West Don Lands: Underpass Park

[College Park]

Oh yes! These underreported risks. Also, there will be people there. I mean people's heads don't explode very often, but it has happened. In fact, I feel a spell coming on right now. Best to stay clear!

This from Globe and Mail today: "Once city worker is dead and another in hospital after a garbage truck careened off a ramp leading up to the Don Valley Parkway yesterday morning." (Anna Mehler Paperny).

I also was amused by the threat of airborn vehicles, and understand clearly that I'm more likely to get struck by lightening than be tenderized by a falling Mack truck, but perhaps I won't linger.

[adHominem]

I happen to own a magic rock which protects me from cars falling from on-ramps. You may scoff, but I've had it for years, and not once has an automobile fallen on me. I'm willing to sell it. No reasonable offer refused!

It might be an uphill fight for this park to be favourably thought of by some: for instance, maybe the same folk who find the waterfront wave-decks to be a potential hazard rather than a welcome bit of whimsy. It's the difference between having a default stance of approaching cities with eager curiosity, or with trepidation.

[jn_12]

Ball hockey rink! That's awesome. Hopefully they'll flood it in the winter and make it usable for shinny too.

I think it's hilarious that people are against building a park. A new park anywhere is a good thing. There's ways to make it brighter and more pleasant, and considering it'll be in the middle of a new community, they just need to make sure that the "eyes on the street" effect is promoted in the new developments there. If the community adopts this park as it's own it could be a real success and a catalyst for other developments (specifically thinking about under the Gardiner near Spadina).

[waterloowarrior]

I think it's more likely you'd be killed by a crumbling concrete overpass collapsing than by a flying truck.

[Urban Shocker]

I feel the same way. I mean cars don't fly off the highway very often, but it has happened, and I just can't see myself hanging out under a highway.

Some years ago a friend of mine was almost crushed by a falling person as he drove beneath the Bloor Viaduct.

[Urban Shocker]

The large and rather intimidating wooden fence - cutting between the overpasses - reminds me of images of Richard Serra's Shift, up in King City. Of Shift, Serra says, "What I wanted was a dialectic between one's perception of the place in totality and one's reaction to the field as walked. The result is a way of measuring oneself against the indeterminacy of the land." A single, massive experiential sculpture like that might have worked rather well here, rather than the cavalcade of pissy little attractions shown in the rendering and plans.

[adHominem]

The large and rather intimidating wooden fence - cutting between the overpasses - reminds me of images of Richard Serra's Shift, up in King City. Of Shift, Serra says, "What I wanted was a dialectic between one's perception of the place in totality and one's reaction to the field as walked. The result is a way of measuring oneself against the indeterminacy of the land." A single, massive experiential sculpture like that might have worked rather well here, rather than the cavalcade of pissy little attractions shown in the rendering and plans.

Well, we still have the steel escarpment of the Fort York visitor centre to look forward to - a similar site, and a vaguely Serra-esque form.

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

This is one of the more morbidly-amusing threads I've seen in a while.

[Urban Shocker]

Yes, adHominem, a monumental structure that'll stand up to the elevated expressway and uses the underpass for pedestrian transit rather than as a destination. A somewhat unlikely destination in my estimation, but let's wish the people who've planned this thing well - as 18 Yonge and Pinnacle show many people will live anywhere there's continuous traffic flow close at hand.

[EnviroTO]

Why can't they put buildings under the overpass so people are shielded from the dirty mist and dirt that comes off the freeway above. It makes more sense to turn covered space into indoor space rather than try and make a place with significantly reduced natural light a usable outdoor space. With buildings under the overpass there could be indoor lighting shining through windows and entry ways onto the roadways which pass under the overpass. In this way the street wall would seem more complete along the sidewalk, the space under the overpass would be fully utilized, and there would be no dark shadowy areas that make a place unpleasant to walk.

[College Park]

Vehicles travelling at highway velocities create vibration and noise that resonate through the bridge structure and generate a hollow thunder would make any habitation (home, business, or community centre) a miserable spot, even if you don't mind the lack of natural light. Truely, a troll's domain. This park can only aspire to enhance the passing through experience, and looking at the renderings, I think it will accomplish that.

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Truely, a troll's domain. This park can only aspire to enhance the passing through experience, and looking at the renderings, I think it will accomplish that.

That's awesome -- we should import some trolls! Think of the fun we'd have dodging human-eating trolls while playing bocce and skateboarding -- it would be like an extreme sport. I bet we could get troll-dodging on the Pan Am games roster if we start lobbying now...

[M II A II R II K]

West Don Lands: Toronto's first 21st-century community


Mar 16 2010



Read More: http://www.thestar.com/yourcitymycit...community?bn=1

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It's little more than a sea of mud today, but don't get used to it. This is the West Don Lands, a large swath of land south of King St., west of the Don River. By the time work is finished, the neighbourhood will be home to as many as 12,000. Not only that, but the West Don Lands will be Toronto's first 21st-century community. Dense, sustainable, compact and connected, it will be organized around the seven-hectare park - Don River Park - that is already taking shape. The new green space will occupy the high point of a "flood protection landform" that has been under construction for several years. Because the Don Lands are located in the flood plain of the Don River, ground level had to be raised to allow for human habitation. That process is almost complete.

If Torontonians have heard of the West Don Lands, it's likely because it will also be the location of the 2015 Pan-American Games athletes' village. Once the games are over, the complex will become permanent residences. A social housing development is also scheduled to begin construction this year.

One of the most interesting and innovative aspects of the redevelopment program is Underpass Park. It will consist of a series of interventions - everything from benches and soccer pitches to gardens and cafes intended to open up the gloomy spaces beneath the Adelaide, Richmond and Eastern Ave. overpasses that bisect the site.

Then there will be Toronto's first-ever woonerfs. These are streets specially designed so that pedestrians and cars are equals. That means narrow roads with no curbs or sidewalks. The main arteries will resemble any other conventional street in the city, but woonerfs have never been seen here.

Keep your eyes peeled.

[Urban Shocker]

I bet we could get troll-dodging on the Pan Am games roster if we start lobbying now...

We have dwarf-tossing ( pairs figure skating ) in the Winter Olympics, so why not?

[EnviroTO]

Vehicles travelling at highway velocities create vibration and noise that resonate through the bridge structure and generate a hollow thunder would make any habitation (home, business, or community centre) a miserable spot, even if you don't mind the lack of natural light. Truely, a troll's domain. This park can only aspire to enhance the passing through experience, and looking at the renderings, I think it will accomplish that.

The convention centre is under Bremner and it doesn't seem that miserable to me. Most homes built today don't have side windows so a space with windows on both sides of the underpass wouldn't have any less natural light than most homes. The vibration only affects the bridge structure but any building built under an existing underpass would use support structures independent of the bridge so vibrations could easily be attenuated. Space with no sky makes better indoors than outdoors.