Post: Furnish Your Street Like Your Home

[AlvinofDiaspar]

From the Post:

Furnish a street like your home
Kelvin Browne, National Post
Published: Wednesday, November 15, 2006

'You don't have to be an architect to look at our streets and know they're a mess," architect Jack Diamond says. The mess he's referring to isn't potholes or youth gangs, but Toronto's street furniture. "It's shocking. A random collection of newspaper boxes, benches and shelters. Most are not properly maintained or even well-designed to begin with." But why should we care about how the streets are furnished?

Explains Jack: "Much of day-to-day life in the city happens on the street. Europeans have recognized this for a long time and are concerned about the quality of life the street supports. But then they've been urban for a lot longer than we have in Toronto." As well, street furniture makes a big impression on tourists. Even if the interiors of our public institutions are beautiful, if our public realm is squalid, it can't compensate for this dereliction and visitors think we're hicks.

There are similarities between the considerations for furnishing a home and the street. A presentation by Jack Diamond and Toulla Constantinou, the CEO of Cemusa (a company that designs and manufactures street furniture) when they announced their collaboration to bid on the City of Toronto's street furniture renewal contract, mentioned a few.

For example, street furniture should be unique to a particular city, just as a home's furnishings should relate to its owner. Toulla said her company was working with Jack to benefit from "his knowledge of Toronto's streetscape and his understanding of Toronto's culture." Indeed, when you peruse Cemusa's literature, its projects in Seville, Boston, Parma and Miami look quite different and appear evocative of these distinct locations. It has just won the contract to do New York's street furniture and I'm curious about its interpretation of the Big Apple.

Like furnishing your home, it's good to use local expertise. It's another way to reflect the uniqueness of where you live and, often, give work to small company's that wouldn't otherwise have any. This could be a challenge for Cemusa, as it's a multi-national company, owned by Spain's largest municipal service provider, FCC Group. FCC had $8-billion in annual revenue in 2004. Cemusa has more than 100,000 bus shelters, newsstands, automated public toilets, benches, recycling containers and trash receptacles in more than 110 cities.

To counter the big, bad, multi-national image (and likely because it's cost-efficient and convenient), the company partners with local suppliers for manufacturing and maintenance or, to be precise, "where expertise exists -- with local fabrication firms." If they get the job, they'll also, "hire local maintenance crews to fulfill Cemusa's commitment to helping keep Toronto's street furniture clean and graffiti free."

But that's about as far as the home furniture/urban street furniture analogy goes. The rest is business, as you don't usually give a blanket contract to furnish your home and maintain it, and to use advertising on the back of your sofa to keep it clean and in good repair. There are big changes coming to our idea of the street in Toronto.

But our streets do look trashy and we have to do something. Since it appears impossible for the City of Toronto to cope, the answer may be to contract out. Of course, there's a potential downside to any solution, but I'm all for the private sector being given a chance.

Ah, but the downside: As stylish as all Cemusa's street furniture looks (and likely that of its competitors for Toronto's contract) it has a certain soulless quality: It's like when Starbuck's claims it captures local flavour in its various coffee blends but you can't help but feel it's all a bit of a marketing ploy.

Cemusa is still a big, international company, hiring the smoothest designers who happen to have an office in the city it's pitching. I don't think I'd prefer a local craftsperson, sincere but unsophisticated, to build bus shelters in his basement. However, the winning solution will be one that reflects global design aesthetic.

I'm thrilled, of course, all this new furniture will be well-maintained. I'm not so sure if I reconciled myself to the notion that I don't pay enough municipal taxes to do this now. I don't like public amenities slathered in advertising even if it affords clean and graffiti-free public infrastructure.

I imagine my own home functioning better if I contracted it out to a multi-national that really knew how to do things right. No more silly, idiosyncratic design faux pas for me, but smooth and sleek all the way. I'm sure I can get used to covering every surface in my home with advertising. It's not that high a price to pay to keep my furniture spotless and my home fit for guests.

