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

Bloor and Lansdowne have those unique sidewalk lamps with the blue poles. I'm not sure if this was part of a streetscape project, though there doesn't appear to much more to it than that. If the costs are prohibitive, at least they could eliminate the concrete tree planters beyond Yorkville.

Regarding tourism, it is extremely rare that a whole city looks as good as its most in demand/tourist areas. As you move away from those areas things tend to look worse anywhere.
 
There are also revitilization plans currently being ironed out for Bloor Street between Avenue Road and Bathurst. These plans include eliminating one lane of westbound traffic from Spadina to Bathurst which would result in much wider sidewalks on the north side of Bloor Street.
 
Mike in TO said:
There are also revitilization plans currently being ironed out for Bloor Street between Avenue Road and Bathurst. These plans include eliminating one lane of westbound traffic from Spadina to Bathurst which would result in much wider sidewalks on the north side of Bloor Street.
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Would the on street parking parking go, or would Bloor be one way for a few blocks? Either way, I'd bet a large percentage of the small amount of money I have that neither is going to happen.
 
Don't hold your breath on this project moving along quickly and smoothly. If you're in the area, take a look at the digging outside the Royal Bank at Yonge & Bloor. There is an unbelievable amount of stuff that was uncovered beneath the sidewalk including the footings for the Hudson's Bay Centre. Since this is where some of the new big trees are going, they have to deal with it, which means chopping as much as 1 metre off the footings. I asked a whitehat if they knew this stuff was there - he said they had no idea.
 
Dilla said:
Would the on street parking parking go, or would Bloor be one way for a few blocks? Either way, I'd bet a large percentage of the small amount of money I have that neither is going to happen.
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Parking would go in some "lay-bys" - Bloor would still be two ways with one westbound land and some parking lay-bys here and there with two lanes eastbound from Spadina to Bathurst.
 
ap70 said:
Nice action however they are revitalizing the part of Bloor St. that least needs a revitalization. What about Bathurst to Lansdone portion?
Seems funny if a tourist drives west and see the level of degradation increasing block after block.
If it is a revitalization plan lets to extend it to areas that need it most...
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Why would a tourist go to Bloor west of Lansdowne? Unless they're lost.
 
The plans for Bloor Street remind me of Kalakaua Ave. - the main pedestrian retail street in Honolulu, where there is landscaping in the wide sidewalk fronting various retail developments.

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It does look a bit similar to the renderings I've seen. I like the colour of the stone they used and the ramps are well done and not obtrusive. They also did a good job of providing seating using low walls around the grass and trees. Benches tend to clutter up the sidewalks and they seem to fall apart pretty quickly.
 
Just a quick update. This is the section just east of Church St. There will be no trees going in here. First they laid down concrete then the orange membrane and then the paving stones, which are greyish black with a speckled finish.
 

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