Jessica Hume will be covering the Ourtopias at the Design Exchange June 15 to 16 for the Spacing Wire. “Ourtopias: Ideal cities and the roles of design in remaking urban spaces” runs June 14 to 16 at the Design Exchange. www.dx.org
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While Canadians are frustrated with the lack of leadership in all levels of government, there is a sense of contentment among us that gets in the way of our making progress, according to Toronto’s preeminent architect Bruce Kuwabara.“There is a sense of urgency among the design community that we need change,†he said. “Challenges are greater than ever before. We need to demonstrate more than course correction.â€
Kuwabara, founding member of Toronto architecture firm KPMB, kicked off the second National Design Conference, OURTOPIAS: Ideal Cities and the Role of Design in Remaking Urban Space, with a keynote speech given last night. Held at the Design Exchange — a building designed by KPMB — the conference will examine both visionary and practical ideas for designing cities that are functional, sustainable and enjoyable to live in.
Kuwabara’s excitement was obvious as he explained that there is a renewed interest in the public realm, a revitalized awareness of architecture. At the same time, we can only work with what we’ve got.
“We need political leaders to lead by example, who understand the roles of culture and the arts and their impacts on the social and economic wellbeing of Ourtopia,†Kuwabara said.
Like many North American cities, Toronto was organized according to a military grid. This artificial sense of order created an indifference to nature. While North Americans are decidedly decades behind Europeans in terms sustainability, designers and architects the world over are ameliorating human and environmental interests in their work.
“In Germany, no one says ‘make a sustainable building,’†Kuwabara said. “It’s already encoded in law.â€
Transit, street furniture, affordable housing, environmentalism and technology are among the topics slated for the event.
12 comments
It should be Kuwabara not Kurabara in the title of this item.
The problem with Toronto is that we don’t aspire to greatness. We aspire to mediocrity. And we are standing by politely as the potential for greatness in our city is being destroyed. Only a handful of Toronto architects such as Bruce Kuwabara or Peter Clewes and journalists such as Christopher Hume really seem to get it.
Why did we allow our opera house to end up looking like an unremarkable glass box? Jack Diamond seems to love the big glass box concept which he keeps designing over and over again, but his dull, unassuming design was a truly unfortunate choice for our Opera House. If any building in a city should look like arm candy it’s an opera house! An opera house should not be mistaken for a convention centre!
Why did we allow Dundas Square to be developed into such an uninspired, boring place? We paid a ton of money to redevelop it. Dundas Square deserves be at least as beautiful as Columbus Circle in Manhattan, not the bland, boring design we got!
And why have we allowed our streets and buildings to remain so ugly and shabby for so long? As Will Alsop has said, Toronto is one of the ugliest cities he’s ever seen. And it is truly one of the ugliest cities I’ve ever seen.
Toronto, we need to start demanding excellence for our city. I mean DEMAND it. There needs to be a major public outcry, and support from our journalists with extensive, continuous coverage in the press. It is simply unacceptable that we just stand by politely and allow our small-minded politicians and mediocre architects to destroy our city with horrible urban planning and cheap, ugly architecture.
Once destroyed, we won’t ever have a shot at building a great city.
LB >> while I agree we often let mediocrity be the norm, I feel there is alot to like — lots of individual places, buildings, etc that are remarkable.
Dudas Sq should have been something special, especially the north edge where Metropolis/Tor Life building will be. We could’ve had something special there, for sure. I will not dispute you there.
But WHY do we let mediocrity be the norm? This is what needs to change if Toronto is ever to become the great global city it should rightfully be. Mediocrity deadens the soul. It sucks to live in a city where your spirit sinks whenever you walk through it. I agree with you that there are more individual places and buildings to like, but there are not enough of them, and separating these places are vast expanses of junk space everywhere in the city.
It’s not just Dundas Square that should have been something special, there are just endless examples of mediocrity and apathy in Toronto.
The Opera House should have been one of the world’s most recognizable and remarkable opera houses like the Sydney Opera House or the Metropolitan. Toronto’s opera house is a fine, functional space but certainly no one would mistake it for one of the world’s great buildings.
Yonge Street, Toronto’s main street should aim to be a model internationally of excellence in urban design. Instead it is a decaying strip of bargain stores, strip clubs and fast food chains. Ever city has these kind of crappy streets, there is nothing “unique” about neglected, cheap streets. But what is different is that Torontonians have not only tolerated such a state of decay, but seem to be proud of it’s junkiness!
