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From the Globe, by Rochon:
ON THE EDGE
A VISION FOR TORONTO'S WESTERN BORDER
LISA ROCHON
Imagination still has a fighting chance in the City of Toronto. Ideas are being floated around for the creation of gateways to the city, and the initial design for a flotilla of 24 stainless-steel masts by Sweeny Sterling Finlayson & Co. Architects deserves our attention.
Feel drowsy every time you or your visitors enter the city? Bored to death by the commercial dreck plunked down by the side of the highway? Here's something with the potential to jolt you from your somnolent state.
Measuring 40 metres high, the gateway masts resemble giant poles with enough flexibility designed into their fibreglass cores to allow them to bend with the wind. The work is called Gathering, and is meant to represent the "strength and flexibility of the city," architect Mark Sterling says.
Architecturally distinctive gateways have distinguished cities such as Paris and Tokyo. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Mo., is a monumental curve in stainless steel, designed by legendary architect Eero Saarinen to rise 192 metres above the banks of the Mississippi River.
Imagine taking the exit ramp from the airport in Toronto or arriving from the cottage and seeing a mass of tall steel poles doing a kinetic dance on the edge of Highway 427. "There are 80,000 cars that go by there every day," says associate architect Chris Hardwicke, who designed Gathering with Mr. Sterling. The audience is ready-made.
The idea for a gateway near Highway 427 and Dixon Road is one of a series of recommendations championed by both the city's urban designers and the Roundtable on a Beautiful City initiated by Mayor David Miller. A request for proposals was issued by the city in 2004, and Sweeny Sterling Finlayson & Co. won one of the commissions. The IBI Group picked up two other potential gateway sites, the sprawling overpass at Highway 401 and Yonge Street and another one at O'Connor Drive near the Golden Mile.
Mr. Sterling estimates it would cost $5-million for all 24 stainless-steel masts, a pittance when measured against the money dedicated to road repair or the cost of sending lawyers to represent the city at the Ontario Municipal Board. So far, the City of Toronto has covered the design costs but is looking to the private sector to actually build the gateways.
Gathering's monumental poles are designed with an exterior cladding of multiple stainless-steel sleeves that are staggered to allow for optimal flexibility. Engineer David Bowick is working with the architects to investigate the possibility of using smart materials capable of harnessing the energy created by the fluctuating poles.
The gateways are meant to be evocative rather than literal constructs. "Gateway is something of a loaded term for us," Mr. Sterling says. "We were concerned that there might be an expectation about making something fairly conventional like a big hoop over the road that would say 'Toronto.' "
Let's not go there. Consider the advantage of the fluctuating poles. In high winds, the masts might become a large-scale piece of poetry. Not a bad way to start the average workday.
AoD
ON THE EDGE
A VISION FOR TORONTO'S WESTERN BORDER
LISA ROCHON
Imagination still has a fighting chance in the City of Toronto. Ideas are being floated around for the creation of gateways to the city, and the initial design for a flotilla of 24 stainless-steel masts by Sweeny Sterling Finlayson & Co. Architects deserves our attention.
Feel drowsy every time you or your visitors enter the city? Bored to death by the commercial dreck plunked down by the side of the highway? Here's something with the potential to jolt you from your somnolent state.
Measuring 40 metres high, the gateway masts resemble giant poles with enough flexibility designed into their fibreglass cores to allow them to bend with the wind. The work is called Gathering, and is meant to represent the "strength and flexibility of the city," architect Mark Sterling says.
Architecturally distinctive gateways have distinguished cities such as Paris and Tokyo. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Mo., is a monumental curve in stainless steel, designed by legendary architect Eero Saarinen to rise 192 metres above the banks of the Mississippi River.
Imagine taking the exit ramp from the airport in Toronto or arriving from the cottage and seeing a mass of tall steel poles doing a kinetic dance on the edge of Highway 427. "There are 80,000 cars that go by there every day," says associate architect Chris Hardwicke, who designed Gathering with Mr. Sterling. The audience is ready-made.
The idea for a gateway near Highway 427 and Dixon Road is one of a series of recommendations championed by both the city's urban designers and the Roundtable on a Beautiful City initiated by Mayor David Miller. A request for proposals was issued by the city in 2004, and Sweeny Sterling Finlayson & Co. won one of the commissions. The IBI Group picked up two other potential gateway sites, the sprawling overpass at Highway 401 and Yonge Street and another one at O'Connor Drive near the Golden Mile.
Mr. Sterling estimates it would cost $5-million for all 24 stainless-steel masts, a pittance when measured against the money dedicated to road repair or the cost of sending lawyers to represent the city at the Ontario Municipal Board. So far, the City of Toronto has covered the design costs but is looking to the private sector to actually build the gateways.
Gathering's monumental poles are designed with an exterior cladding of multiple stainless-steel sleeves that are staggered to allow for optimal flexibility. Engineer David Bowick is working with the architects to investigate the possibility of using smart materials capable of harnessing the energy created by the fluctuating poles.
The gateways are meant to be evocative rather than literal constructs. "Gateway is something of a loaded term for us," Mr. Sterling says. "We were concerned that there might be an expectation about making something fairly conventional like a big hoop over the road that would say 'Toronto.' "
Let's not go there. Consider the advantage of the fluctuating poles. In high winds, the masts might become a large-scale piece of poetry. Not a bad way to start the average workday.
AoD