Public Realm in Canadian Cities - Developments

[JHikka]

Great plans for Yonge. Sorely needs pedestrian expansion.

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

It’s still half way done but they did part summer of 2017 and another bit in 2018. More is planned in 2022 and in 2025 I believe. I drove through it this spring on one of my COVID drives to keep myself busy.

Thanks for this. St. Thomas has great bones for a tight, dense downtown. Hopefully more progress can be made.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by Maldive

Plan to rebuild Yonge Street with wider sidewalks, fewer lanes goes to Toronto Council

Toronto Star article: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/202...y-council.html
“...proposal that would make dramatic changes to Yonge, at the same time as Toronto replaces 140-year-old water and sewer infrastructure underneath the street. Once reconstructed, Yonge Street would see dramatically wider sidewalks and the street itself reduced to just two lanes. As well, portions of Yonge would be closed to through traffic during the day in order to prioritize pedestrians and cycling.”

Along with Cadillac Fairview, 250 retailers and tenants are objecting to the reduction of traffic lanes between Dundas and Queen Street East. “the lane reductions would make loading and onloading for curbside pickup impossible and that restrictions on deliveries would be “catastrophic for businesses.”

urbanflight

urbanflight

urbanflight

urbanflight

Existing

urbanflight

Oh man that is gonna be awesome. Can't happen soon enough.

[Maldive]

^ the jigsaw puzzle drivers will have to navigate, depending on the time of day (when the pedestrian priority portions are closed to traffic).


UT

[Innsertnamehere]

Essentially the street will only be open north of Gerard and south of Shuter. A few minor exceptions in between for servicing and turn arounds.

[MonkeyRonin]

Yonge St. desperately needs wider sidewalks and a refurbished public realm, but this seems like an unnecessarily complicated solution:

Originally Posted by Maldive

UT

One through lane in either direction (with the ability to be closed off between Bloor and Front when needed) and expanded pedestrian space would be fine. Otherwise, the renderings look great.

[esquire]

Love those renderings for Yonge... it looks like it has the potential to become an absolute showpiece.

[hipster duck]

I'm 6/10 on this Yonge Street redo.

This article describes my feelings exactly.

The dog's breakfast of opposing one way streets, bike lanes and pedestrian precincts with railway crossing-like gate closures suggests that the city tried to compromise with everyone but will ultimately satisfy no one.

In my opinion, the best public realm improvements were all authoritatively implemented by someone with a singular vision. Once in place, the nature of the public area was defined and everyone fell in line (happily).

Also, the concrete block pavers look like they came out of a catalogue and will probably be somewhat dated in a few decades - precisely because so many cities are implementing them right now.

The black granite pavers on Bloor Street are timeless and more durable to boot.

The plan's a lot better than what we have now, though.

[ssiguy]

^^ That's kind of what I think.

It's too much of a hodge-podge for my liking. Yes, it certainly a great improvement over the mess and unpleasant experience it is now but just seems to confusing.

They should have just turned the entire Gerrard to King section into an entire pedestrian only mall and be done with it. Those tiny little turn lanes for cars seem a bit ridiculous and I REALLY don't like those pedestrian railway guards. They are completely unnecessary and will divide the open space. I hope they get rid of them and just replace them with something like a small but attractive public art structure which would serve the same purpose but be more far more pleasant and industrial looking. Even something as simple as planters with trees would serve the purpose nicely.

[Kilgore Trout]

The renderings make it look a lot like Montreal is doing to Ste-Catherine, but the map of traffic programming is very complicated.

The first phase of the Ste-Catherine redo opened just before the holidays. It's a huge improvement, as I'm sure the Yonge revamp will be. Because Ste-Catherine is one-way, there is room both for car access and deliveries. I've also gone down the new stretch on my bike and it's perfectly nice because traffic moves at about 15 km/h and there's plenty of room to go past cars.

[J.OT13]

Ottawa's Nepean Point is set to be rehabilitated in the coming years, starting this Spring. The park behind the National Gallery of Canada is set on a high point in the capital, with terrific views of Parliament Hill, the Ottawa River, Zibi, the Hull skyline, the museum of History (Civilization) and the Alexandra Bridge (set to be replaced within 10 years).

A bridge will be built over St-Patrick Street at the entrance of the Alexandra Bridge to link it to the better known Major's Hill Park. It will replace a pedestrian bridge demolished in the 50s.

Current conditions.

• Video Link

Video of the new concept. The "Vessel", a theatre space behind the hill facing the Gallery, has been removed for budgetary reasons.

