Your City's Major Parking Lot and What Was There Before
 

What are the significant parking lots in your city's downtown core. What was demolished to make way for it. What plans does the lot have in the future?

For example, Toronto has huge, significant lots on Front/Simcoe and Richmond/Victoria. These are both in the CBD. I know the future plans are for 56 Front office/condo, and the Yonge and Riich(mond) Condo by Great Gulf respectively. But what was there before? I know Toronto has some nasty lots south of the railway but I don't think they've every had anything on them.

Montreal has some nasty lots near the Bell Centre. What was there before? What does the future hold?

Try choose just 3-4 major lots in your city.

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador

We don't really have any parking lots of a significant size in the downtown core. There are a few parkades, but beyond that there are really only a handful of very small surface lots.

The largest is probably this one, by the Johnson Building, but that barely counts as downtown:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8442/7...1b6b3433_b.jpg
Downtown St. John's from Southcott Hall by Signal Hill Hiker Photography, on Flickr

The largest actually in the downtown is probably this one, beside TD Place:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8205/8...a4c6ee9f_b.jpg
TD Place by Signal Hill Hiker Photography, on Flickr

The rest... as far as I can remember... are way, way smaller. The footprint of a single small heritage building.

Outside the core, however, we have many sprawling parking lots - especially around big box store developments. Another shameful mess is the parking lot around our government buildings:

http://binged.it/U58ylP

They are few and far between in downtown Ottawa (CBD) and fading fast.

The biggest one that was left was at Lisgar and Metcalfe, but even in the Google Streetview it is under construction for condos:

http://goo.gl/maps/ugn3l

In Gatineau over the past year or so they built this:

http://goo.gl/maps/VUh8C

... on what was until then the biggest downtown parking lot in the city.

We still have way too many left but several of them are slated for various condo and office projects at the moment.

our current biggest parking lot in the downtown core is one on queen street between church and jarvis. 2.5 acres, and with no current plans for it.

http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps7f35010b.jpg

another one is the One yonge parking lot, which is about 3 acres. It is currently planned to be replaced with 98, 92, and two 70 floor buildings.

http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps30017cb9.jpg



The biggest garage in the city is the City Hall garage, with 2083 spots.

Calgary still has way too many significant surface parking lots. Way too many.

They're starting to fill in at a fairly good rate though. There's not that many with no plans of some sort. The biggest concentration are along the CPR tracks and in the east side of Beltline.

There is a big parkade that's about to come down as well to make way for the big Brookfield office 225 6th.

This is coming down
http://cheapparkingcalgary.com/wp-co...eHeader_A2.jpg
http://cheapparkingcalgary.com/wp-co...eHeader_A2.jpg

as part of this:
http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/dynamic_r...y=80&size=650x
http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/dynamic_r...y=80&size=650x

What was demolished to make way for these parking lots?

For Hamilton I think it would be Downtown. :p

We had a giant parking lot in the west end of downtown that had been there for about 20 years. A great old residential neighbourhood was cleared so that the city could eventually build a new OHL arena there, but the city was not successful in getting one built, and so it just sat for 2 decades. It really just sucked the life out of that part of the core, and DT in general. There were so many ideas for what development should go there, but as usual, nothing ever happened, until last year, when the city decided to build the new aquatic Centre and indoor water park on the site. That whole area of the core now feels so much more viable and lively, with some great waterfront lots begging for some highrise condos to be built next door.

In Calgary, not much of value was lost to parking lots as not much was there in the first place. Calgary was a small prairie town that grew inorganically into a large city. The rail corridor through downtown was mostly sidings and warehouses with a few industrial operations. Those disappeared very gradually starting the the 1970s and not much has been built in place other than parking lots. That situation will likely change as developable land elsewhere downtown becomes scarce. 7th and 8th Avenues were the commercial streets of the old Calgary. Some great buildings were lost along there, but most became office towers not parking lots. 6th Ave had some commercial but also some SFH. 5th and 4th Avenues were mostly SFH. Areas closer to the river were a mix of SFH and industrial. 4th and 5th were redeveloped early in the 70s boom and don't have many parking lots. 3rd and 6th had lots of proposals during the 70s boom that didn't happen so they have lots of parking lots. The eastern and western corners of the triangle that forms downtown Calgary were industrial areas razed in the 60s and 70s in the name of urban redevelopment that is only not starting to happen (ex. East Village).

