Toronto 101 Spadina Avenue | 133.95m | 39s | Devron Developments | AUDAX

First post. I live across the street and can tell you a public space would be great. I actually talked to the Councillor about this a year ago. It would be very unique in Toronto, as you have historic building on the other three corners. The worst thing would be to fill this in... There's almost no 'breathers' in this area and this could be one. Adelaide won't be the highway it is now in the future. In two years of living here I've never been to Clarence Square...
 
Depending upon whether this ends up being the lot plus the low-rise getting redeveloped, or just one of the two, there should be ways of getting both a building and green space here, more options if it's both together obviously. The space could be designed in a number of ways and would likely include the building's public art contribution, and in this spot something that gives people a place to sit outside at lunchtime and enjoy the hustle and bustle and surrounding architecture from a sophisticated little nook should be a no-brainer.

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First post. I live across the street and can tell you a public space would be great. I actually talked to the Councillor about this a year ago. It would be very unique in Toronto, as you have historic building on the other three corners. The worst thing would be to fill this in... There's almost no 'breathers' in this area and this could be one. Adelaide won't be the highway it is now in the future. In two years of living here I've never been to Clarence Square...
Welcome to the forum.

There's always a first for everything!

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Long time lurker... I've been through the park, I just don't like it for some reason. Plus I'm always going north... rarely south of King.
 
Long time lurker... I've been through the park, I just don't like it for some reason. Plus I'm always going north... rarely south of King.

Doesn't mean you will like the new park either.
It will be a patch of green space with some grass and maybe seating just like all parks in Tonronto. This hypothetical one won't be different.
 
It will be a patch of green space with some grass and maybe seating just like all parks in Tonronto. This hypothetical one won't be different.

You've just described what a park is. What's your point?

Although I'm sure there are many who would prefer to maximize density here, I'm also sure these same voices would have been pushing for more density when Berczy was nothing but a parking lot. But over the long haul, most of us commend those with the foresight to allot even modest plots of land to create new parks in the downtown core, even if the design amounts to little more than trees and benches.
 
You've just described what a park is. What's your point?

Although I'm sure there are many who would prefer to maximize density here, I'm also sure these same voices would have been pushing for more density when Berczy was nothing but a parking lot. But over the long haul, most of us commend those with the foresight to allot even modest plots of land to create new parks in the downtown core, even if the design amounts to little more than trees and benches.

I made the description because he said he doesn't like the park 290 metres to the south. If so, why look forward to this one ?
I like parks too, just not tiny ones facing a noisy one way street. There are better places to put new green spaces I think.
 
Clarence Square is inhospitable... I don't know why. It's not welcoming. It's not very used. St. Andrew's on Adelaide is basically a big dog park. I'm surprised the city didn't buy the building since they own half that mini-block anyways. For $20 million I think I would have. Here's a couple views from my place. I think it could be a nice little park/square and the location is much more favourable than either Clarence or St. Andrew's. Last pic is something I would have loved to see there.

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Clarence Square is inhospitable... I don't know why. It's not welcoming. It's not very used.

Because it is made-in-Toronto. Isn't it most Toronto parks look like? Grange Park, Moss Park, United Church green space, none of them feels beautiful and welcoming. They all have very lazy design and don't make any effort to look attractive or to make people stay. St James Park (and maybe Allen Gardens, but for different reasons) is the only park in Toronto where I actually have the desire to go inside and spend some time. Toronto has very low standard when it comes to this kind of stuff. Just look at Queens Park and High Park. How disappointing.
 
Clarence Square is inhospitable... I don't know why. It's not welcoming. It's not very used.

You said you've never been there so how would you know this? When I walk by in the summer there are usually quite a few people hanging around, and it looks better than it used to after they redid the path and furnishings a year or so ago.
 
Because it is made-in-Toronto. Isn't it most Toronto parks look like? Grange Park, Moss Park, United Church green space, none of them feels beautiful and welcoming. They all have very lazy design and don't make any effort to look attractive or to make people stay. St James Park (and maybe Allen Gardens, but for different reasons) is the only park in Toronto where I actually have the desire to go inside and spend some time. Toronto has very low standard when it comes to this kind of stuff. Just look at Queens Park and High Park. How disappointing.

I actually like Clarence Square Park because it is quiet and shaded in the middle of a noisy concrete jungle. However, I definitely agree with the general observation here. Toronto's downtown parks are basically just green patches with trees and foot paths haphazardly scattered around. I recently moved the Calgary and really love their Central Memorial Park. It makes me wonder, does Toronto have any Victorian-designed parks? For a Victorian city, I cannot think of a single Victorian park. Am I missing something? The closest thing I can think of is the modernist design of Centre Island which is somewhat Victorian in its layout, or the Victorian-inspired PoMo design of St. James Park. But the actual parks that date back to the 19th century in this city don't seem to have ever been "designed". They're just trees, grass, and paths.
 
in this city don't seem to have ever been "designed". They're just trees, grass, and paths.

Yep. You summed up pretty well here.

What's more interesting is that many Torontonians think that's normal: shouldn't parks just be trees, grass and some random path? I had always thought urban parks mean something like Champs de mars or Luxemburg gardens or Buenos Retiro Park until Toronto tells me something like Trinity Bellwood or High Park also qualify. And we pretend it is "Toronto style" ("we prefer this way") instead of lack of taste.
 
What's more interesting is that many Torontonians think that's normal: shouldn't parks just be trees, grass and some random path? I had always thought urban parks mean something like Champs de mars or Luxemburg gardens or Buenos Retiro Park until Toronto tells me something like Trinity Bellwood or High Park also qualify. And we pretend it is "Toronto style" ("we prefer this way") instead of lack of taste.
Yes, Toronto definitely needs to put more money into parks in general, but when you make sweeping generalizations to slam all parks you shoot yourself in the foot. It's easy to point out where you're wrong, and in fact two that you mention specifically—in this post and the previous one—are prime examples of the opposite of what you are claiming. Grange Park is going through a highly designed makeover right now, and High Park has a ton of things to appreciate about it: outdoor theatre, great kids playground, gardens, sports fields, pool, Colborne Lodge, tennis courts, skating on the pond in the winter, fantastic wild areas, a zoo which is getting several-million-dollar makeover, and more. It's not perfect, but with everything it has, if you can't find anything in it that would draw you back, you're wasting your time with a negative outlook on life.

Meanwhile there are a bunch of other parks that have either been made over or opened recently like Underpass Park, Corktown Common, Sugar Beach, Cawthra Park—or are getting made over like Barbara Ann Scott Park, Berczy Park—or are coming up for that, like Harbour Square Park, the park at 11 Wellesley—new POPS spaces popping up at new developments—and finally parks for which we know there will be design competitions for in the future, like where the York Street spiral ramp is coming down.

So, enough of the mass denunciations already. If you could aim more helpful, constructive, directed criticism where it's deserved, instead of just puking up over everything, we could all have better conversations.

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