University Avenue - Toronto's Grand Avenue?

I've always considered University Ave. Toronto's Grand Avenue. It has very wide sidewalks, a beautiful and wide centre median with a vast array of different types of trees, perennial & annual gardens, fountains, statues, memorials and trees of every size, type and shape which line the street on the east and west sides. The highrise architecture is among some of downtown Toronto's most interesting (the great and the not-so-great) but unfortunately it's not much of a walking destination because not much is there unless you work in the area or need to go to one of the hospitals south of College Street. And I think that is a shame.

There's not a whole lot that could be improved upon. The sidewalks are a typical Toronto patchwork of concrete and asphalt, some of the fountains on the median need repair (two were not working) and by some strange coincidence the "walk"/"don't walk" signs and two traffic signal lights on the east side of the street have been turned around facing east or west causing pedestrian & driver confusion (and danger) in the two blocks above and below where the Tamils continue to protest.

I really encourage anyone with the time and interest to walk University in the spring, summer or fall starting at Front Street (get off at Union Station) and head north to Queens Park. If you have ever driven or cycled on University Avenue, you have never really seen it. I can guarantee that when on foot, it is a very enjoyable walk with so much so see and take in.

My camera batteries were wearing out quickly so my photographs are extremely limited (and not that good) so unfortunately I wasn't able to capture the best of the Avenue. In the next week or two I'll be heading back with a boatload of re-chargeables and will update this thread with better photographs.

Although I walked south as I photographed, I present this in the opposite direction, from Front Street north to Queens Park. I photographed from a pedestrian's POV.

I hope you all enjoy what I did manage to capture today.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.



Looking south from College Street -



Up along Queens Park East -

One area of improvement is definitely the need for some street retail. Forget the Eaton Centre; the south end of University is where PATH has really beaten the street. Meanwhile, the north end is dominated by hospitals which provide no street retail, and a couple of banks and copy shops. It is primarily a Monday-to-Friday only street.

wyliepoon said:

One area of improvement is definitely the need for some street retail. Forget the Eaton Centre; the south end of University is where PATH has really beaten the street. Meanwhile, the north end is dominated by hospitals which provide no street retail, and a couple of banks and copy shops. It is primarily a Monday-to-Friday only street.

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The sidewalks were fairly busy for a Sunday. The only places I noticed open today were Staples, a copy shop or two and (thank goodness!) a Starbucks down by Dundas or Queen Street. There may have been a few more, but I just didn't notice.

More like Toronto's grand wasted opportunity. With a bit of planning and foresight, it could have been our version of a Champs Elysee for example, but because the street is almost entirely office/institutional, it offers no attractions. As the OP said, there's no reason to go there unless you work there. It's a shame and pretty much impossible to fix.

I'd like University a lot more if they'd increase the timing on the pedestrian crossings (at Queen, particularly) - it's just a couple of seconds too short to make it across in one go without rushing.

GraphicMatt said:

I'd like University a lot more if they'd increase the timing on the pedestrian crossings (at Queen, particularly) - it's just a couple of seconds too short to make it across in one go without rushing.

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Many of the University Ave. crossings are like that. I presume it's about traffic flow and the availability of the centre median to wait on if your not as fast as one needs to be to get across with the limited time that is allocated.

University Avenue could use some more distinguished or variable architecture - it suffers somewhat from really generic buildings in the office district, and unenticing hospitals closer to Queen's Park.

If I were designing it from scratch, I would also plan some huge plinth or something else at the south end, other than that horribly post-moderened building with the funny thing on top that was supposed to be nice. In this regard, I really look forward to Shangri-La going up, as it will provide a more pleasant counterpart. But I'd still love to see a huge arch or something at a traffic circle on it's lower half, rather than it's sneaky diversion to the east and reduction of lanes.

When I was in Buenos Aires there was a very similar street that was also lined by unremarkable buildings and had little retail. I'm actually OK with that - I think more of these huge grand streets with lots of traffic worldwide lack commercial than have it - the Champs Elysees being an example. And the Champs has always irritated me anyways.

I'll echo that it is a pleasant enough walk - wide sidewalks and all - but there is nothing to do or see. Sitting in the median enjoying the flowers, I feel self concious, very nearly only homeless people are there.

The median serves a secondary "lift and separate" function in the grand sexy-curves vehicular encircling of the Legislature, and that's about it. University Avenue's sidewalks don't form much of a pedestrian boulevard - and the median can't develop that sort of character either, since it's interrupted by cross-streets and can't offer a coherent series of linked attractions - Gumby here, Adam Beck there, a fountain, a Boer War memorial, some showy floral plantings, but so what? It's a small system too, and hasn't broken out like the quirky PATH network has.

