University Avenue - Toronto's Grand Avenue?

[Northern Light]

A better Avenue

There are some design aspects of University that I suspect most of us find regrettable.

Some of these aren't fixable (or at least not that practical to fix), such as the curve into York. Directly extending University to the Waterfront would be a logistical nightmare not to mention cost-prohibitive at this stage, it would also likely impair a few heritage buildings, unless you allowed a slight curve and essentially came under the rail corridor just to the west of York St. But then you'd have to close the York Viaduct as the two side by side would be untenable.

What can be done though is:

Utilize the improved template for the sidewalks that was used when University was rebuilt from Queen to Dundas; and extend it to the north and south. (Enhanced tree planters with shrubs, and uniform decorative paving)

Also, you could add physically separated bike lanes (with additional landscaping that compliments the medians and/or sidewalks) whilst canning all legal parking on University which really doesn't need it giving the relative lack of retail.

On the median itself, they should eliminate the openings at un-controlled (non-signalized) intersections, U-Turns on University are just nuts!

Refurbish the medians and create a better program of nighttime illumination.

Oh, and find the nice homeless people somewhere else to sleep, ideally indoors.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Here's one of several proposals ( another suggested putting some sort of restaurant zone there ) for the University Avenue median that promotes the idea of widening, not eliminating, it. The architect talks of creating a "series of linked outdoor rooms" - though for pedestrians they won't really be any more linked than the present median lands are, unless some of the cross streets are eliminated:

A boulevard of growing dreams

Hate University Avenue? Architect Tom Bessai has a solution: reduce lanes, widen the centre median, and then add new paving, light standards, benches and kiosks to create a “series of linked outdoor rooms.”

PATRICIA CHISHOLM Special to The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 10:50PM EDT

There is a grainy, decades-old film of urbanist Jane Jacobs standing at the south end of Queen's Park, looking down Toronto's only grand thoroughfare and saying, with her characteristic firmness, “I hate University Avenue.”

Many have agreed with her over the years, but what to do? Architect Tom Bessai – an assistant professor at the University of Toronto's faculty of architecture, landscape and design, and partner, with his wife, Maria Denegri, in Denegri Bessai Studio – has a solution.

His scheme for the avenue's rejuvenation takes advantage of all of its unique features: its grand width, its role as a connector between the public buildings at its north end and the downtown, its ceremonial purpose. But it also takes square aim at its lack of humanity, its greyness and its outdated glorification of the car. “The tools for renewal rest right there in the boulevard itself,” Mr. Bessai says. “It is the most significant axial road in the city and it's a mess.”

His new design for the area would, most importantly, reduce its eight lanes to four (two each way). The freed-up space would be used to greatly widen the centre median, now virtually inaccessible as a public space. This could result in areas as wide as 27 metres across in some sections for reimagined spaces that would become – with inventive new paving, contemporary light standards that vary in height and placement, new benches and kiosks – like a “series of linked outdoor rooms,” Mr. Bessai says.

The goal, he says, is to use elements scaled to pedestrian life; animating the street at that level will counterbalance the façades of concrete and steel that line the road from College to Adelaide streets, a distance of 1.2 kilometres. The new light standards, for instance, would be designed to create different moods – “allowing for the intimacy of conversation,” for instance, in front of the Four Seasons Centre at Queen Street.

As the area becomes more inviting for pedestrians, vibrant retail elements would move into the space, creating a new destination for shopping, eating, strolling. None of the existing memorials would be changed; in fact, they are likely to become much more accessible, Mr. Bessai says. “This is about using University Avenue every day – not just for a parade.”

Other than Tanya Mars's dinner party performance art on the median just south of Dundas, during the first Nuit Blanche, I can't recall ever having been drawn there for anything much.

