Is Toronto Beautiful?

[k10ery]

Toronto is not beautiful, but in the right light and after a few drinks, you could be fooled.

Like when its closing time, and Toronto is the only city still left in the bar?

 

[allabootmatt]

I don't mean to take this offf topic. I love Toronto with all its warts. However, to those who call Vancouver "ugly", they are obviously blind. There's not a single city in NA that takes care of its streetscape, public squares, parks, etc, better then Vancouver.

I think that's exactly what Hipster meant. Most people come away with a very positive impression of Vancouver, looks-wise, despite the fact that its building stock is banal at best. What makes the place appealing is the serious attention paid to public spaces, with a huge boost from the natural scenery of course. For me the point is that Toronto, which has much higher-quality architecture, could really be spectacular with a comprehensive approach to improving public spaces. Incidentally, I think that will come. When all's said and done with the current condo boom, we will have what, 100,000 people living in the downtown core who weren't there ten years ago? Those new residents, many of them owners, are going to demand higher-quality surroundings.

One of the things that's struck me before about Toronto, though, is the contrast between private and public space. I am astonished by the beauty of residential streets in Rosedale, Cabbagetown, the Annex etc, with gorgeous renovations complemented by spectacular gardens. Yet the commercial strips, parks, etc that serve these areas rarely if ever live up to a similar standard. I don't know if it's an Ontario thing or what, but it is unusual to see such contradiction in a city. London, where we got so many of our urban ideas, oddly enough, is sort of the opposite; even in the likes of Hampstead and Notting Hill a lot of the houses are quite unkempt, and almost never have decent vegetation out front...while the nearby commercial streets are perfectly maintained.

 

[buildup]

"Another question that needs to be asked is: "How do we keep owners from defacing their buildings?" Because I have seen many old brick structures on Yonge and St. Clair possibly permanently defaced with EIFS, beige paintjobs and other 'repairwork'"

This is a fascinating question actually. To what extent is the underlying brickwork salvable? Obviously it's been damaged by the overlaid materials. I have to believe that if the crap was stripped off the original brickwork could be restored. I would love to see tax incentives for this.

I suppose FiveCondos will demonstate what is possible with regards the Yonge Street frontage restorations.

 

[RC8]

imo no matter how much investment goes into sidewalks, lights etc.. the city is still over run with hideous condo buildings and it's only getting worse.

Toronto was a lot prettier even 5 years ago when you could go more than 5 blocks without seeing an incredibly cheap, shoddily constructed tower emerging from a poorly designed podium that the middle class 'professionals' with poor taste have swarmed to. Vancouver is a poor comparison because their buildings meet the street much better due to their superior building codes and design practices.

Surface parking lots and suburban sprawl on the other hand are the definition of good taste.

 

[adma]

"Another question that needs to be asked is: "How do we keep owners from defacing their buildings?" Because I have seen many old brick structures on Yonge and St. Clair possibly permanently defaced with EIFS, beige paintjobs and other 'repairwork'"

This is a fascinating question actually. To what extent is the underlying brickwork salvable? Obviously it's been damaged by the overlaid materials. I have to believe that if the crap was stripped off the original brickwork could be restored. I would love to see tax incentives for this.

Yeah, but with the tax-incentive matter, you run into the yahoo arguments over whether it's "heritage" or not.

Yet when push comes to shove, it isn't so much about "heritage", as it's about bad taste, urban disrespect, and tinpot claims on behalf of "free will"...in which case, maybe it should be a matter of somehow addressing the issue at its source, by encouraging a preemptive sensitivity and respect to what's extant. More of a "Napoleonic", "heritage until proven otherwise" approach...

 

[Urban Shocker]

Living in the east end of the city, where ( except for east/west arteries such as the Danforth, Queen Street, and Gerrard from Broadview to Coxwell ) there are remarkably few retail streets of any significance, the experience of simply walking for a few hours offers some beautiful moments of discovery as one wanders through a sequence of residential neighbourhoods, small neighbourhood parks, and ravines. Each neighbourhood folds into the next, uninterrupted by the commercial world. It ought not to work, given how apparently awful the reality of "single-use" districts is ... but somehow it delights!

 

[neubilder]

Is Toronto Beautiful?

