{"id":49516,"date":"2014-08-20T12:30:56","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T16:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=49516"},"modified":"2014-08-20T12:22:18","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T16:22:18","slug":"nxt-city-prize-resilient-spaces-joe-berridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2014\/08\/20\/nxt-city-prize-resilient-spaces-joe-berridge\/","title":{"rendered":"NXT City Prize: Resilient spaces with Joe Berridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"feature-nxt-city-new\"<\/a>The\u00a0NXT CITY PRIZE<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is all about vision to reimagine Toronto\u2019s public spaces and inject a sense of energy, dynamism and reflexivity. With a focus on ideas coming from the next generation of city builders, The\u00a0NXT CITY PRIZE<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is an open invitation for all young people connected to Toronto to improve on the design of our city’s open spaces. The\u00a0NXT CITY PRIZE<\/span><\/a>\u00a0will be announced in mid-August, and the deadline for submissions is July 31st.\u00a0Spacing<\/em>\u00a0has teamed up with the\u00a0NXT CITY PRIZE<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to provide our readers with a series of Q&As with local and national city builders in the lead up to the announcement of the winning design.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"LINE-600-GREY\"<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

TODAY: JOE BERRIDGE\u00a0<\/span>FCIP, RPP,\u00a0<\/span>Partner, Urban Strategies Inc.<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

What public space improvements have you made?<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m an urban planner not a landscape architect so my role tends to be in the pre-planning of places and spaces rather than in their actual realisation. But one I can claim credit for, that I really love, is Exchange Square in Manchester. In 1996, a huge terrorist bomb exploded right in the middle of the city’s\u00a0retail centre, on what was a very ugly traffic intersection. We were able, through the reconstruction, to close one of the major streets and create, with the help of the irrepressible designer Martha Schwartz, a great stepped city square, with a formerly buried stream running though, that is now a key and much used place in the city.<\/p>\n

What public space improvements would you like to see in Toronto?<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

I would like to see the number of trees in the city\u2019s streets and open spaces quadrupled. It is baffling to me why we are so incapable of planting a decent tree and having it thrive. The expensive disaster on Bloor Street is the most recent example, but the desiccated twigs on Spadina and most of our other major streets make me furious every day. We need grand, healthy shade trees everywhere. We are not and will never be the most beautiful city in the world but we are in Canada and should be the urban home of the maple leaf.<\/p>\n

What other cities have strong examples of public space?<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

The list is long, but I think it is important for Toronto to learn not just from great European cities with their rich heritage of public squares and parks inherited from a history and culture we don\u2019t share. New York has a lot of lessons for us in its transformation of utilitarian spaces \u2013 using the left over spaces of the Broadway intersections, taking lanes from the major avenues, picking up under-expressway and dead industrial lands \u2013 and in total effecting a huge change in the feel of the city. The other lesson from there – and from Montreal where I was recently \u2013 is the solidity with which they build their new squares and promenades. Big stone features, big trees, substantial public art.\u00a0 Too much in our city looks too flimsy.<\/p>\n

My advice to young people as it relates to public space.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Few young people I know take well to advice from their elders \u2013 which is as it should be. But\u2026 Daniel Burham said it all. At the end of his \u2018Make no little plans\u2019 speech he had a much less quoted instruction. \u2018Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty\u2019. Urban place making should never be about \u2018environment\u2019, or \u2018community\u2019 or \u2018heritage\u2019 or any other kind of label, which is an unhappy trend in too many of the spaces we are creating now. Cities last forever, long after these ideas will have lapsed.\u00a0 Resilient, enduring spaces in cities spring from the search for order and beauty. And such spaces will then achieve everything else we expect of them.<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/a>Joe Berridge has had an integral role in the development of some of the largest and most complex urban regeneration projects in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Asia. He is currently the strategic planner for the development of Belfast\u2019s city centre, and has undertaken similar exercises for Manchester\u2019s City Centre, Toronto’s Exhibition Place, and Oakville’s Town Centre. He was a master planner for the waterfronts of Toronto, Singapore, Cork, Ireland, London\u2019s East Docklands, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Governors Island in New York City. He has prepared campus master plans for the University of Waterloo, Queen’s and Western University. Joe played an important role in helping form the growth management and transportation plans for the Toronto region. He teaches at the University of Toronto and is a regular media commentator and writer on urban issues.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Top photo by Norbert Blech<\/a>\u00a0Exchange Square, Manchester, England<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0NXT CITY PRIZE\u00a0is all about vision to reimagine Toronto\u2019s public spaces and inject a sense of energy, dynamism and reflexivity. 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