 

[Mustapha]

Here's one of several proposals ( another suggested putting some sort of restaurant zone there ) for the University Avenue median that promotes the idea of widening, not eliminating, it. The architect talks of creating a "series of linked outdoor rooms" - though for pedestrians they won't really be any more linked than the present median lands are, unless some of the cross streets are eliminated:

A boulevard of growing dreams

Hate University Avenue? Architect Tom Bessai has a solution: reduce lanes, widen the centre median, and then add new paving, light standards, benches and kiosks to create a “series of linked outdoor rooms.â€

PATRICIA CHISHOLM Special to The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 10:50PM EDT

There is a grainy, decades-old film of urbanist Jane Jacobs standing at the south end of Queen's Park, looking down Toronto's only grand thoroughfare and saying, with her characteristic firmness, “I hate University Avenue.â€

Many have agreed with her over the years, but what to do? Architect Tom Bessai – an assistant professor at the University of Toronto's faculty of architecture, landscape and design, and partner, with his wife, Maria Denegri, in Denegri Bessai Studio – has a solution.

His scheme for the avenue's rejuvenation takes advantage of all of its unique features: its grand width, its role as a connector between the public buildings at its north end and the downtown, its ceremonial purpose. But it also takes square aim at its lack of humanity, its greyness and its outdated glorification of the car. “The tools for renewal rest right there in the boulevard itself,†Mr. Bessai says. “It is the most significant axial road in the city and it's a mess.â€

His new design for the area would, most importantly, reduce its eight lanes to four (two each way). The freed-up space would be used to greatly widen the centre median, now virtually inaccessible as a public space. This could result in areas as wide as 27 metres across in some sections for reimagined spaces that would become – with inventive new paving, contemporary light standards that vary in height and placement, new benches and kiosks – like a “series of linked outdoor rooms,†Mr. Bessai says.

The goal, he says, is to use elements scaled to pedestrian life; animating the street at that level will counterbalance the façades of concrete and steel that line the road from College to Adelaide streets, a distance of 1.2 kilometres. The new light standards, for instance, would be designed to create different moods – “allowing for the intimacy of conversation,†for instance, in front of the Four Seasons Centre at Queen Street.

As the area becomes more inviting for pedestrians, vibrant retail elements would move into the space, creating a new destination for shopping, eating, strolling. None of the existing memorials would be changed; in fact, they are likely to become much more accessible, Mr. Bessai says. “This is about using University Avenue every day – not just for a parade.â€

Other than Tanya Mars's dinner party performance art on the median just south of Dundas, during the first Nuit Blanche, I can't recall ever having been drawn there for anything much.

I like this. When it is announced, the Jarvis middle lane elimination debate will be by comparison a skirmish.

 

[Pfloyd]

I agree with forumers that have stated that University Avenue is a lost opportunity to have a "grand boulevard" in Toronto. As it has been said in previous posts, the architecture is mediocre at best, and offers almost nothing in terms of urban excitement to the the pedestrian, or even the driver. It certainly doesn't measure up against other "grand boulevards" in cities around the world. I think its biggest chance was in the 20's with the proposed Vimy Circle:

http://torontobefore.blogspot.com/2007/08/torontos-vimy-circle.html
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/484035

at Queen and Richmond plans of which fell through when the Great Depression hit. I don't see how it can be improved in the current environment.

 

[wyliepoon]

One of my photos of an empty University Avenue closed due to Tamil protests got photoshopped into this...

http://fixedxorbroken.blogspot.com/2009/05/better-university-avenue.html

 

[jn_12]

To me a good start would be to eliminate the entrance to the parking garage at University and Front. Then take away the right turning lane, and now all of a sudden you have a large public square which reminds me a fair bit of Piccadilly Circus in London. It would definitely act as a proper bookend to University, especially with a monument of some sorts (maybe to the 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge?). I'd have to think there's a better place somewhere to put the entrance of that parking lot.

Just think of the views from that intersection and how popular that "square" could be. You have Union Station, the Royal York and the CN Tower all in view. You'd feel as though you're at the bottom of a canyon with all of the skyscrapers around you. It'd have some potential I think.