• Video Link


https://www.ledroit.com/actualites/o...d246ebe85856ec

[tayser]

Originally Posted by Doug

I would argue that Australia skews closer to the Melting Pot construct than does Canada so economic and family connections to Asia aren't as influential as they would be in Canada

I live in the city with perhaps the largest representation of South African expats and don't perceive any influence whatsoever. South Africa shares some British heritage, climate and economic competencies (ex. mining) with Australia, so expats blend in well by default.

As you pointed out earlier, S.E. Asia and parts of East asia are relatively "close" to Australia (and as KT pointed out, the lack of any major timezone changes helps).

Just to help out here - in painting a picture of equivalent travel distances.

Melbourne to Denpasar/Jakarta/Singapore/KL/Bangkok/HCM/Manilla/Hong Kong is in the range of 5-10 hours or the equivalent of Toronto/Montreal (anywhere on the east coast of North America, really) to Dublin/London/Paris/Frankfurt/Warsaw/Rome/Athens.

Melbourne-Singapore is basically the same as Toronto-Paris (6,025km versus 6,037km via great circle).

S.E. Asia is to us what western/central Europe is to you, just without the major jetlag. Just think pre-covid, if you had the funds to do it, it's not much of a stretch to get on a plane to Europe for a 1-2 week trip and return - that's what S.E. Asia is to us.

[MonkeyRonin]

Leslie Slip Lookout - a proposed beach & park designed by Claude Cormier + Associés as part of the Portlands redevelopment:








https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2021/01...-leslie-street

[csbvan]

Those renderings are...interesting

[Chadillaccc]

The City of Airdrie has finally released their draft downtown masterplan, it looks quite nice. The city is, I believe, the largest in the country without a high-rise, and that is set to continue.

The Tumpster fire/truck-nut-dangling crowd is going to stage a full scale uprising against this plan I'd imagine.


https://www.airdrie.ca/index.cfm?serviceID=1304

[J.OT13]

The NCC will begin a re-fresh of the ByWard Market courtyards, off Sussex Drive, in 2022.

Here's how they look today.

Location:



Images:


https://twitter.com/KalenAnderson/st...10644360192006




https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/site-1-sussex-courtyards


http://www.pastottawa.com/comparison...ndon-lane/453/

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

The NCC will begin a re-fresh of the ByWard Market courtyards, off Sussex Drive, in 2022.

I'm surprised they're giving those a refresh. They're already very nice.

What about redoing York Street? That street looks like it hasn't had a refresh since the 80s, and that street parking really detracts from what could be a really great urban space.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I'm surprised they're giving those a refresh. They're already very nice.

What about redoing York Street? That street looks like it hasn't had a refresh since the 80s, and that street parking really detracts from what could be a really great urban space.

I'm also a bit surprised. Not a whole lot of detail on work they'll put in.

For York, and the rest of the Market, the City of Ottawa does have a new $130 million public realm plan that includes widen sidewalks, more trees, reduced parking, replacing the parking garage with a "destination" building (and partner with a private developer on new public parking nearby). Highly dependent on upper government funding.

York Street is the top priority of that plan, with George behind HBC as the lowest priority as it's the department store's shipping and receiving area, which limits the possibilities and the overall potential added-value.

The goal is to get it all done by 2027, the ByWard Maket (and Bytown/Ottawa's) 200th anniversary.

https://mathieufleury.ca/byward-mark...-realm-plan-2/

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I'm also a bit surprised. Not a whole lot of detail on work they'll put in.

For York, and the rest of the Market, the City of Ottawa does have a new $130 million public realm plan that includes widen sidewalks, more trees, reduced parking, replacing the parking garage with a "destination" building (and partner with a private developer on new public parking nearby). Highly dependent on upper government funding.

York Street is the top priority of that plan, with George behind HBC as the lowest priority as it's the department store's shipping and receiving area, which limits the possibilities and the overall potential added-value.

The goal is to get it all done by 2027, the ByWard Maket (and Bytown/Ottawa's) 200th anniversary.

https://mathieufleury.ca/byward-mark...-realm-plan-2/

That's really exciting. York Street looks kind of like Barcelona's La Rambla in the masterplan.

It's a lot of money, but it's worth it to spend most of your public realm improvement dollars on a few strategic areas in your city rather than spreading it thinly everywhere.

[Martin Mtl]

Square Phillips, Montreal.

From Mondo_Grosso at AgoraMontreal

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

The City of Airdrie has finally released their draft downtown masterplan, it looks quite nice. The city is, I believe, the largest in the country without a high-rise, and that is set to continue.

The Tumpster fire/truck-nut-dangling crowd is going to stage a full scale uprising against this plan I'd imagine.


https://www.airdrie.ca/index.cfm?serviceID=1304

Aspirational and quite nice, but I cannot see that getting support/built.

Consultants consultanting