'S
DOWNTOWN CORE AND THE DOWNTOWN
WATERFRONT. Even the worst architectural and urban planning
school
teach their future "professionals" about site lines. It's obvious (to
anyone who loves people) - that there are zero site lines from
Toronto's Downtown through to the water's edge at Toronto's Downtown
Waterfront. The only site line to the Downtown Waterfront is from the
Gardiner Expressway!: {one
point for the only way to see the downtown waterfront is from the
Gardiner Expressway} SCORE: MINUS 99
3. NO LARGE HARD SURFACED GATHERING
PLACES. For a city that keeps
trying to
promote itself as an international level, high quality city - there are
simply are no Publicly Owned/Controlled Public Open Spaces/Public
Realms - hard
surfaced spaces, gathering places - NO SQUARES, NO PROMENADES, NO
ESPLANADES. No effective SQUARES
for STAYING. No effective PROMENADES connecting all the SQUARES. No
ESPLANADE running along side the water's edge. (Just a $10,000,000
gangplank - a runway to load the "15 minute" tourists onto commercial
tour boats). The three largest spaces on the waterfront? A car parking
space (the biggest space), - a programmed performance space for selling
beer (second biggest space), a grass area (third biggest space) just
reserved for a summer camp and selling trinkets. {one point for having
a potential for two squares - assuming that the
"Civic Square" in front of city hall and the Dundas St Square can be
saved by re-designing both those spaces and turning then into a Usable
Public Realm - someday} SCORE:
MINUS 99
4. NO SEATING IN PUBLICLY OWNED
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES - THE PUBLIC
REALM. There should be
a minimum of 2000 individual seats along the Downtown Waterfront
(besides the
hundred or so found on for-pay patios sitting on privatized publicly
owned land). There are under 50 Public Seats in the Public Realm along
the entire downtown Toronto public waterfront and the waterfront
neighborhood (assuming
the waterfront is public - doesn't appear to be - is it?) and adjacent
neighborhood. None of
these seats are shaded. Even worse is that these 50 seats are the bench
format - many of the "Jolly Green Giant" format - which are designed
for people who are 12 feet tall! Normally only two people will sit on a
three person bench. {one point here - in that the someone in the city's
Parks department broke the rules here and did put a few seats here -
that don't require one to drink beer} SCORE:
MINUS 99
5. ILLEGALLY PARKED EMPTY BUSES AND
MORE ILLEGALLY PARKED EMPTY
BUSES
AND THEN MORE ILLEGALLY PARKED EMPTY BUSES, AND THEN EMPTY ILLEGALLY
PARKED
TRUCKS, AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, EMPTY ILLEGALLY PARKED CARS. The
City of Toronto
and/or the Toronto
Police and/or Harbourfront Centre and/or Air Canada Centre or the
Rogers Centre and the offical Tourist "board" - are not controlling the
illegal parking of empty buses, empty
trucks and empty cars throughout the
Toronto Downtown Waterfront neighborhood. What is outcome from all this
"rule bending" - it turns a residential neighborhood into an illegal
"Transportation Storage Depot/Parking Lot" and an illegal
"Transportation Centre/Bus Terminal Station". Although some elites
think "
the more buses the better" - there is ample proof that the wild bus
parking is a negative when it comes to the economic viability of the
waterfront. This uncontrolled illegal bus station visually destroys
what
should be a grand visual entranceway to the waterfront. Click here to see four
videos about the entire Toronto Downtown Waterfront and adjacent
neighborhood for 20,000 taxpaying residents - having been turned into a
gigantic illegal - but
free Transportation Storage Depot for millionaires. {what's the
notion about...... "not pissing in one's well"}
SCORE: MINUS 100
6. THE TENT CITY. The number
of permanent tents continue to grow on
a weekly basis on the third largest (now privately owned?) open
space along the downtown waterfront - at HarbourFront Centre. Even the
simplest town in Europe takes down all the tents each day after the
farmer's market on the city's central square closes. But not at
Harbourfront Centre. Again Harbourfront
Centre is creating visual pollution which destroys - what should be a
visual entranceway - a grand gateway to the Downtown Waterfront.
