salsa
Senior Member
The public realm around old city hall, as well as Queen & Bay, is in serious need of improvement.
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Old City Hall Proposals
- Thread starter rdaner
- Start date
Johnny Au
Senior Member
Ah yes, those dreaded "desire paths." Interesting euphemism though
Momin
Senior Member
animatronic
Senior Member
They just need to sell the naming rights - how does Rogers Hall sound?
Waterloo_Guy
Active Member
I don't think the marble one is bad. That one is nice as well though.
The marble is much nicer than the original. It's no contest.
Moonflake
New Member
Some of my suggestions:
- Remove the soil compacted lawns along Queen St & Bay St (actually, remove all of grass). They are embarrassingly messy and serve no aesthetic purpose. They degrade what should be a grand entrance to perhaps Toronto's most important piece of architecture.
- Replace paving treatment along the perimeter of the building with granite or some other form of stone/brick.
- Illuminate the entire building (including the roof of the clock tower) at night. The current lighting is underwhelming and doesn't encompass important details.
- Restore the grand staircase to its original design (as was mentioned above).
- Replace City street lights along building's perimeter with historic lighting. Perhaps modeled after the globe lights at the front entrance.
- Remove all overheard wires along Queen St (minus the ones for the streetcars).
- Incorporate fountains into the forecourt.
- Remove driveway.
- Replace disheveled looking trees (preferably with not too tall ones that will obscure the building too much).
- Replace shabby street sign poles with elegant black poles.
- Build a bust of Jimi Hendrix, depicting his 1969 Toronto mugshot and display it somewhere in the forecourt; or have carved into the building's stone exterior said depiction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_drug_charges_and_trial_of_Jimi_Hendrix
Besides the options which were mentioned in the survey, I wonder if the building could be used for lectures and concerts? And perhaps even a theatre (at least part of it)? I'm not very familiar with the interior, so I don't know if the latter two options would be practical.
- Remove the soil compacted lawns along Queen St & Bay St (actually, remove all of grass). They are embarrassingly messy and serve no aesthetic purpose. They degrade what should be a grand entrance to perhaps Toronto's most important piece of architecture.
- Replace paving treatment along the perimeter of the building with granite or some other form of stone/brick.
- Illuminate the entire building (including the roof of the clock tower) at night. The current lighting is underwhelming and doesn't encompass important details.
- Restore the grand staircase to its original design (as was mentioned above).
- Replace City street lights along building's perimeter with historic lighting. Perhaps modeled after the globe lights at the front entrance.
- Remove all overheard wires along Queen St (minus the ones for the streetcars).
- Incorporate fountains into the forecourt.
- Remove driveway.
- Replace disheveled looking trees (preferably with not too tall ones that will obscure the building too much).
- Replace shabby street sign poles with elegant black poles.
- Build a bust of Jimi Hendrix, depicting his 1969 Toronto mugshot and display it somewhere in the forecourt; or have carved into the building's stone exterior said depiction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_drug_charges_and_trial_of_Jimi_Hendrix
Besides the options which were mentioned in the survey, I wonder if the building could be used for lectures and concerts? And perhaps even a theatre (at least part of it)? I'm not very familiar with the interior, so I don't know if the latter two options would be practical.
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W. K. Lis
Superstar
Maybe add faces of past mayors to the City Hall outer walls.
animatronic
Senior Member
Johnny Au
Senior Member
That photo on the right is almost like Toronto's answer to the famous Lunch atop a Skyscraper photo:
Biljet
New Member
With all the talks about the future of the Old City Hall, why don't we make it a central library for the city? Reference Library is not particularly valuable from architectural perspective and can be sold for reasonable amounts, given its location. Old City Hall is perfect for a Central Library: its location, architecture and floorplans. We can even have a bright atrium at the place of the yard.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Museum/archives/City Hall branch + urban affairs library would be great. Maybe move planning there too?
AoD
Tulse
Senior Member
Are there internal structural limits as to the amount of open/unstructured space that could be created inside? Libraries and museums need relatively large unobstructed open spaces.
Avenue
Active Member
I would like to see it as a tastefully restored hotel, but I don't know how feasible that is financially or business wise.
pman
Senior Member
Given the way Council's brain trust operates, there's a decent chance the City will demolish it to build a Green P garage.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Nah, it's too hot even for them. They'd vote to fill in the courtyard with a parking structure instead.
AoD