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

Thanks DSC. Both of these are great news. Despite a rise in cost, Rob Ford's gravy train seeking fingers stayed out of the project.

The restaurant will help attenuate the break of retail East of University. A restaurant or other permanent retail in the space at the base of the Four Seasons Centre would help as well. Also, I recall that the Sheraton Centre is planning to reconfigure their lobby layout to open up to Queen St. This would complete the trifecta to help end the cold black hole between University and Bay.

The Archer was discussed earlier in the thread. I personally feel that it would be better suited for the new sculpture garden on the West end of the site. In its current location, it ends up in an awkward place because of the addition of the new stage. Hopefully this is where it's going. Churchill is moving and perhaps we'll get a few more new ones for the new garden.

Worth mentioning, the walkways are absent from the work to be completed this year. They're planned to be decked with wood flooring and cuts on the floor and walls to open views to below and into the square. Given that the restaurant will connect to the walkways, it's possible that this work will be completed in 2013 along with the restaurant construction.
 
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Is the skate/concession building completed? I was there last week and I was really unimpressed with the small, cramped change room. It was absolutely packed and smaller than change rooms in similar rinks in small towns like Cobourg.
 
MetroMan said:
The Archer was discussed earlier in the thread. I personally feel that it would be better suited for the new sculpture garden on the West end of the site. In its current location, it ends up in an awkward place because of the addition of the new stage. Hopefully this is where it's going. Churchill is moving and perhaps we'll get a few more new ones for the new garden.
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No. No. No, no, no. The Archer ain't moving--at least, I hope it ain't moving. Because if anything's integral to the original version, it's the Archer. (And Churchill *isn't* integral; which is why it's moving.)
 
There is an argument in favour of moving it 30 feet closer to City Hall (and nowhere else) that's intriguing due to the fact that the new stage will affect how people move around the square in a way that likely wasn't contemplated when the Archer was first situated there.

I can see it being a reasonable compromise that would respect the Archer's original location and context, while allowing for better interaction with the new stage.
 
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MetroMan said:
Thanks DSC. Both of these are great news. Despite a rise in cost, Rob Ford's gravy train seeking fingers stayed out of the project.
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I think the information centre got quashed, no?

The restaurant will help attenuate the break of retail East of University. A restaurant or other permanent retail in the space at the base of the Four Seasons Centre would help as well. Also, I recall that the Sheraton Centre is planning to reconfigure their lobby layout to open up to Queen St. This would complete the trifecta to help end the cold black hole between University and Bay.
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That's great news, I hadn't heard about that. The Four Seasons Centre doesn't help with this stretch either.
 
Work has now shifted to the stage area on the western side of the square.

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I'm surprised the Osgoode Hall complex doesn't have a direct underground connection to the City Hall parking levels, and thus to PATH ( or at least I've never noticed one ... ).
 
Urban Shocker said:
I'm surprised the Osgoode Hall complex doesn't have a direct underground connection to the City Hall parking levels, and thus to PATH ( or at least I've never noticed one ... ).
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Meet me in the parking garage with a spoon and we'll dig a new connection, Shawshank Redemption style.
 
With the great weather as it's been, I'm told that the stage is now ahead of schedule. Work was supposed to pause for the winter and resume in the spring for the stage to be ready for around August/September but it looks like they may have this done in time for the busy festival season all summer.
 
Automation Gallery said:
Looks like a shite show, just like everything else at City Hall
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Geez, it's a construction site in the middle of winter. Frankly you have gotten a rise out of holes in the ground for shite projects so I wouldn't throw stones in the glass house if I were you.

Northern Magus:

I was going to suggest Oz style instead. For the curious one can search for it on Youtube but I would highly suggest one not to.

AoD
 
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These shots are of the western side of Nathan Phillips Square between the elevated walkway and Osgoode Hall.

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