 

[Hipster Duck]

^That's a really good idea, and pretty easy to do, as well. Little by little, Toronto's "noses" (tiny sidestreets that permit an easy right turn from an angled road) have been replaced by public spaces. I don't see why this would be any different.

 

[metropolis]

while I was driving down University today...I noticed the fauntain is still not working on University and Queen...that's a shame. That's the only decent one we have in the city.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Yeah, I noticed the fountain too - thought that was a shame. I guess it might not go on for a while now, assuming it'd require an outside worker to flip the switch.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Unfortunately, that fountain is very often a crap-shoot as to whether it's working or not. Drinking fountains along the median aren't working either.

 

[Chuck]

A boulevard of growing dreams

Hate University Avenue? Architect Tom Bessai has a solution: reduce lanes, widen the centre median, and then add new paving, light standards, benches and kiosks to create a “series of linked outdoor rooms.â€

PATRICIA CHISHOLM Special to The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 10:50PM EDT

There is a grainy, decades-old film of urbanist Jane Jacobs standing at the south end of Queen's Park, looking down Toronto's only grand thoroughfare and saying, with her characteristic firmness, “I hate University Avenue.â€

blah blah blah...

As the area becomes more inviting for pedestrians, vibrant retail elements would move into the space, creating a new destination for shopping, eating, strolling. None of the existing memorials would be changed; in fact, they are likely to become much more accessible, Mr. Bessai says. “This is about using University Avenue every day – not just for a parade.â€

When will people learn that neither unusually wide boulevards nor one way streets are what ultimately kills street life? University Avenue is already a pleasant street to walk on with its wide sidewalks, trees, and median. It's dead because there are neither stores nor apartments between College and Front, and the area to the east, especially north of Dundas, is lowish density housing.

University would be hopping with activity with no change at all to the street scape if the city mandated that restaurants and stores open up on the ground floor, and if enough new apartments and hotels were built within 2 blocks to the east and west. University dorms might also be built along parts of Queen's Park Circle, outer sidewalk.

Come to think of it, the same could be said for Jarvis, Adelaide, and Richmond.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

When will people learn that neither unusually wide boulevards nor one way streets are what ultimately kills street life? University Avenue is already a pleasant street to walk on with its wide sidewalks, trees, and median. It's dead because there are neither stores nor apartments between College and Front, and the area to the east, especially north of Dundas, is lowish density housing.

University would be hopping with activity with no change at all to the street scape if the city mandated that restaurants and stores open up on the ground floor, and if enough new apartments and hotels were built within 2 blocks to the east and west. University dorms might also be built along parts of Queen's Park Circle, outer sidewalk.

Come to think of it, the same could be said for Jarvis, Adelaide, and Richmond.

There are many condos and hotels within a block or two of University Aveune, and I know of one condo on the Blvd., Empire Plaza at Richmond Street. Of course Shangri-La will be done in about 2 1/2 years too. The problem is there's very little to draw people there to do anything on foot after 5pm.

I still love University, even though it has some problems. There have been some excellent ideas noted above, and great discussion. Just what I had hoped for!

 

[isaidso]

The scale is all wrong. The size of the street over whelms the buildings. Either narrow the street or build far larger and taller structures along its length. The second option is far more appealing. Shangri-La will be a good test case. Park Avenue where that old Pan Am building sits is a good avenue to study. That stretch of Park is urban perfection.

University Avenue's pavement treatment is also in need of a drastic upgrade. They should take cues from the Bloor Street Improvement Project.

 

[jn_12]

^ The Champs Elysee says hi

 

[Archivist]

It's an interesting point that isaidso makes about the Bloor Street improvement vs. University Avenue. The Bloor improvements are thanks to the BIA in that area, so it's very hard to imagine the same mechanism working on University. The BIA sponsors those kinds of improvement in the belief that their members will benefit in the end, and without an active commercial lift it's hard to imagine what stake the hospitals and insurance companies might have in a greater contribution to the landscaping on University.

In other words, if University is ever prettified, it will have to be on the city's dime, as it's not a likely candidate ever for a BIA.