Toronto Bloor Street Revitalization | ?m | ?s | Bloor-Yorkville BIA | architectsAlliance

[MetroMan]

I've been showing some out of town visitors around and they remarked at how our public spaces are given no thought. From our cheap utilitarian concrete formed sidewalks to exposed wires, I had to agree with them. Thankfully, I was able to redeem Toronto a little by walking them through Bloor Street. Hopefully Bloor is a model for the future of our public spaces. Some of our more high end neighbourhoods don't have public spaces to match i.e. King St. West, the financial district and even Yorkville itself.

 

[taal]

King West is pretty nice for Toronto I find ... from the walk of fame ... also not sure if many noticed but they installed new colorfull glass structures (musical notes) its hard to explain on the sidewalk, it adds a lot of character.

 

[lightarchitect]

Bloor St looks great in the summer time; however, during the winter months, is another story. The side walks should have been heated. I used to work on the strip and every time it snowed businesses along the stretch would have to come out and shovel it clear. Having huge snow banks along the street is not what i call high end. Also, the christmas decor is....... horrid.

Summer time, gorgeous..
Winter, not so much.

 

[kicked it in the sun]

wow, looking great. i've always been shocked at how ugly bloor street was for a street so synonymous with luxury retail, and now it finally looks like it ought to. someone ought to do a long photo walk!

 

[isaidso]

Bloor St looks great in the summer time; however, during the winter months, is another story. The side walks should have been heated. I used to work on the strip and every time it snowed businesses along the stretch would have to come out and shovel it clear. Having huge snow banks along the street is not what i call high end. Also, the christmas decor is....... horrid.

Oslo studied installing heat panels on its sidewalks and determined that the cost to build was less than the cost to shovel snow, cost due to injury, etc. They started block by block and now most of downtown Oslo has heat panels in the sidewalks. Their downtown is snow free all winter.

Too often we dismiss things as frivolous or luxury without looking at the real cost of doing things the way we've always done it.

 

[marsh]

I agree that Bloor Street looks great particularly in the summer and glad that the BIA took the initiative to do this. I wish it could be extended into Yorkville (Yorkville is a mess for the most part I think) and further down Bay Street. I had never heard of heated panels in the sidewalks but what a great idea! Not to mention having to shovel snow, I assume it gets rid of the need to salt everywhere (I hate the salt - its hard on the environment; hard on your boots; hard on dog's paws).

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

marsh:

One can put in a glycol heating system for snow melting - but there will be a significant cost (capital, energy) for doing that. We aren't like Reykjavik where they have a significant portion of their downtown treated this way thanks to the plentiful geothermal energy available.

At this point, the issue isn't so much so the quality of the public realm - but quality of the architecture along Bloor Street.

AoD

 

[wmedia]

I've been showing some out of town visitors around and they remarked at how our public spaces are given no thought. From our cheap utilitarian concrete formed sidewalks to exposed wires, I had to agree with them.

Agreed, especially about the overhead wires! I was actually surprised on a recent trip back to my home town, London (UK), just how bad some of their sidewalks are. I'd forgotten about the many nasty looking asphalt sidewalks. Toronto's poured concrete is at least one step up from asphalt.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Speaking to Junctionist's comment regarding the London plane trees preforming well, I think the jury is still out. Some of them have really been struggling. That's why I commented that I hope some of the trees can really take root and grow larger so that they can provide some shelter from the harsh conditions of Bloor street (strong drying winds and poor light levels).

Someone with tree knowledge may be able to answer my question but isn't the London Plane a hybrid of the American Sycamore tree? Wouldn't it then be ironic that we would be planting a tree from North America the English engineered for England but now planted back in North America?

 

[Northern Light]

Speaking to Junctionist's comment regarding the London plane trees preforming well, I think the jury is still out. Some of them have really been struggling. That's why I commented that I hope some of the trees can really take root and grow larger so that they can provide some shelter from the harsh conditions of Bloor street (strong drying winds and poor light levels).

Someone with tree knowledge may be able to answer my question but isn't the London Plane a hybrid of the American Sycamore tree? Wouldn't it then be ironic that we would be planting a tree from North America the English engineered for England but now planted back in North America?

From Wikipedia:

Platanus × acerifolia, London plane, London planetree, or hybrid plane, is a tree in the genus Platanus. It is usually thought to be a hybrid of Platanus orientalis (oriental plane) and Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore). Some authorities think that it may be a cultivar of P. orientalis.