What are the plans for 199 Yonge and 205 Yonge Street — two absolutely gorgeous 1905-era buildings across from the Eaton Centre? These two buildings should be joined and be made into a museum site or cultural space, like a Museum of Modern Art or a new performing arts venue. They have been empty and derelict for decades.
What about our Planetarium? In the US, 48 states have at least one planetarium. Germany alone has 30. India has more than half a dozen. South Africa has two. Beijing, Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Alexandria, Egypt have recently built new planetariums. Cities around the world are taking advantage of the business, cultural and intellectual stimuli created by planetariums. Toronto is the only “world-class†city without one.
Why is there concrete everywhere in the city? Why do we not force developers to design green space on the outside of buildings and on rooftops. This should not be an option, it should be encoded in law. Having a row of hedges with plants on the outside of buildings and planters at entrance ways would go a long, long way to greening up our city. Queens Park should be a sublimely beautiful place, instead it’s a batch of grass with trees. And a lot of it is dead grass. Where is the landscaping? Whoever is responsible for this should take a trip to Central Park and get some ideas and adapt them to Queen’s Park.
Why do we not have pedestrian streets? Most European cities and many North American ones have devoted large sections of their downtowns to pedestrian streets. When designed properly (and they must be DESIGNED properly) they are very successful. At least we are starting to have pedestrian Sundays in some sections, but what we really need is a very well designed, year round pedestrian zone.
And finally our waterfront. Just look at how fantastic the waterfronts of other cities are and what a disaster ours is. I’m encouraged to read that at least Bruce Kuwabara is aiming for architectural excellence on the waterfront. Yesterday’s Star reported that he shot down Jack Diamond’s latest proposal for the Corus Entertainment building as a conventional and unremarkable piece of architecture. At least Kuwabara is aiming to set the bar higher. That’s a good sign….
We need to put a lot of public pressure on City Hall to vastly improve urban design in Toronto. The people who are responsible for urban design in our city are as follows.
Please keep up the pressure, it’s the only way things will improve. Contact them regularly by email and phone and to keep letting them know that the current state of our city is unacceptable and that we demand high standards.
Ted Tyndorf
Chief Planner and Executive Director of City Planning
email: ttyndorf@toronto.ca
tel: (416) 392-8772
Robert Freedman
Director, Urban Design, Planning Division, City of Toronto
email: rfreedm@toronto.ca
tel: (416)-392-1126
Eric Pedersen, Program Manager Urban Design at email: epederse@toronto.ca
tel:(416) 392 1130
Chris Phibbs Senior Advisor to Mayor David Miller email:cphibbs@toronto.ca
tel:416-338-7106
Mayor David Miller
email: mayor_miller@toronto.ca
tel: 416-397-CITY (2489)
Kyle Rae
City Councillor for Ward 27 Toronto Centre – Rosedale
City Hall
email: councillor_rae@toronto.ca
Tel: 416-392-7903
Firstly, I’d like to say that I don’t think Toronto “aspires to mediocrity”. I think most people who live here want Toronto to be a great city. But I am sick of us always comparing ourselves to somewhere else. Toronto needs to become the best city it can be, not some competitor to other “world class” (yuck!) cities.
Secondly, I think one (just one, not the only) of our problems is money. We almost always let money rule when we decide can or cannot be done. It happened with the opera house. It happened to the ROM crystal. It happened with the OCAD extension. These are architectural projects that might have had the potential to be truly amazing, but have, charitably, only come off as interesting at best.
As Canadians, we are so flinty with our pocketbooks, so aggrieved at paying taxes, so parsimonious when it comes the public realm, that we cheapen our own lives just to have the satisfaction of living frugally. If bargain basement prices are all we’re prepared to pay, then we will continue to live in a bargain basement city.
“Like many North American cities, Toronto was organized according to a military grid. This artificial sense of order created an indifference to nature. ”
Rather highfalutin’ talk coming from a partner in the firm that proposes to replace Ryerson’s lovely Kerr Hall and it’s park-like quad with a glass box.
I don’t agree that one of our problems is money. The problem is that high quality urban design and architecture are not priorities here in Toronto or really in most of anglophone Canada. We simply have low standards in these areas. If they were priorites, there would be major public pressure to achieve high standards and we’d find the money.