Kingston has two municipally-owned parking garages downtown. For a city its size, it's a pretty good system.

London has a lot of surface parking in its downtown. One of the largest is on York Street across from the Convention Centre, and it's former industrial land.

Every single one of these giant red blocks downtown is parking.

http://www.raisethehammer.org/static...lighted_lg.jpg (raisethehammer.org)

Hamilton always wins the crappy contests.

You cut off a whole bunch of them!
:(

Why are there so many people parking in downtown Hamilton?

Halifax used to have a lot more surface parking than it does now. Right now, there are about 5 blocks of active downtown construction sites that were formerly parking.

Unfortunately, most of the remaining parking lots are owned by various levels of government and there is little pressure for them to develop. The province often holds on to lots for decades if they think they might one day need them (or if they just forget about them). The Waterfront Development Corporation has traditionally been one of the worst offenders. They inherited a bunch of cleared industrial land in the 1970's and then proceeded to develop at what one commenter called a "leisurely pace".

You can see Halifax's "parking district" at the bottom of this photo:
http://imageshack.us/a/img822/6615/edited2c.jpg
Source

The biggest parking lot in Thunder Bay's south downtown is a year away from being a functioning courthouse. The biggest lot in the north downtown is about 8 years away from being a multiplex. The southern lot had a lot of nondescript buildings on it. The northern lot was always a dirt lot as far as I know. I have never seen a historic photo showing anything actually being on that piece of land, and its retaining wall is from the 1920s.

We have a lot of parking but it's really fractured into dozens and dozens of tiny lots all over the place. Parking can be a pain in the ass sometimes but we actually do have enough parking for most things downtown.

There are some dirt lots just outside of the south downtown but they're not legally used for parking. A few are fenced off. I'm not sure what is going on with them. I know a few are owned by the province and it is debating whether or not to sell them. I honestly don't see any good reason for it to keep those lots.

Well those ugly nasty lots around the Bell Center are all being repurposed as condo towers in the next coupla years.

Tour des Canadiens will be 48 or 50 stories but is not on a parking lot per se.
It will have a 13 story parkade podium because it is impossible to dig since the metro and a suburban rail station are too close.

But the parking lots across the street from it will hold 3 towers, the Avenue; 50 stories, and the two Roccabella towers on René-Lévesque blvd; 38 floors apiece. On the north side of R-L blvd will be Icône condos; two towers of 38 and 32 floors each also built on ugly parking lots are developed by the parking lot owners. Up Drummond street are two 21 and 23 stories towers on a parking lot also.

I'd nominate the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto. Officially it's an expressway, but in reality you may as well just abandon your car and go for a walk.

There's a lot of surface parking that occupies space where commercial and residential buildings once stood. The land in downtown London must be pretty worthless.

They're mostly empty most of the time.

And there's more not shown (I think I made that picture years ago)

And this is why I get so upset when they keep tearing everything down. 80% of downtown Hamilton has already been demolished, a lot of it buildings most cities would love to have.

I think the buildings are demolished and turned in to parking lots for tax purposes more so than because they are viable parking lots. i think the math looks like this:

parking income minus property tax on a parking lot

is greater than:

potential rental income minus building property tax and maintenance


this is especially true of vacant or abandoned buildings.

the city is also more likely to approve a shoddy building design on a parking lot/vacant lot than if an existing building is on site. this would be more true of a city like london, On or Regina, Sk than Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver who tend to have higher standards for any new construction, period.

Vancouver used to have a huge number of downtown parking lots. This photo is from 1960:
http://imageshack.us/a/img543/1434/d...ngwestfrom.jpg
The high res is worth a look:
http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/u...be7-A23492.jpg
There are other pictures that highlight the abundance of Vancouver's parking lots but this is all I could find while doing a quick search.