... in my work w/urban forest restoration, I work w/native species, and have a bias in that direction, though I don't really object to London Planes (they aren't thought to be overly invasive here.)


I do, however, have a problem with using only one species (any species) for the entire 1km + stretch of road.

See Emerald Ash Borer and decimation of our Ash trees, or Dutch Elm disease obliterating most elms.

Choosing only one species makes them extremely vulnerable to any disease or pest that may come along and could wipe out an entire landscape all at once.

At a minimum I would expect to see 2 different Genus and 4 diff. species over an area this size (the guidelines that urban foresters use would suggest greater diversity than that); but I understand the landscaping impulse to choose a 'pattern' or shape and repeat it.

Still, alternating the species either very other planter or every even other block would have been very sensible.

I might add, I can think of a host of native species that I think would look better, and do just fine in these growing conditions.

Bur Oak, or even Red Oak would have done very nicely; then varying that up w/silver maple, giving you bright yellow and orange/red leaves in the fall........

 

[allabootmatt]

Agreed with MetroMan, though there are an increasing number of noble exceptions, plus a number of wonderful private-public spaces (like the TD Centre square) that break it up. However we don't seem to be getting any closer to a point where the general standard of public realm upkeep rises--what we have are one-off special projects like the Bloor rebuild. Those are great, but even raising the default conditionof public spaces to that of Montreal or Vancouver would be a huge improvement.

 

[junctionist]

I've been showing some out of town visitors around and they remarked at how our public spaces are given no thought. From our cheap utilitarian concrete formed sidewalks to exposed wires, I had to agree with them. Thankfully, I was able to redeem Toronto a little by walking them through Bloor Street. Hopefully Bloor is a model for the future of our public spaces. Some of our more high end neighbourhoods don't have public spaces to match i.e. King St. West, the financial district and even Yorkville itself.

Yorkville's streets could use more investment, for instance in paving, but they are above average for Toronto. The commercial side streets like Cumberland Street have buried hydro wires and ornamental street lights. (Unfortunately, Bloor still has generic street lights after the revitalization.) Yorkville Park is beautiful, with its iconic Canadian Shield rock where people linger. There's also the recent Yorkville Town Square and the well-maintained pedestrian laneways.

 

[renvel]

Strret lights

Yorkville's streets could use more investment, for instance in paving, but they are above average for Toronto. The commercial side streets like Cumberland Street have buried hydro wires and ornamental street lights. (Unfortunately, Bloor still has generic street lights after the revitalization.) Yorkville Park is beautiful, with its iconic Canadian Shield rock where people linger. There's also the recent Yorkville Town Square and the well-maintained pedestrian laneways.

The generic street lights is one of the major shortcomings of Bloor St revitalization...

 

[isaidso]

The generic street lights is one of the major shortcomings of Bloor St revitalization...

I had assumed they would install something nice rather than the strictly utilitarian poles one sees elsewhere. I suppose it will take time before we start paying attention to these details. It's part of the progression from industrial to cosmopolitan. The culture won't make that jump in one go.

Perhaps they will have the foresight to install opulent street lighting in front of Union Station. Something tells me it's not even on their radar. Toronto's transformation remains a work in progress.

 

[Northern Light]

A few notes/observations/questions.

1) For those clamoring for more streetscape enhancement, note that Bay Street north of Bloor is to go all granite (or something similar) as part of the current reconstruction, or at least that was my understanding.

Likewise, take a look at those renders for the new Hazelton Lanes.....sidewalks look like Bloor's to me....

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2) On the Bloor Streetlights they are abominable, I inquired at the planning stage of the project and was told Hydro would not budget on high-mast lighting at the current spacing, and so they decided to leave it as is (though the poles were replaced w/new and the lighting changed to metal halide (white) from orange.

They definitely could have picked a nice high-mast design w/the same spacing, don't know whey they didn't.

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3) Do want to mention, that I find the up lighting under the trees either underpowered or the flush-to-the-ground design too limiting, they aren't all that bright, very obscured in the flower beds, and seem to burn out a lot too.

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4)What the hell happened to that public art that unless I've missed it, still hasn't shown up?

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5) Finally, Do note, both Yorkville and Cumberland are slated for sidewalk reconstruction this year or next, so there should be further enhancement opportunity.