SCORE: MINUS 100
7. IS IT LIVERPOOL? STAIRWAY TO
COMMERCIAL TOUR BOAT HEAVEN. Instead
of
developing a boardwalk for Toronto's residents along Toronto's Downtown
Waterfront - millions of middle
class tax dollars are spent on the rich and rich wannabes - by building
a $10,000,000
(that's a ten millionn tax dollars) runway/gang plank to the commercial
tour boats. Boardwalks and piers
are normally reserved for non-commercial uses, for the residents - but
not in Toronto! This area has been
turned into a Transportation Centre and a Transportation Storage Depot
for the
commercial boat tours for the "15 minute tourist". The three levels of
government could save tax dollars by simply just giving these
commercial boat tour companies money to close up shop and leave.
SCORE:
MINUS 98
8. PUBLICLY OWNED PUBLIC TOILETS
WITH DIAPER CHANGING FACILITIES FOR
BABIES. Any respect for Toronto's families would have led to a
series
of easily accessible public toilets on the waterfront (that is, easy to
reach within a minute - with no steps for baby strollers and
carriages). Naturally these
toilets need to have baby changing facilities. {There must be one
publicly owned public
toilet on the waterfront - somewhere!} SCORE:
MINUS 99
9. WATER FOUNTAINS FOR DRINKING
PURPOSES. Its only common sense (and
a love of people) that dozens of water fountains for drinking purposes
are needed on a hot day on any waterfront - that are accessible from
any point on the waterfront. Number of drinking water fountains found -
zero! {just keep pushing beer on the waterfront - isn't that the only
purpose of a waterfront development - to sell beer}
SCORE:
MINUS 100
10. TORONTO'S DOWNTOWN WATERFRONT IS SAME SIZE AS KINGSTON'S (POPULATION 60,000) WATERFRONT! Toronto's downtown waterfront needs to be increased by 1000 percent - ten times bigger than it is now, just to service the 200,000 downtown office workers who would like to come to the waterfront for lunch - but stay away by the hundreds of thousands. SCORE: MINUS 90
12. TORONTO'S GRAND ENTRANCEWAY TO
THE DOWNTOWN WATERFRONT?
Waterfront's must have a well defined, visually correct - safe looking
entranceway -
that is inviting as well as being safe. Toronto's Downtown Waterfront
entranceway is
through extremely long, unsafe, exhaust filled tunnels under the
railway
tracks:
SCORE: MINUS 100
13. TRAFFIC LIGHTS ON THE LAKESHORE
RD. THAT FAVOURS CARS
OVER PEDESTRIANS. It's obvious that cars are favoured over
pedestrians
along Lakeshore Rd. as well as Queens Quay West. Pedestrians have long
wait times for a green light - on the other hand, get short times to
cross
roads. Imagine a parent pushing a baby carriage and at the same
time guiding a 4 year old across these roads - within the marginal time
set by the traffic lights. Impossible! And then there's the 60
kilometres an hour speed limit on the Lakeshore Rd. {Do road engineers
love families with children? The maximum speed limit in the downtown
core near the waterfront should be 40 kilometres an hour (and 30
kilometres an hour would even be better for pedestrians) - a slower
speed's outcome? - Drivers might actually notice the waterfront - if
they can see it!}
SCORE:
MINUS 100
14. TOTAL LACK OF A DELIVERY TRUCK
SERVICE CORRIDOR FOR RESTAURANTS
AND OTHER COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES AND LACK OF CHARTER BUS PICKUP
FACILITY. Instead of providing a series of loading docks and
delivery/service corridors for delivery trucks for restaurants and
performance venues, and tour buses - the entire neighborhood that
houses 20,000 Toronto residents, has their neighborhood turned into a
commercial staging zone.ng {Doesn't anyone at City Hall love people?}
SCORE: MINUS
100
20. DESIGN ASTHETICS ALONG THE
DOWNTOWN WATERFRONT - The best way to summarize the
asthetics of the various sites, structures and buildings along the
downtown waterfront is "Honest Ed's Kitch". {Need anymore be
said?}
SCORE:
MINUS 100
MINUS 1984 out of PLUS 2000! A pass would be ZERO! Toronto's Downtown Waterfront is failing to pass by 1984 points when it comes to good design - that is, "USABLE URBAN DESIGN OF THE PUBLIC REALM"!