Toronto is a much wealthier city than say the cities of small European countries, especially eastern European countries, but in these countries architecture and urban design are priorities. Look at Prague, Warsaw or Budapest for instance. They were bombed during the war and neglected for decades under communism, but since the fall of the wall buildings have been renovated to their former glory, public spaces revitalized, and stunningly beautiful, breathtaking new buildings have been built. It’s important to them. They find the money.
We on the other hand don’t have the wherewithal to clean up Yonge Street, or create pedestrian malls, or landscape our parks beautifully, or even water the trees on the sidewalks (trees in Toronto haven’t been watered in 7 years and are dying because the City did not budget for watering trees!)
Please. This is just pathetic for a city with the size and economic importance of Toronto. Toronto is the financial capital of Canada. We can find the money for things that are important for us.
LB, while trying to refute me you’ve just helped me make my point. I never said there was no money. I said we don’t want to spend money.
Yes, there is money to be found. But nobody wants to find or spend too much of it. So we put up with cheap aluminum cladding on the ROM “crystal” and painted faux windows on the OCAD extension. And we have a provincial government apparently willing to spend billions on public transit capital projects, but do absolutely nothing to redress the problem with meeting ongoing operating costs.
We’re arguing the same point. Where there’s a will there’s a way. There just isn’t the will in Toronto.
Sorry to use comparisons again, but cities like New York for instance have a high density of overachievers from all over the globe and everyone there is striving for excellence. So it’s an incredibly creative, dynamic, driven place where people have the will and find the way to make extraordinary things happen.
In Toronto, that just isn’t the case. If you propose something in Toronto, people will first tell you 10 reasons why it can’t be done. And Torontonians hate tall poppies. Attempts to strive for excellence are criticized in Toronto as being morally bad, classist, elitist, attention-seeking or without merit.
Whereas in New York if you have a great idea and drive and ambition, people are open to the possibilities and will work to make it happen. It’s a city that celebrates innovation and strives for excellence and pushes people to test their potential.
Toronto’s “can’t do” under-achieving attitude is why we end up so often with mediocrity. This is what really needs to change.
Read Chris Hume’s June 16 Toronto Star column “How do you spell creative bankruptcy? R-O-U-N-D-H-O-U-S-E”
This is an outrage!! Why are we allowing our city to be ruined by these incompetent politicians. I will quote from it:
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“There’s no longer any question: Toronto has officially gone off the rails.
Whatever doubt lingered was dispelled this week when the city announced a deal has been signed with Leon’s, yes, the furniture chain, to take over the Roundhouse, a designated national historic site.
It sounds like a joke, except that it’s true, and it’s not funny.
We all know that Toronto is broke, but this goes beyond comprehension, and enters into the realm of civic madness.
“The most troubling aspect of the arrangement, more worrisome than the fate of a building, is that it signals a city devoid of imagination. We have run out of ideas. We have given up. We have no way to save ourselves but to offer the public realm, now up for sale to the highest bidder. This in the Creative City!
Never has that term rung so hollow. Never has the self-deception been so painfully evident.
This is nothing against Leon’s, but a furniture store does not belong in the roundhouse. It’s that simple.
How appropriate that the city should announce its Roundhouse deal the same week the Conference Board of Canada released a scathing report about Canada’s lack of innovation, its complacency and its decreasing ability to compete with the rest of the world.
“You can trace our poor performance to a failure to innovate in the broadest sense,” said conference board CEO, Anne Golden.
She might not have had the Roundhouse in mind when the report was prepared, but in its own small way, it sums up the mindset of a society grown rich plundering its own resources, whether natural or cultural.
Instead, the site is a disgrace. Though its lone occupant, Steam Whistle Brewery, maintains its portion of the property, the rest is a weed-infested wasteland. The U-shaped structure, magnificent in its own way, sits largely empty. Of its 32 bays, each marked by an impressive wooden door, the majority seem not to have been opened in decades.”
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This is PATHETIC!!!
Please read “Canada: A Land of Mediocrity” By Heather Scoffield in Wednesday,June 13’s Globe and Mail.
http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070613.wreconomy13/BNStory/robNews/
The report scolds: “Canadians are complacent and generally unwilling to take risks. This culture holds Canada back.”
This applies to urban design and architecture too. We are far, far from reaching standards that are the norm in other countries and we seem quite happy with our state of mediocrity.