Toronto U of T: Landscape of Landmark Quality | ?m | 1s | U of T | MVVA

[Student99]

^ I don't think most people even realize that's a solar clock. But I agree with you. That Galbraith road section leaves much to be desired.

The cafe would have prob just been a move of the medsci tim hortons anyway. Not a big loss imo.

That roadway is not a dead end because they realized they need easy access for emergency vehicles into the circle (and possibly wheel trans?).

If King's College Circle was reimagined with pathways across it like Queen's park, maybe a fountain or something in the middle, I don't think we'd have desire paths. They should have left back campus field as grass, and had sports play there. There were never desire paths on back campus.

@DSC has properly explained it above; for clarity, in the photos you can see a line across the grass where people are repeatedly shortcutting across the circle and the grass is being worn away; that is the 'Desire Line'; a path not intended by the designers, but desired and created by the users of the space.



I agree with this; I absolutely commend every landscape designer who is working a on pre-existing space, to sit down for a couple of hours, on different days, and at different times and see how people use/traverse a space, it will and/or should inform how you design it.

Now, that said, I don't remember a desire line in the circle, following this route before............so I went and pulled up an aerial image from 2018:

View attachment 519620

No real sign of it. Perhaps the road and the parking discouraged people from making a shortcut they wanted to make before, and the removal has now encouraged that choice?

I crossed this many times over the years. There used to be many entry points for desire paths, which is why the one we're currently seeing isn't visible. The garden in the north west has actually functioned to make everyone take the same desire path instead of entering at multiple areas.

 

[Rivenbourn]

November 11:

small update, but mulch has been added to many of the needed areas sometime this last week:

What's interesting is you can see some steam/hot water pipes sticking out of the ground at Med Sci. This is for the future Med Sci renovation, which will include a geothermal field just adjacent to the pipes. I remember reading about it somewhere on UofT's capital plans. Here is a close up of the pipes

And here is the state of the south lawn (still fenced off). It seems there are some pipes sticking out, I'm not sure how they will finalize the plan for them. As well, a few new trees were planted deep into the south lawn (see left of image)

 

[FastidiousHack]

Boy does that ever highlight the desire line.......... the existence of which, is not at all desirable!

I don't really understood cutting across the grass honestly, I've timed it and it saves you maybe 10 seconds total, but the walk is substantially more pleasant along the generous granite pathway. Going on the pathway means you stay out of wet grass/snow, don't have to walk through frisbees or sports, and it doesn't ruin the lawn.

The line from Hart House to Con Hall will certainly shift as the fences on the south end are removed. I don't want the desire lines paved, but I can't think of a better option.

 

[evandyk]

Desire lines get formed next to sidewalks at corners where you literally save less than a second. Seeking the shortest path doesn’t involve doing a calculation of exactly how much shorter it is.

 

[Dan416]

I rarely walked across the field precisely for the reason that it was often wet, whether with snow or with a mix of rain/snow. So much of the regular school year is winter that you don't really get a lot of opportunity to walk across that field even if you wanted to.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

I think it should also be noted that the lawn is still blocked on the southern end, so there are certain paths that people can't take if they wanted to.

It's not the desire line I would have predicted. When I was at UofT, most of the Vic and St Mike's students crossed Queens Park and ended up around Hart House - and from there, there was often people crossing the lawn to Con Hall. So perpendicular to this desire line. The one in the photo seems to lead from the UC residences to Med Sci? A bit odd, honestly.

I imagine the fact that there are still fences in places that are not clearly visible in the photo that are preventing other crossings, or that are concentrating movement into that path. I think concerns about desire lines should hold off until the whole area is open.

When I was in grad school working at Ramsay Wright Zoological Labs, I would take that path often on my way to/from MedSci to pick up supplies and dry ice for my experiments. Grad students like my (younger) self as well as undergrads in the sciences taking classes at Ramsay Wright/Sid Smith/Lash Miller might also be inclined to cut through front campus on that path, either on the way to Med Sci or towards Queen's Park subway.

