Skaters enjoy the rink at Nathan Phillips Square under sunny skies and mild 16-degree temperatures Wednesday afternoon. A National Historic Site, Toronto’s Old City Hall provides a grand backdrop for those enjoying their icetime. Built from 1889-1899, Old City Hall was designed by Toronto architect E.J. Lennox.
A sunny April 9 afternoon at Toronto City Hall’s Nathan Phillips Square
Scruffy Square: I have passed through Nathan Phillips Square several times since Christmas while busloads of tourists were arriving for a quick City Hall visit. It’s been interesting to watch the out-of-town visitors stream from their buses on Queen Street and wind their way toward the ever-popular winter skating rink/summer reflecting pond and fountain. Many look disappointed when they discover that renovation and construction work on several different parts of the Square make it difficult to get nice photos of Toronto City Hall. They wander around, searching for spots away from construction activity, garbage cans and other visual clutter so they can take pics of each other posing with the iconic clamshell towers in the background. A few couples and families have asked me to take their photo, urging me to “try not to get that stuff in the shot” — referring, of course, to construction crews, building materials and equipment, and temporary fencing around areas where work is in progress. Unfortunately for tourists, “that stuff” is going to be there for at least another year. The city’s long-overdue $43 million Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization project started one year ago this week, but the extensive renovation work is scheduled to continue until at least the middle of 2012. With major construction and landscaping activity underway at three prime places on the Square, most tourists probably won’t get a “perfect” picture of City Hall anytime soon. But I’m hoping they’ll enjoy their time in Toronto so much, they’ll come back once the Square’s makeover is complete. Because the Nathan Phillips Square they’ll see in a few years’ time will look vastly better than the dumpy plaza they’re seeing today.
When I describe the Square as “dumpy,” I don’t mean the messy work areas that, once finished, will immensely improve the look and feel of the entire plaza. I’m speaking about the Square in general, which City Hall has neglected and mistreated for years. I’ve overheard more than a few visitors comment that the plaza looks scruffy, and some out-of-town colleagues have made similar observations. I felt embarrassed when a very-well-travelled friend from South America told me several years ago that he thought Nathan Phillips Square is the “scuzziest” city square he’s seen anywhere in the world. I couldn’t agree more. Whenever I walk through the Square, it reminds me of messy backyards where loads of junk are scattered or stacked all over the place because the homeowners either couldn’t find appropriate places to store it out of sight, or just couldn’t be bothered getting rid of it. The big difference is that Nathan Phillips Square is Toronto’s front yard. And that yard not only has pathetic landscaping in many places, it’s cluttered with a lot of crap, including dilapidated, decades-old benches and picnic tables that look tacky (I really hope those are going to be replaced; the revitalization project website mentions new furniture for the elevated walkways that enclose the Square, but says nothing about seating for the ground level.) Moreover, the Square has become an ad hoc storage area for crowd control barriers, construction materials, and equipment. C’mon, Toronto. If you want to be a world-class city, start acting like one. Clean up your front yard and stop using it for storage. The 1.5 million people who visit the Square each year deserve better.
Thankfully, the city got things right with the podium green roof that opened last spring at the base of the City Hall towers — it’s a wonderful, refreshing urban space of gardens, greenery and tall grasses. It’s unfortunate that more people don’t bother making the trek up the curved podium ramp to check it out, though; there has always been fewer than a dozen people enjoying the park whenever I’ve gone up.
Below are two images from the revitalization project’s website, showing the Square’s new layout and suggesting how it will appear once work is complete and new trees and plants have been put in place. Those are followed by photos of recent construction progress at the Square, as well as pics showing some of the on-site clutter and weather-worn benches and tables.
From the City website, an artistic illustration of how Nathan Phillips Square will appear once the two-year, $43 million revitalization work is completed in 2012
From the city website, a map showing the Square’s new layout
March 7 2011: The second level of the new restaurant starts to take form
March 22 2011: Orange and black tarps draped over the snack bar construction
March 22 2011: Reconstruction of the square’s former Peace Garden location
March 22 2011: West view across the former Peace Garden site
March 22 2011: Southwest view of the former Peace Garden area
March 29 2011: Southeast view of the Square across the former Peace Garden site
March 29 2011: Construction progress on the restaurant & skate pavilion
April 3 2011: Window replacement in progress on City Hall’s east tower
April 8 2011: Work crew removing more windows from the east tower
April 8 2011: Work crew removing more windows from the east tower
April 8 2011: The former Peace Garden site hasn’t changed much in months
April 8 2011: Southwest view toward the new snack bar and skating pavilion
April 8 2011: The west side of the Square where the Peace Garden will be re-installed and a new urban forest planted
April 9 2011: A view of the area where the urban forest will be planted
April 9 2011: The west lawn location for the Peace Garden and urban forest. The building to the west is historic Osgoode Hall.
April 9 2011: Construction machines and muck on the west lawn
April 9 2011: Construction extends to the southwest corner of the Square
April 9 2011: Work on the west lawn, just north of the Winston Churchill sculpture
April 9 2011: Northeast view of the reflecting pool, which will get a new seasonal “disappearing” water fountain featuring nine fountain jets
April 9 2011: East view across the pool toward Old City Hall
April 9 2011: Southwest corner of the new restaurant and skate pavilion
April 9 2011: The south side of the new restaurant and skate pavilion
April 9 2011: Another peek at the south side of the restaurant and snack pavilion
April 9 2011: The second level of the new restaurant and skate pavilion. The restaurant will be connected to the Square’s elevated west walkway, which will be eventually be refurbished with new paving, seating and lighting
April 9 2011: Northwest view of the new restaurant and skate pavilion
April 9 2011: Looking south toward the new restaurant and skate pavilion
April 9 2011: Southeast view toward the new restaurant and skate pavilion. The second-floor link to the elevated walkway is taking shape.