Not really, but glimpses of it are, though these are methodically being rubbed out by shamelessly uninspired redevelopment. However I think the vision and solid efforts that are being made in the east end will result in something beautiful and different from (re)developments undertaken in Toronto in the past.

 

[Urban Shocker]

And Yonge Street has the potential to be utterly fascinating - a mishmash of innovative tall towers 1BE, 5 St Joseph, Aura, Massey connected by finely restored 2-3 Victorians. I think this will happen. All we need is some incentive to strip off the 'so ghastly artistic' street level facades. There wouldn't be another city in the world crazy enough to attempt it.

I agree - there's a considerable hidden city lurking beneath all that applied commercial dreck, some fine ( if unspectacular ) buildings waiting to be rediscovered ... and further enhanced with the addition of attractive contemporary buildings. Thank goodness we have a strong local design culture that's applying itself to those ends.

 

[planning2plan]

Toronto is not beautiful, but in the right light and after a few drinks, you could be fooled.

That is hilarious! ... and sadly, very true.

along similar lines; I once said to a friend of mine that I thought this girl we saw pass us in the evening on the street was cute. He looked at me and said its the lighting and the fact that you are 6 foot 3. "Down where I am she is not that great". Point is, at night, up 50 stories (drinks adding to the effect) she is a great city... at street level on a normal day... hmmmmmm.

 

[Tewder]

The good news.. or frustrating news, depending on how you view it... is that it wouldn't take a lot to improve things, vastly. The biggest hurdle we face is a change of attitude to the public realm and the urban landscape.

 

[Lenser]

The good news.. or frustrating news, depending on how you view it... is that it wouldn't take a lot to improve things, vastly. The biggest hurdle we face is a change of attitude to the public realm and the urban landscape.

Totally agree. I tend to think of Toronto as being less "beautiful," more "impressive." I wish we were rockin' both equally but the optimist in me says we'll eventually get there, even if we have to be dragged kicking and screaming.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Totally agree. I tend to think of Toronto as being less "beautiful," more "impressive." I wish we were rockin' both equally but the optimist in me says we'll eventually get there, even if we have to be dragged kicking and screaming.

In fairness to Toronto, can a modern city be beautiful? When I think of the word 'beautiful' in architecture, I tend to think of features that are stereotypically feminine: delicateness, ornamentation, classical proportions, human scales, the thrill of the curve, warmth. I think we stopped building beautiful cities before the 1st world war, let alone the 2nd.

Postwar Toronto can have its impressive moments, but it doesn't have beauty. And, really, no city built from the second half of the 20th century onward really does.

That's not to say that I prefer beauty over impressiveness, but, for the sake of our cities, and all cities all over the world, I'd love to bring back some beauty because we've gone without it for 90 years.

 

[Tewder]

I think we use the term 'beautiful' in a sort of catch-all way... but Toronto is big enough and vast enough to have moments of all forms of 'beauty', including the more traditional ones Hipster refers to. Is there anything more beautiful than many of Toronto's older residential streets in the fall under a canopy of autumn leaves, for example? and I don't see why the smaller scaled streets of Yorkville or Kensington Market or the Distillery, not to mention many of the city neighbourhoods (High Park/Roncey, Cabbagetown, the Beaches etc) couldn't truly be beautiful in a traditional way.

 

[Lenser]

I don't see beauty in architecture as being more feminine than masculine myself... classical proportion and human scale doesn't necessarily skew to feminine in my book. Delicateness and ornamentation? I guess I can see that more, although that still plays to rather hoary gender stereotypes.

So for me, the last several decades do not mean that our cities are suffering from a dearth of beauty. Beauty is beauty; I can't really ascribe a gender to it. I'm more interested in seeing a lively mix of styles and a sensibility that celebrates urban living - Im not a keen fan of big grey edifices, monotone colouring and blocky design. Too much of any one thing is... well, too much.

 

[torontocanada]

I would say that Toronto has a reputation of being a beautiful city. Every time i talk to someone who is not from here about Toronto, they say that it's a beautiful city.

When you live in a city, work in a city, it is harder to ind beauty in it. However, I think Toronto is beautiful.

We are lucky to live in such a green, clean city.

We have nice streets, and they're getting better

Even Yonge Street has a plan

We are surely moving in the right direction