WHISTLERINMUSKOKA
Mar 9, 2007, 2:32 PM
Elegant, treed design chosen for remake, now it's up to public, firms to raise $24M
Mar 09, 2007 04:30 AM
John Spears
CITY HALL BUREAU
http://www.thestar.com/images/assets/191432_3.JPG
Plant Architect Inc., Toronto, with Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners (architect, Toronto); Peter Lindsay Schaudt Landscape Architecture, Inc. (landscape architect, Chicago); Adrian Blackwell (design collaborator, Toronto); Blackwell Bowick Partnership Limited (structural engineer, Toronto); and Crossey Engineering Ltd. (mechanical and electrical engineers, Toronto)
Toronto has an elegant new design to rejuvenate Nathan Phillips Square.
Now all that's needed is the money to get the job done.
A six-member jury announced the winner of the design competition at city hall last night: Plant Architect Inc. & Shore Tilbe Irwin.
It features a permanent stage on the west side of the square, and a new restaurant and skating change rooms west of the reflecting pool.
Thickly planted trees will sprout along the Queen St. side of the square, with more trees along Bay St. The Peace Garden shifts to the west edge of the square and the roof of the main city hall podium will become a lawn and sculpture garden.
Seats will be scattered across the open spaces of the square and a disappearing fountain will spout water. Top standards for environmental design are featured throughout.
The one fly in the ointment: The city doesn't yet have money in the kitty for the $40 million project. City council has earmarked $16 million in its five-year capital budget. That leaves $24 million that Mayor David Miller says must be raised from public and corporate donations.
But Miller noted that the project is designed so it can proceed in stages, so the money needn't flow all at once. And fundraising will cement the public's bonds with the square, he said.
"We're confident we'll be able to raise the money to complete it as it should be," Miller said after the winner was announced.
"It should be magnificent. That's what we deserve in this city and I think building a partnership with Torontonians is the way to do it."
Nor will the need for money stop with the original construction tab.
The city absorbed a stern warning from the jury that, once completed, the rejuvenated square will need ongoing care and attention.
Their proposal: A curator to care for the square's physical well-being and to co-ordinate activities that take place in it.
"We firmly believe that the new space will require a new level of stewardship that frankly has not been evident in the past," architect Eric Haldenby, who chaired the jury, told Miller and the assembled notables after announcing the winner.
Public spaces need attention, he said in an interview:
"My sense is in Nathan Phillips Square there has not been a co-ordinated oversight of the space itself ... The consequences are a kind of slow deterioration of the space.
"If they go ahead with the proposition of the sustainability features, like the gardens on the roof, they cannot be just left like the sort of paltry things that are up there now," he said.
"There has to be a new level of commitment."
The jury even proposed a source for funding to keep the square spruced up.
There is, Haldenby said "$7.5 million (in revenue) from the parking garage downstairs: If we're into sustainability, there could be a little bit of a tax from parking, in our view."
If the city neglects the square, he said, the members won't be silent: "We assure the city that we the jury will not walk away and forget it ... We will be watching."
The jury included former mayor David Crombie and author Michael Ondaatje.
Andrew Frontini, a member of the winning team, said the designers were sensitive to the city's uncertain finances. "It actually breaks down into discrete pieces quite nicely, so we imagine our design could be very successfully staged," he said.
"For example, we could start with the rejuvenation of the podium or the elevated walkway, and not worry about the restaurant or the theatre for a few years."
Miller said Chicago raised $100 million for its Millennium Park, and Toronto has a history of successful fundraising.
"Torontonians will contribute the same way," he said. "People contributed to Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts right across the street, ROM, all these institutions.
"Nathan Phillips Square is the most important space in this city. We've got $16 million of city money in, and I'm confident we'll raise the remaining money soon ... I'm not going to stick a deadline on."
Contributors will be recognized "very discreetly," Miller said; no one will be skating on the Coca-Cola Rink.
"Absolutely not," he said. "This is Nathan Phillips Square, that's how it's going to remain."
Miller said his confidence in the project was boosted by the passion of the winning design team: "I think that passion's going to translate into tremendous rejuvenation of this public space."