If it was removed, and the northbound and southbound bubbies allowed to knock together in a more normal alignment, the sidewalks on either side could be widened. But that still wouldn't bring droves of pedestrians to University, unless there were a radical rethink of how that newly liberated sidewalk space could be used, perhaps along the lines of what's planned for Queen's Quay.

Still, the street did have a life before the rather sterile median was introduced, and perhaps it will have again some day.

Mustapha said:

I'll echo that it is a pleasant enough walk - wide sidewalks and all - but there is nothing to do or see.

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You could say the same thing about Park Avenue in New York, no? Yet no one ever does...

The architecture alone makes it worth it. Starting at 42nd, you have Grand Central, the Helmsley, and the Pan Am (er...Met Life), and once you go north, blocks upon blocks of great buildings, especially the co-ops and others when you wander past the 70s and well north of that. The median is also much more ornate and well-maintained, and the *scale* of Park, with its high streetwalls, make it much more striking. The other thing to consider is there's so much more on either side of Park, especially as you go further into the UES. Adjacent to University, what do we have? Nothing, really, except maybe the block with OCAD, if that. The rest is either decrepit, institutional, or dull.

In other words, no comparison.

Towered said:

More like Toronto's grand wasted opportunity. With a bit of planning and foresight, it could have been our version of a Champs Elysee for example, but because the street is almost entirely office/institutional, it offers no attractions. As the OP said, there's no reason to go there unless you work there. It's a shame and pretty much impossible to fix.

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Cutting out some retai and making some patios wouldn't be impossible, albeit unlikely at this point. I don't mind the odd mostly ceremonial-type street with limited use, but I do think some re-thinking is in oder.

I've often fantasized of the Province taking over Queen's Park (the city park), and everything south of it on University Avenue and turning into into some grand provincial park. The traffic circle around Queen's Park would be buried and Queen's Park would seamlessly flow into U of T and the University Avenue median. Art woud line University Avenue and efforts would be made to makie it a proper showcase street befitting Ontario's Capital and Canada's largest city.

Dark, that's a great vision. Perhaps I think small - I keep hoping they will re-pave or perhaps put bricks down just outside the front of the Legislative Buildings. It looks like hell now.

fiendishlibrarian said:

The architecture alone makes it worth it. Starting at 42nd, you have Grand Central, the Helmsley, and the Pan Am (er...Met Life), and once you go north, blocks upon blocks of great buildings, especially the co-ops and others when you wander past the 70s and well north of that. The median is also much more ornate and well-maintained, and the *scale* of Park, with its high streetwalls, make it much more striking. The other thing to consider is there's so much more on either side of Park, especially as you go further into the UES. Adjacent to University, what do we have? Nothing, really, except maybe the block with OCAD, if that. The rest is either decrepit, institutional, or dull.

In other words, no comparison.

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I am not sure that Grand Central, Pan Am and the Helmsley are ideally sited. The Pan Am in particular has been criticized for casting its shadow over the area and interrupting the vista. As for the other buildings, they are certainly handsomely constructed but not miles above those on University Avenue on any level. Most of them are office buildings until north of 59th where they change to co-op apartments. In any case there are almost no public institutions or commercial facilities on Park and no reason for anyone not living/working there to go there. I have always found it grand, yes, in terms of scale at least, but quite dull otherwise--I walk Park when I want to deal with less pedestrian traffic.

Darkstar416 said:

The traffic circle around Queen's Park would be buried and Queen's Park would seamlessly flow into U of T and the University Avenue median.

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I agree that it sounds attractive, but it would be a huge project for such a small stretch of road ( even if, presumably, it could go directly underneath the Legislature in a straight line ) and it might set up new problems. Where would the traffic descend into and emerge from this short tunnel, at its north and south ends, and how would the surface streets presently feeding into and out of the circle from east and west, and the existing link to College Street, be accommodated? How would vehicular traffic from the north and south reach the Legislature at grade? And don't forget that if Queen's Park seamlessly flows south into the median as you suggest ( requiring College Street to also be buried, so it can link up with it ) it will still flow into a network formed from chunks of land that are divided from one another by cross streets such as College ( if not buried ), and others like Gerrard that feed into it. That's the basic problem with the dead-zone median, which is why I suggest getting rid of it completely, bringing the northbound and southbound lanes of University closer together, and doing something interesting with the much wider sidewalks thus created.