Spacing's "ThinkToronto" Contest

[jn_12]

Just wondering if anyone is planning on entering Spacing's contest?

Since I'm starting my masters in Urban Planning in September I figured this would be a good opportunity to at least get in to the groove and see what type of chops I have.

I'm using Sketch-up right now, which I just started using last week so I've had to endure a bit of a learning curve, but it's been fun so far. My plan right now is to create something for the corner of Rees and Queens Quay, and hopefully have time to do something for Grange Park or the parking lot at Harbourfront Centre.

Anyways, I figure there's no point being secretive and making this a competition, since its primarily about ideas, so hopefully if others are planning on entering, we can all bounce ideas and whatnot off of eachother.

 

[Jayomatic]

I'm giving some items a try. Working on some new schemes for subway entrances, public furniture (even though we've already committed for 20 years or so on the new ones), and maybe a few other items which I haven't fleshed out fully yet.

 

[smuncky]

my friend and i are trying to doing a redesign of the underpasses of railway embankment. i'm also gonna try to do some small redesigns for parts of the ttc.

 

[wyliepoon]

I'm interested in participating in the competition. I'm planning to recycle an old plan of mine, plus think up some new ideas.

As of now I don't have a partner to work with in this competition. Anyone who has neat ideas and needs to partner up with somebody who can do Sketchup can certainly contact me. wyliepoon@yahoo.com

 

[jn_12]

Well, I had to send off an email to Spacing to make sure this project was valid for the Spacing contest since it's not 100% a public space (The buildings would be mixed use, but the rooftops would have public access). Essentially it's a pedestrian area with a square. I'm just hoping spacing allows it, or else it was all for naught.

Anyways, here are some pictures at roughly the halfway point. Feel free to critique/ask questions. This is the first ever urban planning related project I've done, so I'm sure it's rough and maybe lacking in some obvious features that I've overlooked. I guess either way its good practice for when I start my Planning Masters program in September.

 

[smuncky]

hope everyone is done or almost done their projects because the deadline is today!

 

[jn_12]

I didn't submit. I really just lost interest in the project after the work you see above became too time consuming in the details. Good luck though to those who did submit.

 

[Jayomatic]

Ugh, I finally finished yesterday afternoon. Didn't end up doing as much as I would have hoped but still managed to submit 4 different entries.

Here are my entries. Some are more detailed than others.
http://www.jayomatic.com/upload/01_wayfinding.pdf

http://www.jayomatic.com/upload/02_subwayentrance.pdf

http://www.jayomatic.com/upload/03_transitsigns.pdf

http://www.jayomatic.com/upload/04_treerings.pdf

 

[smuncky]

Very nice designs Jason! The way finding and the subway entrances are really high class imo and would've been great if we actually had those installed around the city. But it seems like the tree rings idea was the last one and you didn't have enough time to get a rendered model out.

But like I said, I really enjoyed looking at your stuff. Good Luck!

 

[Jayomatic]

Yeah, the tree ring idea was the last one. I had a hell of a time trying to render out that thing. Didn't look right at all so i mostly threw my effort towards the signage and entrances. Hoping they might have another competition next year because I think I had another 3 or 4 ideas I never got around to completing.

 

[urbanfan89]

I submitted an entry which revolves around replacing the rail berm east of Union with an elevated viaduct to create 6 hectares of new public space.

A lot of land will be yielded for private development if the Gardiner is torn down.

But since my entry was short on aesthetics, it's a half-serious proposal.

 

[smuncky]

here's the stuff i designed. thought of something not as grande as the scheme above, but something that could possibly be done in the short term. meaning that i don't forsee the railway berm going anywhere anytime soon.

btw, it was my first time using vray to render stuff so i didn't know how to get things properly illuminated during the night.

 

[Jayomatic]

Love the colours! Love to see this in the city. Imagine you could cover the underside of the gardiner in stuff like that.

 

[wyliepoon]

I entered three designs into the competition. One is a redesign of the Markham-Ellesmere "Superstop" proposal I collaborated with Miketoronto on a few years ago. This basically involves integrating a suburban gas station with a TTC bus stop, moving the gas stop convenience store to meet the street, as well as adding a commuters' cafe to serve bus stop passengers.

The next two designs are for stations along the Spadina Subway Extension. The design brief called for platform designs, but I decided to design whole stations.

My Sheppard West design has the station built in an open cut, surrounded by trees and a large glass roof supported on tree-like steel structures, a play on the "Tree City" theme of nearby Downsview Park.

My York University station proposal calls for a plaza to be built at the east end of The Common, with a landmark clock tower and an ampitheatre-like entrance to the station. The platform level would be supported by red Y-shaped steel columns, and the walls of the platform would have "York University" written in many different languages.

 

[afransen]

I like your Downsview station concept. However, I think it would probably work better completely enclosed. It could then have some year-round greenery, and made a lot more comfortable for both summer/winter wrt temperature/weather.