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NATHAN PHILLIPS SQUARE
• A fresh new look for Nathan Phillips [ Toronto Star ]
• Work to begin on $42.7-million makeover of Nathan Phillips Square [ Globe & Mail ]

DEVELOPMENT
• Proposed streetcar tracks on Leslie condemned [ Toronto Star ]
• Toronto to get federal loans for local projects [ National Post ]
• Quarry site condo plan too dense, residents say [ Toronto Star ]
• The more waterfront changes, the more government stays the same [ Toronto Star ]

OTHER NEWS
• Help clean up T.O. in 20 minutes [ Toronto Sun ]
• Finding lust in the city [ National Post ]
• Social media setting stage in mayoral race [ Toronto Star ]
• Your City My City: TTC’s missing customer service culture [ Toronto Star ]
• A guide to the ‘city under a city’ [ Toronto Star ]
• Fiorito: Gadfly Kevin Clarke pulls out of mayoral race [ Toronto Star ]
• ‘Give us our neighbourhoods back’ [ Toronto Star ]
•  Parkdale rooming house restored to Georgian glory [ Toronto Star ]

15 comments

  2. It’s so exciting to hear that our most prominent square is finally going to see the major renovations it needs.

    I’m not thrilled about demolition of the peace garden. The flame was lit by Pope John Paul II and dedicated by the Queen. Couldn’t it be relocated to a park or other public space?

  4. I had really hoped the NPS renovation wasn’t going to go forward.
    Being more architecturally pure doesn’t compensate for the scarcity of places to sit in the square, nor for the shuffling of the (butchered) Peace Garden off to the side for yet another hidden fountain.
    And the walkways still won’t connect to the podium.

  5. I take it from your sarcasm Shawn that you agree. Demolishing the peace garden just because it’s conflicting with modern plans is shortsighted like the idea to demolish Old City Hall was. (It’s not on same level, but comparable nonetheless.)

  6. I’m really glad the building on Dowling Ave. is being restored, and even better it’s going to be affordable housing for psychiatric patients and survivors.

    I lived just around the corner when the fire broke out; I was coming home from work, and saw people jumping out of upper windows in desperation. Not cool.

    Thereafter, the corner of Dowling and Queen, where I’d wait for the streetcar downtown, became really creepy because no one lived there anymore. It may have been a miserable place to live, but the residents were good neighbours.

  7. Mild sarcasm, but peace gardens were big in the 80s – not so much now. It is certainly a relic of the cold war sentiment.

    But I’ve never liked the garden – it was a poorly placed (and yucky postmodernism at that) add-on to the Square. Removing it was the right decision, despite the pope, the queen AND Trudeau dedicating it.

  8. The Peace Garden is being relocated to the west side of the square (I guess roughly due west of The Archer, on the other side of the walkway). It really is terribly placed right now — it’s always getting boxed in or overrun by random people (i.e. those not looking to contemplate peace) during concerts and outdoor events. Yes, that’s bad for NPS as a event facility, but it also seems unfair to the Peace Garden itself.

    The different uses of the square also makes adding more permanent seating tricky, though they could follow Dundas Square’s lead and just put out a bunch of tables and chairs that can be moved aside during events.

  9. But simply demolishing it simply because it’s out of style and conflicting superficially with modern plans is shortsighted. It’s not even a large structure; it can be moved somewhere.

  11. Just to clarify a few things: the existing pavilion and eternal flame are being preserved and relocated to the new Peace Garden: the walkways DO connect to the Podium Green Roof, as well as all of the new structures; and there will be plenty of built-in furniture located in the forest perimeter and on the elevated walkways, as well as moveable tables and chairs once it’s up and running.

    It’s all in the drawings.

  12. But where are the drawings? The city and PLANT web sites both have the competition results (i.e. a few years old). The Toronto Star article has some updated renderings, but it doesn’t seem like a full set.

  15. Doesn’t the Star article specifically say that the existing Peace Garden will be demolished? I remember reading when the plans were first published that it couldn’t be moved, either in its entirity or in separate pieces like a jigsaw puzzle, but would have to be completely broken up, and new structures created – a wall & a fountain, or something similarly disconnected.