Frontini said he hopes the environmental sensitivity of the design will be "a banner to the city of Toronto and a statement that says: `We are a city that supports sustainability.'"
Mar 09, 2007 04:30 AM
John Spears
CITY HALL BUREAU
http://www.thestar.com/images/assets/191432_3.JPG
Plant Architect Inc., Toronto, with Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners (architect, Toronto); Peter Lindsay Schaudt Landscape Architecture, Inc. (landscape architect, Chicago); Adrian Blackwell (design collaborator, Toronto); Blackwell Bowick Partnership Limited (structural engineer, Toronto); and Crossey Engineering Ltd. (mechanical and electrical engineers, Toronto)
Toronto has an elegant new design to rejuvenate Nathan Phillips Square.
Now all that's needed is the money to get the job done.
A six-member jury announced the winner of the design competition at city hall last night: Plant Architect Inc. & Shore Tilbe Irwin.
It features a permanent stage on the west side of the square, and a new restaurant and skating change rooms west of the reflecting pool.
Thickly planted trees will sprout along the Queen St. side of the square, with more trees along Bay St. The Peace Garden shifts to the west edge of the square and the roof of the main city hall podium will become a lawn and sculpture garden.
Seats will be scattered across the open spaces of the square and a disappearing fountain will spout water. Top standards for environmental design are featured throughout.
The one fly in the ointment: The city doesn't yet have money in the kitty for the $40 million project. City council has earmarked $16 million in its five-year capital budget. That leaves $24 million that Mayor David Miller says must be raised from public and corporate donations.
But Miller noted that the project is designed so it can proceed in stages, so the money needn't flow all at once. And fundraising will cement the public's bonds with the square, he said.
"We're confident we'll be able to raise the money to complete it as it should be," Miller said after the winner was announced.
"It should be magnificent. That's what we deserve in this city and I think building a partnership with Torontonians is the way to do it."
Nor will the need for money stop with the original construction tab.
The city absorbed a stern warning from the jury that, once completed, the rejuvenated square will need ongoing care and attention.
Their proposal: A curator to care for the square's physical well-being and to co-ordinate activities that take place in it.
"We firmly believe that the new space will require a new level of stewardship that frankly has not been evident in the past," architect Eric Haldenby, who chaired the jury, told Miller and the assembled notables after announcing the winner.
Public spaces need attention, he said in an interview:
"My sense is in Nathan Phillips Square there has not been a co-ordinated oversight of the space itself ... The consequences are a kind of slow deterioration of the space.
"If they go ahead with the proposition of the sustainability features, like the gardens on the roof, they cannot be just left like the sort of paltry things that are up there now," he said.
"There has to be a new level of commitment."
The jury even proposed a source for funding to keep the square spruced up.
There is, Haldenby said "$7.5 million (in revenue) from the parking garage downstairs: If we're into sustainability, there could be a little bit of a tax from parking, in our view."
If the city neglects the square, he said, the members won't be silent: "We assure the city that we the jury will not walk away and forget it ... We will be watching."
The jury included former mayor David Crombie and author Michael Ondaatje.
Andrew Frontini, a member of the winning team, said the designers were sensitive to the city's uncertain finances. "It actually breaks down into discrete pieces quite nicely, so we imagine our design could be very successfully staged," he said.
"For example, we could start with the rejuvenation of the podium or the elevated walkway, and not worry about the restaurant or the theatre for a few years."
Miller said Chicago raised $100 million for its Millennium Park, and Toronto has a history of successful fundraising.
"Torontonians will contribute the same way," he said. "People contributed to Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts right across the street, ROM, all these institutions.
"Nathan Phillips Square is the most important space in this city. We've got $16 million of city money in, and I'm confident we'll raise the remaining money soon ... I'm not going to stick a deadline on."
Contributors will be recognized "very discreetly," Miller said; no one will be skating on the Coca-Cola Rink.
"Absolutely not," he said. "This is Nathan Phillips Square, that's how it's going to remain."
Miller said his confidence in the project was boosted by the passion of the winning design team: "I think that passion's going to translate into tremendous rejuvenation of this public space."
Frontini said he hopes the environmental sensitivity of the design will be "a banner to the city of Toronto and a statement that says: `We are a city that supports sustainability.'"