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

I crossed Queen Street on the bridge from the Sheraton Centre earlier today ( an enterprising young man in a hoodie, sitting on the steps assembling rollies from tobacco garnered from old ciggies, ignored me as I descended to walkway level ... ) and was delighted by how the new building joins the walkway, much as new buildings plug into the existing PATH network.

I can't say that the washroom in the new building is any more of a design statement than the previous one; neither compare favourably to the sleek one beneath Yonge-Dundas Square, though it is some years old now.
 
Are all the benches in the square going to be replaced? Also, is there any plan to clean the filth off the top of the arches over the pond, as well as the walkways? The buildings could also benefit from a good scrubbing (especially the council chamber).
 
Yes, those arches are really dirty. Those stupid fence barriers on those arches have to go too. I can't believe this was the best they could think of, to prevent people from climbing the arches. And we call ourselves "The Creative City"? Somebody call an artist.
 
We don't need any barricades at the base of the arches. If one is dumb enough to climb them, slip and hurt themselves then that's their problem. Youngsters would be the ones most inclined to climb them. I highly doubt they're going to sue the city because of their own stupidity. Why were they ever placed their to begin with? I can't see anyone climbing all the way out to the middle. Has anyone even been hurt, trying to climb them? This city just doesn't understand how to make itself look pretty. What other major city would have chained link fences in their most celebrated square? Maybe we aspire to be like St. Petersburg, Russia?
 
Nads Gone Bads said:
We don't need any barricades at the base of the arches. If one is dumb enough to climb them, slip and hurt themselves then that's their problem. Youngsters would be the ones most inclined to climb them. I highly doubt they're going to sue the city because of their own stupidity. Why were they ever placed their to begin with? I can't see anyone climbing all the way out to the middle. Has anyone even been hurt, trying to climb them? This city just doesn't understand how to make itself look pretty. What other major city would have chained link fences in their most celebrated square? Maybe we aspire to be like St. Petersburg, Russia?
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You see, in these days there are still idiots, but there are now many cheap lawyers as well. See the waterfront Wavedeck as an example.
 
Nads Gone Bads said:
We don't need any barricades at the base of the arches. If one is dumb enough to climb them, slip and hurt themselves then that's their problem. Youngsters would be the ones most inclined to climb them. I highly doubt they're going to sue the city because of their own stupidity. Why were they ever placed their to begin with? I can't see anyone climbing all the way out to the middle. Has anyone even been hurt, trying to climb them? This city just doesn't understand how to make itself look pretty. What other major city would have chained link fences in their most celebrated square? Maybe we aspire to be like St. Petersburg, Russia?
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I don't see any chain link here:
Palace_Square2%2C_St._Petersburg%2C_Russia.jpg
 
Mississauga Slim said:
I don't see any chain link here
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No, but the city in general was in really rough shape when I visited in 1999. The grass on the boulevards was 3 feet high and there were abanoned cars all over the place that were falling apart. The best were the gypsies that were literally hanging onto my dad's legs as he walked, begging for money.
 
Nads Gone Bads said:
No, but the city in general was in really rough shape when I visited in 1999. The grass on the boulevards was 3 feet high and there were abanoned cars all over the place that were falling apart. The best were the gypsies that were literally hanging onto my dad's legs as he walked, begging for money.
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But what does that have to do with chain link? Sounds more like a circumstance in the absence of figurative "chain link". And if you meant to invoke St. Petersburg as a "police state" metaphor, remember that what you witnessed was distinctly post-Communist, and perhaps closer to what the fearmongerers have been forecasting (rightly or wrongly) for Ford-regime Toronto. (Esp. if I assume that the 3-foot boulevard grass is out of genuine neglect rather than deliberate "naturalization" strategy.)
 
Torontovibe said:
Yes, those arches are really dirty. Those stupid fence barriers on those arches have to go too. I can't believe this was the best they could think of, to prevent people from climbing the arches. And we call ourselves "The Creative City"? Somebody call an artist.
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Yes, those chainlink fence barriers are incredibly cheap for such an important space, but that's how NPS has been mistreated over the years--with the cheapest off-the-shelf solutions as if it was a trivial park. Seeing those mesh box garbage cans used in Toronto parks was also sad. Some sort of artist-designed barriers would be great and appropriate for this most prominent of locations.
 
Here is an idea - since the restaurant pavillion is going ahead, it means Cafe on the Square in the City Hall can go; why not use that space to expand the City Hall TPL branch and use that as the Urban Affairs library? It makes sense for it to be co-located with the centre of city governance, no?

AoD
 
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