I agree that until all fencing is removed it would be premature to draw conclusions about permanent desire paths.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

When I was in grad school working at Ramsay Wright Zoological Labs, I would take that path often on my way to/from MedSci to pick up supplies and dry ice for my experiments. Grad students like my (younger) self as well as undergrads in the sciences taking classes at Ramsay Wright/Sid Smith/Lash Miller might also be inclined to cut through front campus on that path, either on the way to Med Sci or towards Queen's Park subway.

I agree that until all fencing is removed it would be premature to draw conclusions about permanent desire paths.

By the way, a quick story from my grad school days. As I was cutting through front campus on my way to pick up dry ice, a sudden convoy of military Humvees burst onto the lawn flanked by soldiers. On my way back , Ed Norton and Liv Tyler were taking a leisurely stroll along the Con Hall to Hart House axis.
(did I mention there were camera crews present as well? Bonus points go to whoever can identify the film )

 

[Rivenbourn]

By the way, a quick story from my grad school days. As I was cutting through front campus on my way to pick up dry ice, a sudden convoy of military Humvees burst onto the lawn flanked by soldiers. On my way back , Ed Norton and Liv Tyler were taking a leisurely stroll along the Con Hall to Hart House axis.
(did I mention there were camera crews present as well? Bonus points go to whoever can identify the film )

The Hulk of course! It's so funny watching it and being like "oh wait that's literally my school"

 

[Bob Loblaw]

The Hulk of course! It's so funny watching it and being like "oh wait that's literally my school"

Bingo! You get a star!

 

[voilan]

Note: Sorry for no pictures, I was biking by quickly in the cold tonight.

The fences surrounding Hart House Circle have been taken down, and you can now walk diagonally across it again (i.e. through the new gazebo area). It was dark when I passed by so I'm not sure, but I didn't think the gazebo was completely finished yet (will see for sure tomorrow morning).

EDIT: Indeed the gazebo is incomplete and roped off, but otherwise the pathways are open allowing for cutting across to KCC

 

[AMOR]

i haven't walked around the area for over a month. does anyone have recent photos? i'm excited to see more details emerge.

 

[voilan]

Deepest apologies for taking so long to upload pictures, but here are a few of the newly open and accessible gazebo area in front of Hart House. It looks really great I think, and the entire Front Campus area is seriously coming together. I was walking by with a fellow student today who said "it actually feels like we have a campus now". I agree, personally. Facing northeast from the southwest corner of the circle:

Facing south from the middle of the new gazebo area:

Facing south-westish from the east side of circle:

And facing west from the same point:

 

[Rivenbourn]

I just wanted to point out some details of the Hart House plaza. The gazebo looks really nice, though the metal work around adjacent panels could be a bit cleaner.

The wooden benches are something I haven't seen anywhere else really, they're quite beautiful. I believe UofT wanted to salvage many of the trees they chopped, including using them for furniture around campus. These wooden benches could be from the trees on front campus they chopped, but I'm not sure.

While walking around the plaza, I noticed they had a garden. They planted many different local species with label plaques

Here is the walkway to the gazebo from Wellesley. There are deep wells to either side of the walkway with glued in pebbles. I don't think this will be a water way, as there are drains for excess water to drain out to the left.

And here is an interesting monument. This is near the front campus - hart house intersection. There is another one (identical I think) near Wellesley.

Moving toward front campus, there hasn't been much progress. The parking garage elevator entrance still is far from completion. However, they poured the roof to the garage vehicle entrance sometime this month

They've placed more wooden benches, although different than the previous I shared, around front campus. The wood is beautiful, and once again it's unlike anything I've seen before around campus.

That is all for now. It will be a while before any major changes to the project. Next steps definitely are to finish the garage vehicle entrance and the garage elevator.

 

[Northern Light]

Really good eye @Rivenbourn

 

[egotrippin]

The best way I can describe that gazebo is that it looks like a low resolution texture from early 3D video games. Not sure if I'm a fan, it's kind of ugly TBH. Would've preferred something a bit more traditional to better suit the campus architecture.