Toronto walkway underglass

[Jdot]

That is almost a lost opportunity for the Skywalk. As much as I like the glassed in arc (and tourists seem to love it too by the # of pictures I see people take of it), I think it would have been better to encompass that entire stretch into the new building. Keep it public domain, but make it a public access hallway with super high ceilings through the new tower. This could easily be made into the "food court" of the new tower with full access to both the offices (through secured entranceways), Union Station and the SkyDome/CN Tower.
I would even prefer to see the western stretch of the skywalk that cuts south of the rail tracks replaced with a new route that decks over the tracks, meeting up wit the John Street Bridge. That would still provide access to the CN Tower, Skydome and CityPlace plaza.

 

[p5connex]

The skywalk is, for lack of a better term, dead, not only internally but externally. There needs to be something for it to survive from beside the few hundred people who use it to get to the baseball game or the dome per week.

Its sole purpose was to create a covered route from Union to Skydome- which is does fine, but it wasn't well thought out, so it is unsucessful and is dying and/or will die soon enough. The concept is fine, but it lacks character, connections, real integration into its surroundings, and better surroundings and well, architecture as well.

p5

 

[jaborandi]

The skywalk is, for lack of a better term, dead, not only internally but externally. There needs to be something for it to survive from beside the few hundred people who use it to get to the baseball game or the dome per week.

p5

few hundred? The last ball game I went to a couple of weeks ago, I would say there were one or two more just for one game and leaving the game there were several thousands using the SkyWalk.

 

[p5connex]

^^I mistyped- thanks for correcting me.

It is still a case of the actual use of the Skywalk- should it be a covered path from A to B? Or should it function as something more than this? We can see that pretty much everything that ever existed within this structure has failed, which leads me to believe that there are not enough users during regular hours during the week. One cannot survive from a couple patrons only during an event.

p5

 

[samsonyuen]

I agree it's a lost opportunity for Skywalk. I actually saw them filming an indie film yesterday, with part of it as an airport departure area, with metal detectors and American flags.

I remember when they had a few fastfood outlets too. Who actuall owns it?

 

[grey]

I remember that, too. I remember my mother taking me through the Skywalk a few times as a kid and it was actually busy. It must have been the late '80s, maybe early '90s. There were food-court franchises like New York Fries, maybe a bagel place, a Dairy Queen or Baskin Robins... And the patrons weren't jumbo-foam-fingered jersey-wearing sports fans visiting the dome. They looked like regular commuters (on a walkway to nowhere?). I also remember a few circular tables with chairs for the fast food places. And people using them.

 

[interchange42]

Adding 151 Front to the Skywalk will help the walk, as will the eventual addition of more buildings on the south side of the tracks - - - if they can hook up enough projects at the west end of it, then retailers should eventually be able to flourish there. Hooking it up to the Intercontinental Hotel would be a big step forward for it too.

42

 

[unimaginative2]

I remember the Skywalk when I was a kid being packed with retail. Then, suddenly I returned one day after an absence of a year or two, and there was only one lonely convenience store in the whole place.

One problem with the Skywalk becoming a bit more of a retailing spot is that it could further inhibit the already limited retail along Front.

 

[lawsond]

could he possibly be thinking of hazelton lanes.
it used to be full of cobble-dee-gook.
and little atrium areas.
either that or atriums on bay.

 

[Filip]

I just remembered the Atrium in Scotia Plaza.. not the main one with the banking hall - but the other one toward Yonge.