© National Post 2006

AoD

 

[Bogtrotter]

"Toulla said her company was working with Jack to benefit from "his knowledge of Toronto's streetscape and his understanding of Toronto's culture"

Don't expect art nouveau then. I envision subdued furniture with no colour and lots of right angles.

 

[papamanjr]

I find all this talk about street furniture a bit much. maybe it's because I grew up partly in new york where 'street furniture' wasn't in the best of shape either.

I use to say to visitors that after living in new york for a while, seeing everything and doing everything, feeling the energy and all that, that even the smell of garbage will start to smell good to you.

I feel the same way about toronto. (except there isn't as much to do or see.) but my point is, sometimes I feel like this street furniture thing is to cover up the fact that our fine city isn't all that. (and so maybe making it cleaner will help.) if I want to see a nice, cute sanitized city with nice, cute sanitized people - I'll go to finland.

 

[andreapalladio]

I agree. The whole thing has a certain Disneyland quality to it.

And once we get all this nice street "furniture" will we be required to put plastic slipcovers on it and never use it so it stays nice for company?

 

[building babel]

Anything is better than design-by-BIA, which is what we have now.

 

[ganjavih]

Toronto at the street level does need work and quality street furniture is an important component but there are other things as well: ie. the restoration of some of the shoddy looking historic buildings along our main streets such as Yonge and Queen, trees/flower beds/other vegetation along major arteries, sidewalks and lawns in better shape, removing overhead wiring, etc.

 

[Archivistower]

I am skeptical of the whole street furniture argument. When I was in San Diego I noted (and actually, took a photo of) a huge row of newspaper boxes right beside their main square. As a tourist, it meant nothing to me to see a row of perhaps 15 or 20 boxes with clashing colours, etc. The fact that the square, though clean, seemed to be mostly a hangout for vagrants meant quite a bit to me.

I wish someone else would acknowledge that some of our street furniture is fine and ought not be replaced. I'm thinking particularly of the glass bus shelters, which seem safe, functional, and which seem to stay fairly clean. I think they are cleverly designed - the gap at the bottom let's them be flushed out from dirt and seems to inhibit their use as residences. The fact that they are glass seems to mean they are durable, and safe. I've almost never seen one vandalized. I am strongly opposed to their being replaced.

Newspaper boxes I am indifferent to, and actually feel inclined to preferring those provided by the newspapers themselves, with perhaps some exceptions in very touristy areas or something.

Our garbage cans need replacing. What's wrong with simply replacing those?

On the whole, I would agree with ganj and encourage (force?) some of the landowners to improve their properties, and seek the burial of wires.

 

[The Burgher of TO]

I like the idea of burying some wires, but in other places they contribute to the grit that defines some neighbourhoods for me. I'm thinking in particular of Leslieville and the Junction, where the overhead wires are just part of the landscape

 

[scarberiankhatru]

If the TTC is not going to be improved, then, yes, street furniture can be important. Standing 30+ minutes in the rain waiting for a bus is not fun. Downtown areas will be the first to benefit from new money for this stuff, of course, so I won't get my hopes up.

 

[cdl42]

They removed the overhead wires in the Junction. It looks fantastic. In fact, I was skeptical of how worthwhile it was to take the effort to bury the wires until I took a walk through the Junction. Replace the poles at the same time and just... wow.

 

[MetroMan1000]

I'm thinking particularly of the glass bus shelters, which seem safe, functional, and which seem to stay fairly clean. I think they are cleverly designed - the gap at the bottom let's them be flushed out from dirt and seems to inhibit their use as residences. The fact that they are glass seems to mean they are durable, and safe. I've almost never seen one vandalized. I am strongly opposed to their being replaced.

Excuse me? Almost every shelter on the downtown portion of the 501 Queen line are vanadlized with scratches. Seriously, if I ever see who's been doing this to all our shelters (and glass on buildings), I'll jump on the mutha****a. >:

If the company that provides the street furniture is required to maintain it free of graffiti, then these losers will be less inclined to vandalize since their tags won't be around long. If they persist, I'm sure the company who's losing money will have every interest in catching the vandal.