Toronto Toronto City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | Perkins&Will

I'm a big proponent of this revitalization but I don't see the need for a restaurant here. There are dozens of restaurants within a 2 minute walking radius of Nathan Phillips Square. Hundreds in a larger radius.

The only need I see a restaurant filling here is to enliven this stretch of Queen St. with some retail, in this case a restaurant. The Sheraton + NPS combo suck the life out of Queen St. between York and Bay.

If the restaurant is lost, I won't be too sad. My biggest worry is that they're going to leave the cinderblock garage access building on the corner of Queen + Bay if the info kiosk isn't built.
 
To be fair, there is a business case for the restaurant, since it will eventually recoup its construction costs. Which would make its exclusion pretty baffling.
 
MetroMan said:
I'm a big proponent of this revitalization but I don't see the need for a restaurant here. There are dozens of restaurants within a 2 minute walking radius of Nathan Phillips Square. Hundreds in a larger radius.

The only need I see a restaurant filling here is to enliven this stretch of Queen St. with some retail, in this case a restaurant. The Sheraton + NPS combo suck the life out of Queen St. between York and Bay.

If the restaurant is lost, I won't be too sad. My biggest worry is that they're going to leave the cinderblock garage access building on the corner of Queen + Bay if the info kiosk isn't built.
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The restaurant would be a great development for the square, provided the food is good and it's polished in design and inviting. It's definitely a unique and pleasant experience to eat and/or drink in the middle of an attractive urban square. European squares often have restaurants, cafes, or sometimes even pubs. It can make the space more interesting and definitely more vibrant, drawing a more diverse crowd at different hours.
 
Agreed w/Jason


Imagine a beautiful restaurant, glass-clad, green-house style (sorta), next to the Allen Gardens' greenhouses, but facing a restored fountain on the Jarvis frontage of the park.

Or more elegant dining in High Park, Edwards Gardens, James Gardens, Or in Humber Bay Park.

So many great choices. Virtually no need to displace any greenery, these could be created on areas that are now parking (where this is under-utlized) or dead spaces in the park where there is not much nature or many facilities (ie. an under-used picnic area or patch of 1/2 dead lawn).

However, maybe we should see if the City can finally get the street-food fiasco right..........:D
 
Oh, I would love a restaurant on Nathan Phillips Square, but should the city be the one building it? I'm beginning to sound like Rob Ford here, but this is something that a private developer can do better and at no cost to the city.

Scratch it from the revitalization plans and open a tender for that location. The winning developer gets to design, build and run a guaranteed money making restaurant.

I'd rather the square elements be completed as planned, even if that means scrapping the restaurant. Apparently, it's going to cost $7M. Use that to build a proper welcoming entrance into the square and properly fund the bike rental and storage facility that was added on later and is at risk of also being cut because it's not in the original (approved) proposal.

As for food options, besides the street meat trucks, the green roof top café is supposed to open this Spring. A full service restaurant will be nice to have, but again I'd rather see the major elements of the square built, than splurge the money on a restaurant that the city has no business getting into (i.e. Toronto a la Carte)
 
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Why not have the city build it? They would be renting the property to a restaurant. The city could then make money off of it.
 
^ An even better arrangement would be the city not building it, saving $7M and still make money off the lease anyway.

I'm not against the restaurant, and I'm even ok with the city building it, but I'd much rather sacrifice the restaurant than cheapen and cut out elements essential to the square so that the project can come in on budget.
 
Actually, I think having the private sector create the restaurant is a good idea. The city's efforts in terms of food in public spaces have generally been dismal and very uninspiring, from street food to the contracts for waterfront restaurants. Nevertheless, the city's planned restaurant space can't be scratched from the plans; I would think the utility connections have to be installed for a new restaurant structure during the renovation and the city still has to get their most competent people to choose who gets to lease the space.
 
I would want to have either the current exterior design of the restaurant made a part of a private-build agreement, or have the jury that awarded the redesign oversee a redesign of the restaurant to ensure that it conformed to the original vision for the square as well as that of the revitalization.

Could be good, could be bad, but no without question this route would hugely increase the costs to the restauranteur, cutting down on the number of companies that would be a position to bid on the license: you would only get the biggest players in the industry. The license would also have to cover many more years.

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Any idea if all the sidewalk in front of Queen is going to be redone as part of this - along with the trees ? I can't seem to find confirmation of that anywhere.
 
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