{"id":59050,"date":"2018-08-07T09:02:42","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T13:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=59050"},"modified":"2018-08-08T18:52:18","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T22:52:18","slug":"reid-the-unilever-lands-and-public-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2018\/08\/07\/reid-the-unilever-lands-and-public-space\/","title":{"rendered":"REID: The Unilever lands and public space"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dylan<\/a><\/p>\n

The Unilever Precinct<\/a> (also sometimes called \u201cEast Harbour<\/a>\u201d) is a remarkable opportunity to create an entirely new business district in Toronto. As an almost completely blank slate, it offers a chance for creating an interesting, original urban space.<\/p>\n

And it’s important that the district be interesting and engaging, because drawing people to this new district and integrating it into the rest of the city could be a challenge — it is somewhat isolated, by railway tracks, expressways, industrial lands, and the river, and as an all-employment district<\/a> the area risks being empty outside of office hours.<\/p>\n

A key to creating a vibrant district is public space — the spaces between buildings that shape how people experience the area. The planning for the public space in the district has gone through several phases, and reveals some of the underlying tradeoffs that go into creating public spaces when city-building.<\/p>\n

Planning for the district began well before any formal application to the City government. I was part of a stakeholder group that gave feedback on the initial plans as the developer was working on them. The precint was always going to be very dense, so the challenge was creating public spaces that would effectively balance that density.<\/p>\n

The final plan that was presented to us was interesting, focused around a major, curving central plaza.<\/p>\n

\"Original<\/a><\/p>\n

A significant benefit of the plan was that there was, as the saying goes, “a there there.” The area would have a central focus, a remarkable space that would both define its identity and connect its major buildings, while creating a sense of openness amidst the density.<\/p>\n

A related benefit was that it was a bit different from the rest of Toronto. I’m normally all in favour of contextual building, but an entirely blank slate felt like a good opportunity to do something new and different, to get away from the relentless Toronto grid.<\/p>\n

However, when City planners saw the plans, they noted some significant issues, including:<\/p>\n