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Ryerson: Master Plan

I hope whoever is creating these "plans and possibilities" won't be involved in the final design for the campus. Basically what this person proposes is to destroy much of what should be preserved in the campus area (Sam's signage, some heritage buildings on the Yonge Street retail strip, plus all of Kerr Hall including the iconic clock tower), while retaining a lot of what should not be preserved (Jorgenson Hall, the back side of Metropolis, Image Arts Building, and the Architecture Building).

I do like the vision for Gould Street, however. Having retail and student services fronting Gould Street pretty much agrees with my vision for Gould Street.
 
the new kerr hall would be really sweet, if they kept the south portion of it and rebuilt the rest as seen in the rendering.
 
The proposal for the Quad looks simple enough, but it would actually require regrading the entire site - the commons as it stand right now is a mound, with the RAC underneath it; I imagine they'd have to dig it all up.

The two towers on Yonge are also really problematic - for example the northern site at Yonge and Gerrard sits at what is most likely a heritage building. I am really surprised they didn't move more massing to the four corners of the Quad. Even tearing down part of the Jorgenson podium and build on top of it could be more interesting...

AoD
 
wyliepoon said:
I hope whoever is creating these "plans and possibilities" won't be involved in the final design for the campus. Basically what this person proposes is to destroy much of what should be preserved in the campus area (Sam's signage, some heritage buildings on the Yonge Street retail strip, plus all of Kerr Hall including the iconic clock tower), while retaining a lot of what should not be preserved (Jorgenson Hall, the back side of Metropolis, Image Arts Building, and the Architecture Building).

I do like the vision for Gould Street, however. Having retail and student services fronting Gould Street pretty much agrees with my vision for Gould Street.
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Absolutely bang on.
 
I agree.

Unless they can come up with something very complimentary. No more buildings with large bathroom tiles.
 
well just came back from my first day of my third year at rye arch. our first studio project is this competition. we have 13 days (day of submission is sept 17) to complete a redesign for gould street. i'm definitely going to read all the comments in this thread as UT is a great resource with an abundance of knowledgable people.

i will be greatful for any other info/opinions on this matter as well.
 
^ I heard the students over at Urban Planning are also involved in the project. Should make for a great pool of ideas. I just hope whoever wins this competition will show better design rationale than what I saw in the earlier renderings.
 
wyliepoon said:
^ I heard the students over at Urban Planning are also involved in the project. Should make for a great pool of ideas. I just hope whoever wins this competition will show better design rationale than what I saw in the earlier renderings.
Click to expand...

In my 3rd year studio class in the winter, a group was involved with the Master Plan. The work that they did was more on the feasibility side of the Plan. A 4th year studio class last fall was involved as well, but I don't know the exact focus of their project.
 
well the winners were announced today. 4 people from my third year achitectural course won the big prize. the 2nd one was a single person from the university of illinois i believe. and the 3rd prize was won again by four third year students in architecture.

the honorable mentions went to a group from UofT and york, a group from 3rd and 4th year architecture and one more i forget. the results should be posted sometime soon on the ryerson website. but you can check out all the 73 submissions on the 2nd floor of the interior design building.
 
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I hope that Ryerson does all it can to build on Yonge Street. Almost anything would be an improvement on what's there now. Yonge St. from Dundas to Bloor is an ugly, undignified, embarassing mess. It seems to be a holy cow that can't be touched. Heritage, shmeritage- most of those old buildings are of limited architecural value no matter how old they are. They're ugly and the spaces inside them are too small for any decent retail. My fantasy is to take a bulldozer and run it up both sides of the street, leaving aside the very occasional structure like Eaton's College Street and the Gloucester Mews building. The block from Sam's north would not be spared. Thank you for the opportunity to rant.
 
urbanvillageboy said:
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I hope that Ryerson does all it can to build on Yonge Street. Almost anything would be an improvement on what's there now. Yonge St. from Dundas to Bloor is an ugly, undignified, embarassing mess. It seems to be a holy cow that can't be touched. Heritage, shmeritage- most of those old buildings are of limited architecural value no matter how old they are. They're ugly and the spaces inside them are too small for any decent retail. My fantasy is to take a bulldozer and run it up both sides of the street, leaving aside the very occasional structure like Eaton's College Street and the Gloucester Mews building. The block from Sam's north would not be spared. Thank you for the opportunity to rant.
Click to expand...

not a rant, it's pretty much the truth and people have to face it. the undersized buildings have to go. time for this area to be very dense.
 
It's not something that we "have to face" - some like Yonge's jumble.

While I don't want to defend every individual building on the street (as there are lots that I wouldn't mind seeing replaced) I do not want a wholesale replacement of the building stock there with huge projects if it means that the retail variety on Yonge vanishes. It seems that developers of major complexes there days nearly exclusively deal with retail chains setting up on their street fronts, and the streets that are lined with these complexes end up with a dull mix of stores that are replicated ad nauseum across the GTA.

I like the fact that Yonge has a unique mix of crazy little shops, so I'm keeping the keys to your bulldozer.

42
 
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