Many of the empty lots have been filled in but there are still a few stragglers.
This lot is perhaps the biggest lot left downtown. It used to be the site of a bus depot and has sat empty for many decades. There is talk the new art gallery could be built on this site:
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5255/5...0e2a8b6d_z.jpg
Future Art Gallery Site? by entheos_fog, on Flickr

And some historic comparisons of parking lots being built out:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8486/8...7073f74d_z.jpg
Law Courts Site - 1971/2012 by entheos_fog, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/8...39533fbe_z.jpg
NW Corner of Davie & Howe - 1981/2012 by entheos_fog, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7142/6...2a9ba506_z.jpg
1000 Block of Homer - 1981/2011 by entheos_fog, on Flickr

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2693/4...7018b450_z.jpg
1000 Block of Alberni Street - 1974/2010 by entheos_fog, on Flickr

And the whole situation feeds on itself, as the owners of these lots want Toronto prices for them and are willing to hold onto them indefinitely. So more stuff gets demolished whenever somebody actually wants to put up a new building.

In St. John's, most of the small surface parking lots are the result of the accidental loss of the heritage buildings located on the site, typically by fire. Some were the result of intentional demolitions.

The reason the handful that we have are still surface parking lots is generally because owners are waiting for a council that won't hold them to our extensive and expensive heritage regulations for new construction downtown. They're hoping to be able to combine these small lots with surrounding properties, destroy any buildings on them, and build something bigger and new. Or they're hoping to sneak in something small and cheap-looking without having to pay to create expensive, authentic heritage features.

eeeeeesh, here is one of downtown Winnipeg. My hand is sore from outlining.

Red = barren wasteland
Green = to be redeveloped (underway or shortly)

http://i848.photobucket.com/albums/a...owntownPkg.jpg

It's the same situation in Windsor. In the early 1900's there was a great fire in our downtown which cooked alot of the heritage buildings. Also ever since the city has been steadily tearing down anything that is old.

For a city settled in 1749 you would think Windsor was built in the 1960's..

^^^

Yeah, we have lost so much of our history over the decades. Hopefully we don't lose any more historic buildings in the future.

A lot of the Toronto posts are forgetting one huge one... The one currently right across from the ACC on Bay.

It does have sort of a plan to become an office tower/bus depot, but really it's been maybe a render or two, some mumbling, and nothing else.

Ooh, mapping was a good idea.

I found more than I realized we had. There are a few that I skipped - that's because, despite appearances, they're actually the visible top floor of a parkade, not a surface lot:

http://i50.tinypic.com/z0j9j.png

I also excluded one that's becoming a Marriott Hotel.

EDIT: Aww, my picture got cut off. And right above a big one (Delta Hotel parking lot) as well. Just know there's one more big one at the bottom left.

First the lake was there, then piers, then railway tracks and roundhouses and warehouses, now it's a few remaining parking lots. If you look at pictures taken 10 years ago there were a sea of parking lots all but gone now except the few you mentioned.

From blog.to
http://www.blogto.com/upload/2010/08...oronto1967.jpg

Sadly as Hamilton hit hard times and many of the building owners couldn't afford to maintain their structures. It was cheaper for them to tear them down and generate revenue from parking even if the lot was only ever half full. It's a shame so many amazing structures were lost due to economic reasons. This is the same reason why a lot of parking lots are where they are in many Canadian cities.

At least Hamilton still has a huge amount of heritage structures and when things start to roll again these lots are in great locations for highrises to go.

Yet we have some people wanting to tear down the existing buildings to "possibly build a grocery store or something, maybe".

At some point this seemingly endless stock of old buildings is going to run out. Now that there are actually a few projects happening, the rate of loss seems to be increasing. These parking lots never seem to get developed because they are ridiculously overpriced.

The city of Hamilton should consider free street parking during the day to kill the profits at these lots making them less valuable. Developers might then buy them for projects saving old structures for future reuse.

Or just strengthen their heritage laws to stop developers from being able to demolish the historic structures in the first place.

I think the best solution would be to reform the tax structure to focus on land, not improvements. The assessment system creates an artificial incentive to minimize property values, which is not what cities actually want.

