Toronto Berczy Park Revitalization | ?m | ?s
- Thread starter Youranthony1
- Start date
Avenue
Active Member
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Avenue
Active Member
Avenue
Active Member
Nope. Not my content, I remember downloading it from twitter.
Kraylin
Active Member
Great photos already, thanks for the quick replies!
junctionist
Senior Member
It's impressive that the area went from a dull cluster of parking lots to a vibrant and thriving mixed-use district in a single generation.
josephdavidmckee
New Member
The city really bounced back.
condovo
Senior Member
But it's also pretty depressing that the area went from a thriving, mixed-use, heritage district to a dull cluster of parking lots in a single generation.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
And some buildings in this current round - e,g, The Berczy - are gross looking piles.
AoD
AoD
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ADRM
Senior Member
slicecom
Active Member
All in the name of suburban living and the automobile.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
At least they have the excuse of being past mistakes. The stuff we just put up doesn't have that luxury.
AoD
junctionist
Senior Member
The city's main business district had shifted westward to Bay Street by the early 20th century. City Hall moved from its St. Lawrence Market site to what's now know as Old City Hall in 1899. Photos of the district from the 1950s show an area that appeared to have lost its vitality for some time, with deteriorating buildings and businesses like industrial parts suppliers selling conveyor belt parts in the once prominent storefronts across from St. James Cathedral--lower rent businesses that could have gone anywhere. Look at this photo of Front Street east of Church Street (the site of Market Square today). The storefronts and sidewalks are empty, and the buildings look to have been poorly maintained.
Demolition of all those irreplaceable heritage buildings in the oldest part of the city wasn't the right answer, but it happened because the area was already in bad shape. Torontonians wanted to revitalize the area in a bold way.
The idea was to revitalize the district by building an arts district similar to New York's Lincoln Centre and Montreal's Place des Arts. The parking lots were meant to be temporary. The district, however, was never built because the city didn't get the funding from upper levels of government. Only the O'Keefe Centre (Sony Centre) and the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts were built.
Local leaders later decided to pursue an urban renewal plan meant to avoid the mistakes of the housing projects of the 1950s and 1960s like Regent Park. They aimed for a walkable mixed-use neighbourhood with different housing types that would be home to people of different incomes. Heritage buildings would be restored. The neighbourhood would be built along the existing grid of streets rather than being isolated by green space. The renewal plan proved highly successful at revitalizing the area and was praised by urban planners around North America.
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It's also worth reminding people at this was during the era when Toronto was known as 'The City That Works', and despite all of the parking lots shown in those photos, that Toronto was better off than the average North American city. Our subway system had managed to keep the actual core full of jobs. We've come a long way for sure, but despite those photos, we never totally crashed the way that most other cities of our stature did.
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