canarob
Senior Member
People complain about architecture in the suburbs, but Liberty Village probably has the worst collection of 21st century buildings in the entire GTA.
Toronto Liberty House | 84.12m | 25s | Fitzrovia | Arcadis
- Thread starter Solaris
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Amare
Senior Member
Liberty Village is a jangled mess and it didn't have to be that way. It could have been one of Toronto's premiere neighborhoods, had we actually had proper city planning and a few quality developers.
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What would 'proper city planning' have done here?
ADRM
Senior Member
I'm not sure the problem here lies with Planning -- the architecture in Liberty Village sucks because of cheap, narrow-minded developers, the urban design sucks because of a Council/Mayor that won't fund proper urban design plans (because of a now decade-plus-long austerity regime), and the public realm sucks for pedestrians and cyclists largely as a result of a regressive, auto-centric Transportation Department.
Amare
Senior Member
A lot.
For starters:
- A proper street-grid with adequate relief roads instead of funneling everything out of 1 or 2 roads
-A cohesive streetscape plan that actually represents the area's historical past with wider sidewalks that could actually accommodate all the pedestrian traffic
-Diversified developments (ie: more than just developing mass condo towers/poorly integrated townhomes and calling it a day).
-Establishing a central park/plaza for the neighborhood. Liberty Village Park is a poor excuse for a park
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-A 'proper street grid' is a bit difficult to do when what you're essentially doing is expropriating multiple private properties to drive streets through. Not impossible, sure, but difficult, litigious and expensive. Theoretically, one could in the future connect Pirandello and Shaw, and the upcoming public street along the south border will do much to help east-west traffic. At the end of the day, LV is a victim of circumstance - being hemmed in on two of three sides by railways leaves limited options.
- Sure, but TBH this issue is more about Toronto not investing in public realm than anything else.
-The City can't do a heck of a lot to prescript 'diversified development' beyond the OP and zoning, both of which currently call for exactly that (mix of uses, etc.). At the end of the day, market forces will determine much of what a builder is willing to risk capital on.
-It is small, sure, but it's not nothing. In addition, once the park at the centre of Hanna, Atlantic, and Liberty is built out, it will help to link the east and west sides and form a central gathering space for the area.
Amare
Senior Member
^Simply put, had the city had an actual plan for the entire Liberty Village area, all of those issues could have been addressed directly prior to or once development began on various plots of land.
Instead of having developments (mainly residential i'm referring to here) going on unabated, seemingly like the wild wild west where anything proposed gets built without contributions to the community at large. This development is another example of just that.
Instead of having developments (mainly residential i'm referring to here) going on unabated, seemingly like the wild wild west where anything proposed gets built without contributions to the community at large. This development is another example of just that.
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They did / do very much have a plan, a portion of which is still on the City's website: https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/u...g-Liberty-Village-Urban-Design-Guidelines.pdf
You can disagree with that plan, or the way that it's prescriptions have played out, but to claim that there 'wasn't a plan' is just factually incorrect.
You can disagree with that plan, or the way that it's prescriptions have played out, but to claim that there 'wasn't a plan' is just factually incorrect.
Amare
Senior Member
Thanks for posting that, it's nice to see there was in fact an plan in place and it confrims to me that from inception, the concept was flawed.
Taking a read through the plan, i'm amazed at how much of as mess it is at virtually every aspect of community building. In my eyes it also confirms that the Planning Department truly did a horrid job in planning in the 2000's. Cityplace, Liberty Village, and Humber Bay are all relics that were born from that era and they share a lot of characteristics with each other. The retail component (minus the immediate Metro surface parking lot area) is the only part the works and ties the community properly, the rest of it is just a mess.
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ADRM
Senior Member
Turning out better than I’d expected. Solid and fairly reflective window wall.
jje1000
Senior Member
Sharp if unassuming, better than many of its neighbors.
IBI unfortunately demonstrates again how in some of their projects, they can use window wall properly.
Architectural honesty- Materials naturally reflect purpose. Dignity through the inherent physical state of the material.
Architectural deceit- Materials do not reflect purpose (punched window facade pretending to be all-glass facade). Undignified, plastic, cheap, Mcmodernism - can never truly represent what it desires to be due to the inherent physical properties of the materials (refraction, reflection).
IBI unfortunately demonstrates again how in some of their projects, they can use window wall properly.
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Right, and that's IBI's fault, nothing to do with the developers who actually pony up the cash for the materials?
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karledice
Senior Member
meh, bland and generic and non descript. I cant tell the 3 buildings in the photo apart.
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That says more about you than any of the developments themselves.