They are already doing that on weekends, holidays and weekday nights after 6 (I believe). Doesn't really have any noticeable effect.

There's a fairly large lot at Kent and Queen across from Holt Renfrew that is begging to be developed.:yes:

They can strengthen heritage laws all they want, as long as the landlords have no other option then to board up buildings and let them rot due to lack of finances for upkeep and repair the buildings will still be lost. What I don't understand about Hamilton is why developers even build new when there are so many amazing old buildings sitting empty. But this topic should be in it's own thread.

Boy, has Toronto changed in 46 years! :haha: So has also Vancouver.

Winnipeg seems to have a lot to do to get rid of those awful parking lots. Good to see some progress underway nonetheless.

Great Canadian Shameful Parking Lot Thread
 

Nice to see the MTL skyline fill up around the Molson Centre, but do they have a plan to replace parking for the arena? I get that we want to encourage people to take the Metro, but you can't expect everyone to take it. Or maybe the office buildings in the area can handle the parking needs?

The office building parking lots are private, so no. There are still a few parking lots in the area, but this should encourage people to use public transit, since the Bell Centre is located near Bonaventure and Lucien-L'Allier metro stations :tup:

The disappearance of these lots is a good thing, so we don't look like Houston:

http://beyonddc.com/log/wp-content/u...ownhouston.jpg
http://beyonddc.com/log/wp-content/u...ownhouston.jpg

Strange, in Ottawa, people can park in nearly any office building as long as they are willing to pay the price (14-20$ depending on time of day).

I totally agree that the development of parking lots is a good thing. It makes for a much more pleasant and liveable urban environment.

I guess I'm just so use to the vastness of Ottawa's Corel Centre parking;

http://hockey.ballparks.com/NHL/Otta...ors/aerial.jpg

http://hockey.ballparks.com/NHL/OttawaSenators/

Houston's just plain embarrassing! Although so is the Corel Centre...

Worth mentioning that this picture is a few decades old.

Still pretty bad to this day;

http://www.neohouston.com/wp-content...ce-parking.png
http://www.neohouston.com/2009/03/pr...-productivity/

http://semitough.files.wordpress.com...houston-4a.jpg

http://newurbanisminthenews.wordpres.../new-urbanism/

I'd say Montreal will do fine even with less surface parking around the Bell Centre. There are plenty of cities around the world with facilities like that downtown and with very little parking around them.

The same view from today. Better but still a lot of work to do! That 7-story parking garage (arrow) kills me - like there wasn't enough parking around, especially in that old picture!! :P

Notice the little high-rise behind the parking garage that's been demolished to make way for...:yes:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7290/1...62197abf_o.jpg

I'd say Hamilton is still depressing for parking lots, just not quite that depressing.

In Montréal as well. I do that often.

Tour des Canadiens will have a parking podium so that will help.

Calgary is pretty bad for parking lots, but they are getting snapped up and developed pretty quick! the CPR corridor between the CBD and Beltline is the worst part and will probably take the longest to build out.

I found most of the prairie cities really bad for parking lots. Calgary is obviously filling them in, which is great. Winnipeg is getting rid of a massive one by the convention centre as well.

I hate surface parking lots downtown - hate, hate, hate. It's a complete disruption of the urban experience.

This, for example, was the way I walked to get lunch just about every workday during my time on the prairies. Right downtown, but I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. Northern work camp, the worst of suburban St. John's, however you want to describe it. I hated every second, and it's ALL about the surface parking lots.

http://i61.tinypic.com/efmfsi.png

As ugly as our two downtown parking garages might be, at least they're not surface lots. We only have a couple of those. By contrast, here is a typical walk for lunch for me here in St. John's:

http://i62.tinypic.com/2610oso.png

And people think I'm crazy for finding it more urban here. :haha:

Cities in Central Canada tend to do very well, like TO and MTL proper, and some smaller ones do especially well also, like Quebec City, for obvious reasons.

Keep filling'er in, b'ys. Getting rid of surface parking lots is probably the most impactful thing a city can do.