CATHEDRAL SQUARE - a second look

[junctionist]

A builder is not going to want to build or maintain a public plaza like this, on this scale (and the city cannot force them to build one like this). Further, the developer(s) will want to build on every square inch of that property and will sacrifice height to do it (its cheaper to build out than up).

Developers leave open spaces like this one all the time, yet they're seldom designed to be that functional and typically on a smaller scale. Often, they're for some private garden, grand circular driveway, or obscure public park. Many developers care about making positive contribution to communities and will work with the city if the city wants something more significant in a given place. One can't rule out the possibility of such a space becoming a reality if the city sees it as a good idea. For the end result of the loss of a massive city block to be one just big development would be an unwelcome extension 1960s block-busting development.

 

[alklay]

Developers leave open spaces like this one all the time, yet they're seldom designed to be that functional and typically on a smaller scale. Often, they're for some private garden, grand circular driveway, or obscure public park. Many developers care about making positive contribution to communities and will work with the city if the city wants something more significant in a given place. One can't rule out the possibility of such a space becoming a reality if the city sees it as a good idea. For the end result of the loss of a massive city block to be one just big development would be an unwelcome extension 1960s block-busting development.

Yes, its done on a smaller scale all the time. But its a smaller scale. It has never been and will never be on this scale. That's why the city has expropriated land for such squares as Yonge-Dundas and Nathan Phillips.

As for "block-busting", this block has already been busted: its a parking lot. And a developer will no doubt develop this area in pieces and in phases, if it ends up being developed by one particular developer.

 

[junctionist]

The square in this case would have to be a partnership of the city and the developer which would ease the burden for both and allow it to happen. In terms of block-busting, the block has been busted but its fate can be changed from just another product of the destructive era like a massive development that leaves the side streets in shadows and turns them into trivial laneways. What happened to block should set off some alarm bells at the city because its fate of 1960s-style redevelopment can still be avoided with the likes of Cathedral Square. The site is currently at a kind of halfway point before a point of no return.