April 9 2011: Trees and gardens formerly occupied this space, which has been dug up to permit construction of the restaurant and the new theatre stage
April 9 2011: A solitary tree stands above old park benches cemented to the ground near the new restaurant and skate pavilion
April 9 2011: Some of the old park benches in the construction area
April 9 2011: A long bench on the ratty lawn along Queen Street. New planting and landscape surfaces will be installed in this area to help improve pedestrian flow into the Square.
April 9 2011: Park benches near the Queen Street entrance to the Square
April 9 2011: Old picnic tables stored under the east walkway along Bay Street
April 9 2011: Nathan Phillips Square used to have beautifully landscaped gardens; however, in recent years, they have been allowed to languish and now look quite shoddy. This one is on the east side of the Square
April 9 2011: The old concrete benches next to the pool have seen better days
April 9 2011: The shaded spaces beneath the elevated walkways have long been used to store equipment and material, like these crowd control barricades under the west walkway.
April 9 2011: Barricades stacked under the west walkway
April 9 2011: Tourists have to walk past this makeshift storage area when they enter the Square from their bus drop-off point on Queen Street
April 9 2011: More window panels have been removed from City Hall’s east tower
A solitary figure skater on the new rink at Sherbourne Common
Ice Time: Sherbourne Common was an eerily quiet and almost lonely place last when I dropped by last Thursday afternoon to check out the brand-new outdoor skating rink which had just opened to the public at the beginning of the week. Besides me, there was only one other person in the entire place who wasn’t a City of Toronto parks and recreation department employee — and she had the entire rink all to herself (which, judging by her beaming face, she was quite enjoying).
It was around noon, and I had been certain I would arrive to find the rink packed with workers from the nearby Corus Quay office building getting in a quick skate during their lunch break. But the two of us were outnumbered by no fewer than seven civic employees who were busy shovelling snow and digging up the ground behind the shiny silver washroom and snack bar pavilion next to the ice oval.
It was a bitterly cold day, to be sure, but it was brilliantly sunny — an otherwise perfect day for outdoor enthusiasts to get some fresh air and savour the park’s panoramic views of the city skyline and the frosty Toronto Islands. And to take a peek at the early stages of development of downtown Toronto’s newest neighbourhood, East Bayfront, before the whole area gets built up with offices, condos and colleges.
Downtown Toronto’s newest public space, Sherbourne Common sits at the foot of Lower Sherbourne Street, between the Gardiner Expressway/Lake Shore Blvd. East and Lake Ontario. The Common is divided into two distinct park areas by Queen’s Quay, the broad boulevard that turns onto Parliament Street at its east end. Even at the height of summer when trees, plants and flowers are in full bloom, Queen’s Quay is one of the ugliest, bleakest streets in the city, if not the entire country. Thankfully, Sherbourne Common has come to its rescue, providing a pleasant stretch of green space to break up the dreary industrial gloom and greyness to the east.
The south section of the park — where the rink and pavilion are situated — officially opened last fall. The north section is still under construction, but work on playgrounds, water sculptures and a water channel is nearly finished. (The city anticipates the north Common will open as early as March or April.)
Even during the throes of a winter deepfreeze, when there’s nothing green in sight, Sherbourne Common and nearby Canada’s Sugar Beach were a treat to visit. I found both parks incredibly peaceful, even though the new waterfront campus of George Brown College is under construction right next door and more than a thousand people work at the Corus Entertainment building next door to that. I’m sure it will be a totally different story come summertime, when I’m sure the place will be crowded with Torontonians discovering a new waterfront place to hang out. And once the new George Brown College Health Sciences building opens for the fall 2012 semester, you can bet the days will be rare that there’s nobody to be seen at the parks and beach.
In the meantime, here are some photos of the near-empty parks and beach under a fluffy blanket of fresh snow. (For more information about Sherbourne Common, click on this link to a recent article by Toronto Star urban issues and architecture columnist Christopher Hume.)
North Sherbourne Common viewed from Lower Sherbourne St. on February 3
One of the water sculptures under construction at North Sherbourne Common
North Sherbourne Common Park viewed from Queen’s Quay on February 3 2011
Another view of the new skating rink in the south park
Terrific city skyline views from the skating rink
The washroom, changeroom and cafe pavilion next to the skating rink
Another view of the rinkside pavilion
Another view of the rinkside pavilion
Shiny silver cladding on the pavilion
Cafe space in the rinkside pavilion
Cafe space in the new pavilion
South side of the pavilion at Sherbourne Common
Crews doing maintenance work next to the pavilion
The lakeside promenade at Sherbourne Common, looking west
The lakeside promenade, looking east from the Corus Quay building
Snowbound umbrellas and Muskoka chairs at Sugar Beach
Icicles dangle from one of the pink umbrellas at Sugar Beach
Corus Entertainment headquarters behind Sugar Beach
Bright pink umbrellas and white Muskoka chairs on Sugar Beach
Umbrellas cast a pinkish hue on the snow
Bootprints in the snow at Sugar Beach
The Toronto skyline sets a dramatic backdrop for a skater enjoying the new rink that opened last month at Sherbourne Common.