Don’t forget: this year’s VIA Architecture Lecture on Urban Design is coming up this Thursday at SFU Harbour Centre , featuring Toronto Star urban and architecture critic Christopher Hume. Details here.
Hume’s current column is here. Appropriately, it’s about demolishing a waterfront freeway – the Gardiner – something Vancouver has never had to consider, because we never built one.
Dismantling the Gardiner will also serve as a symbol (good and bad) of a city (partially) in control of its destiny, one that hopes to become competitive enough to play in the big leagues.
No, it’s not the bold step so many Torontonians were hoping for, but finally we are being forced to make up our collective mind. This will be the biggest decision the city has made in years; it will set the course for the future. If the move is approved by Waterfront Toronto, it will go before city council in July.
Though the debate will be long, rancorous and utterly predictable, we have no choice but to proceed. There’s no alternative. It’s already getting late, and half a glass, whether empty or full, is preferable to none.
As mentioned in the article, the railway corridor presents more of a barrier to the waterfront than the Gardiner does. The Bay St. and York St. tunnels under the Union Station railway yards presents a dark block long barrier from the heart of the ity to the waterfront.
Beneath the Gardiner, in comparison, it’s airy and could easily be ameliorated – much like the entrance to Granville Island, the north end of Granville Bridge, the north end of the Burrard Bridge, or the Cambie Bridge approaches.
The fact is that the properties under the Gardiner have not been redeveloped – so how do you expect them to shine in their current state?