Spadina Wavedeck

An important milestone in the central waterfront revitalization was reached in September when the Spadina wavedeck opened. The wavedeck is the first project to be realized from the central waterfront winning design by West 8.

The wavedeck is a success because it creates new habitable public space. Previously the south side of Queen’s Quay West at Spadina Avenue was a narrow sidewalk and guardrail. The new wavedeck widens the sidewalk and adds continuous bench space. It is a pleasant surprise that Waterfront Toronto was able to build the decking without a railing at the edge (although railings are present to help with the pitch of the curved deckwork.) It is a rare case when safety steps aside for beauty.

There are some shortcomings. The stacked wood that forms the sides of the interwoven pathways has an unfinished look. And the curve of the deck is not as dramatic as pre-construction renderings showed. Waterfront Toronto has promised other wavedecks will be more rounded. The project was originally touted for spring completion but was only unveiled in September.

The Spadina wavedeck may not be fully used until the rest of the pieces of the central waterfront design are put into place, but for now, Waterfront Toronto can point to it as tangible progress. Rees and Lower Simcoe wavedecks may be usable by Summer 2009.

Toronto's Next Great Neighbourhood

The future of Toronto’s downtown is Bremner Boulevard. For years, the area between the railway tracks and the Gardiner expressway has been a desolate no man’s land. It is Toronto’s DMZ, separating the financial district from the central waterfront. And running through it, is Bremner Boulevard, a street that most Torontonians probably couldn’t find on a map.

But a decade of development in the area is going to culminate in the next few years and finally make Bremner Boulevard a destination. It began in 1999, when the Air Canada Centre at the eastern end of Bremner Boulevard opened, creating an axis of sports centres with the former SkyDome. In the early years of this decade, developers erected five condominium towers west of the SkyDome where Bremner intersects Spadina Avenue.

Now, the main stretch between the sports stadiums is undergoing a drastic transformation. A midrise and lowrise condominium was recently completed at Lower Simcoe Street. One block east, three developments promise to change the York and Bremner intersection. On the northeast corner, a 30 storey office tower to be the home of Telus is under construction. Another is planned for the opposite side of the street. And on the southeast corner will be a mixed use development in partnership with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. Two residential towers, a hotel and retail centre will comprise the block. Next door to the ACC, the complex will create a covered promenade where it meets the western facade of the arena. Here, the developers aim to provide pre- and post-game entertainment for ticketholders. The site should be complete by 2010.

Equally important are the new connections into the area. A new southern entrance to Union station will open onto a plaza situated between the Telus building and Air Canada Centre. It will connect the area to the underground PATH network. And the city of Toronto is re-opening the Simcoe street tunnel beneath the railway tracks. This underpass perforates a section of Front street that has long been impermeable to pedestrians and cars alike. And it leads straight to the neglected Roundhouse park at Bremner and Lower Simcoe street.

Communities need places for living, working, recreation and entertainment in order to thrive. By the end of the decade, those will all emerge on Bremner Boulevard, making it one of Toronto's most attractive neighbourhoods.

Jarvis Slip Design Winner Announced

The winner of the Jarvis slip design competition is Claude Cormier’s “Sugar Beach,” or, as I like to call it, “HTO East.” The Sugar Beach concept borrows heavily from Toronto’s other urban beach, HTO which was also designed by Cormier, ironically, in collaboration with another firm participating in the Jarvis competition, Janet Rosenberg + Associates. [I had earlier been unaware of Cormier’s involvement with HTO. Thanks to Anonymous for pointing this out.] The concept is simple: sand and umbrellas. Except this time there will be more than one colour of umbrella to evoke candy as inspired by the sugar refinery across the slip. And hopefully, the chairs beneath them will actually be funded by the project, unlike HTO, where the city took away the overstock chairs the park had opened with once they became broken.

The concept is good even if it is recycled. The beach will succeed provided the shoreline is unobstructed. The promenade behind the beach succeeds because of a triangular decking over the slip that widens the entry point into the square. This is a feature where the other proposals failed. Both envisioned a deck along the whole back edge of the slip which would not be possible with the docking of cargo ships. Unfortunately, the Cormier submission fails to create a viable plaza as the final space in the square. Instead, it calls for monolithic rock mounds. I don’t even think rocks that big can be imported. And I’m sure no one would stand on an incline for the entire course of whatever programming is planned for the rock plaza. Nor would they sit on a hot rock under the summer sun.

So two out of three successes is commendable. Especially when you consider what was avoided: the unceasing movement of West 8’s robot appendages and Rosenberg’s hypnotic wind pixel screen. Sometimes architecture should be solid like a rock, just not an actual rock.