{"id":2116,"date":"2007-07-23T12:30:26","date_gmt":"2007-07-23T16:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2116"},"modified":"2013-01-21T12:55:03","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T17:55:03","slug":"dowtown-chicagos-street-furniture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/07\/23\/dowtown-chicagos-street-furniture\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Chicago’s street furniture"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Just over a year ago, Spacing associate editor Shawn Micallef wrote two great posts (July 7 2006<\/a> and July 10 2006<\/a>) about his visit to Chicago. My recent visit was for only a day and a half, so this post will stick to the downtown core (The Loop) and how The Windy City deals with street furniture.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>We’re always fascinated with the garbage cans of other cities, and like most civilized places, Chicago has chosen to keep its waste collection bins ad-free and designed them to be attractive and functional. Mind you, there were very few recycling bins to be found on sidewalks, though a few were scattered around Millennium Park. We did find a solar-powered trash compactor along the waterfront (right photo, click to enlarge<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I don’t mind the design of Toronto’s current bus shelters (or the ones included<\/a> in the new street furniture contract), but when I saw Chicago’s bus shelters I was pleased with their understated design (JC Deceaux provides Chicago’s street furniture and the company was one of the original bidders for Toronto’s contract until they dropped out days before the bid was due). It fits in well with the city’s Art Deco aesthetic and the other black wrought-iron street furniture.<\/p>\n

It made me think that our local designs are trying too hard. Toronto doesn’t have a rich architectural history like Chicago and it seems we’re still searching for a Toronto-aesthetic (though I’m sure some would argue Toronto did<\/em> have an aesthetic until its best examples were torn down in the ’50s and ’60s to make room for a variety of Brutalist and Modernist buildings).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But the best little discovery was the info I found at bus stops. Obviously, a number of routes came past this stop, but the signage is clear and well-organized. Toronto could learn a lesson.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was also impressed with the subway entrance covers. This is something that can be done over numerous stairs leading into Toronto subway stations. St. Andrew, Osgoode, St. Patrick, Finch, York Mills and Museum are just some of the stations I can think of off-hand that could use this feature (I know the idea was considered<\/a> in Toronto’s street furniture contract).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As much as I love Toronto’s ring-and-post design for bike racks, we witnessed (and experienced) last summer the ramifications<\/a> of going with only one type of design. I like these Chicago bike racks for two reasons: its appearance blends in nicely with the other street furniture; while it occupies almost the same width as Toronto’s ring-and-post, you could theoretically attach four bikes to one rack (two locked to each vertical pole). Stockholm, Sweden produces a variety of bike racks<\/a> that adhere to a consistent aesthetic that should be considered when Toronto rolls out its next generation of bike racks.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Torontonians will see similar newspaper boxes on our sidewalks once the new street furniture contract kicks in (we do have two examples of these at Yonge and Bloor). I’m still unclear whether Toronto’s consolidated newspaper boxes will carry advertising on the road-side of the structure, but none of Chicago’s did. I’m actually fine with these things — I find the lumping of multiple boxes around a utility pole to be sloppy and allows for any commercial interest to plop down hundreds of boxes without considering pedestrian, siting, or streetscaping concerns.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was quite taken by Millennium Park, but my best moment came when I was walking across the BP Bridge (a lot of the park has corporate sponsors) when two kids approached us (pictured above). After they hugged me I took a few photos to produce this panorama (shown below — click on it to see larger version<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Just outside the hotel where I was staying was a map of The Loop and the central part of Chicago. It was similar to Toronto’s info pillars (ad-funded, gets in the way of pedestrians), but at least a passerby could easily find the map. The photo is evidence that no matter how much people love Harry Potter, a map is much more useful to seethan an advert when walking around a city.<\/p>\n

photos by Bouke Salverda<\/a> and Matthew Blackett <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just over a year ago, Spacing associate editor Shawn Micallef wrote two great posts (July 7 2006 and July 10 2006) about his visit to Chicago. My recent visit was for only a day and a half, so this post will stick to the downtown core (The Loop) and how The Windy City deals withContinue reading “Downtown Chicago’s street furniture”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,21759,32,8,6],"tags":[11,422,2531,6293,6292,431,667,21,310,1005,1295,19],"class_list":["post-2116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-features","category-streetscape","category-transit","category-walking","tag-ad-creep","tag-associate-editor","tag-bouke-salverda","tag-bp","tag-bp-bridge","tag-chicago","tag-matthew-blackett","tag-other-cities","tag-shawn-micallef","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDowntown Chicago's street furniture - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/07\/23\/dowtown-chicagos-street-furniture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Downtown Chicago's street furniture - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just over a year ago, Spacing associate editor Shawn Micallef wrote two great posts (July 7 2006 and July 10 2006) about his visit to Chicago. 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