Toronto Nathan Phillips Square + Spirit Garden | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto

NPS has never been a particularly good example of urban design in my opinion. But putting aside the design issues, I was shocked at how everything is deteriorating during a recent visit (especially considering the relatively recent revitalization).

The concrete slab pavers are chipping at the edges, with orange paint to mark the discontinuities in some places. Some chipping is also occurring on the stairs of the showpiece stage structure. Concrete is supposed to feel strong and permanent, which isn’t the impression one gets with the chipping. It just looks cheap or poorly maintained in some places at the heart of the square.
 
My piece:

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AlexBozikovic said:
My piece:

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Excellent piece.

No nits to pick.

I would only say. The City needs to pick a handful of priority projects (I'd argue for the slip lane as one, seating as another, fixing the mulch situation, and replacing those God forsaken flower pots that are so awful); only the first is any way expensive.

I'm all for even greater ambitions we've all talked about many a time. But let's keep the immediate list to ' can be delivered in full by the end of 2027' and insist on the tender being awarded before the next election!
 
AlbertC said:
Countdown until the World Cup

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Reminder that the design competition for the square, 19 years ago, had a central premise of cleaning the clutter out of the square.

Every year that goes by when the city fails to live up to its commitments there – including seating, plantings and extended paving – the empty space is just seen as an opportunity to add more crap.
 
AlexBozikovic said:
Reminder that the design competition for the square, 19 years ago, had a central premise of cleaning the clutter out of the square.

Every year that goes by when the city fails to live up to its commitments there – including seating, plantings and extended paving – the empty space is just seen as an opportunity to add more crap.
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The issue is that Nathan Phillips Square's original design, which was restored to a significant extent in the most recent revitalization, is too austere, empty, and sterile. That's why it was filled with features like the Peace Garden in the first place and why the same thing may be happening again.

The Peace Garden was much better in its original place. The fact that it seemed poorly situated was more of an issue with the square's design, which puts a large expense of concrete slabs front and centre versus interesting and engaging features like a landscaped garden with an eternal flame.

While there are some nice features in the square like the arched reflecting pool and skating rink, the square looks better in architectural photos than it feels in person as public space. The same can be said about a lot of architect-designed public spaces. The city would benefit greatly from a total redesign of the square by a skilled landscape architect.
 
junctionist said:
The issue is that Nathan Phillips Square's original design, which was restored to a significant extent in the most recent revitalization, is too austere, empty, and sterile. That's why it was filled with features like the Peace Garden in the first place and why the same thing may be happening again.

The Peace Garden was much better in its original place. The fact that it seemed poorly situated was more of an issue with the square's design, which puts a large expense of concrete slabs front and centre versus interesting and engaging features like a landscaped garden with an eternal flame.

While there are some nice features in the square like the arched reflecting pool and skating rink, the square looks better in architectural photos than it feels in person as public space. The same can be said about a lot of architect-designed public spaces. The city would benefit greatly from a total redesign of the square by a skilled landscape architect.
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The Square was futuristic in the beginning, and set Toronto on it's course of being a true international city. Whether this could really be an enduring catalyst for the optimism of the day, is moot. Today , the square very much looks its age. I don't pretend to know if a "total redesign" could re-invigorate this tired lady. By the way, I'm old enough to remember the exuberant pride this city felt during the construction time. We could use some of that civic pride again.
 
junctionist said:
The issue is that Nathan Phillips Square's original design, which was restored to a significant extent in the most recent revitalization, is too austere, empty, and sterile. That's why it was filled with features like the Peace Garden in the first place and why the same thing may be happening again.
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The north half of the square is empty on purpose, because it hosts hundreds of events a year.

But outside of events, that space could be filled with moveable chairs and tables, and the adjacent restaurant should be a busy destination. This part of the square would then function in exactly the same way that hundreds of urban squares function across Europe.

That’s not complicated or expensive. The city has just been refusing to do it, for whatever combination of cultural and institutional reasons, for 60 years.

More to the point there is a huge failure of governance happening right now. There is a plan that, like it or not, was paid for and designed and approved. It included custom concrete benches that were intended to sit in the open area of the square between events. The benches are sitting there today on the edges of the square; the civil service has just failed to ever put them in place.

The water feature that accompanies them has been broken for years. Nobody has fixed it.

How about instead of a new redesign, we actually execute the last design, or at least try a little harder to see whether it works and whether it has elements that should be maintained?



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Tuscani01 said:
They have started removing the Christmas lights at the square. I don't get why the city is always so quick to remove the Christmas lighting in the square. Leave it on! You don't see cities in Europe dropping their lighting until much later. It helps brighten the depressing dark winter days.
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I've been saying this for years. So much effort to install Christmas lights & decor here and around the city, and we're so quick to get rid of it with SO much winter left. It should be left up until mid-March, which is as long as they have the skating rinks open.
 
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