Crowded Dundas Square (w/ video)

[wyliepoon]

Dundas Square at 6 pm on Doors Open Sunday was very crowded, very lively and very well used. People sitting down and relaxing... kids playing in the fountain... stands selling cultural arts and crafts... and a Latin band playing. The square really takes on a whole new, different atmosphere like this, and I am very happy with it.

Video of Dundas Square w/ Latin band music!

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

These pics are pretty amazing - it showed the sort of vitality hoped for in the proposal. Now if only they have more of these open events instead of private ones that totally wreck the space...

AoD

 

[ganjavih]

"I don't get it, what are you supposed to do there?"

Joe Torontonian

 

[taal2910]

Its like this on many weekends (And judging from the pics i'd say it was even bussier the day before i.e. saturday when I was there). The square serves its purpose quite nicely - no mater how much we complain ...

 

[scarberiankhatru]

I just wish the square was a little bigger...the parking garage, stage and the roof-thing along Dundas all clutter it up a bit. A Shibuya-style scramble crossing at Yonge & Dundas would be nice.

 

[shawnmicallef]

I was there a couple hours before you were there W, putting up the latest [murmur] signs. It was jam packed, on a day when there were seeminly hundreds of things full of people. 3 separate marches , up University, Spadina and Bathurst (one was the march for isreal), then all the doors open, and a catholic marching bad at that church on Bathurst near Richmond. Everywhere I went there were crowds. It's like nobody went away to cottages. If they did, they missed out.

 

[building babel]

The common folk "got" Dundas Square immediately it opened.

 

[EnviroTO]

I'm not a big fan of the concrete poles holding up the canopy. With all the complaining about the elevated Gardiner Expwy it seems strange that they created a backdrop for the north side of the square which actually made me think about an elevated roadway looking at this picture:

 

[Suicidal Gingerbread Man]

^
I think they designed that for every much the same reason that they put elevated walkways in NPS. They wanted to create a sense of place, and to visually separate it from some traffic.

Or maybe they just anticipated that whatever PenEquity erected on that side would be ugly, so they acted preemptively to hide it.

 

[ganjavih]

The problem isn't the canopy, it's that the city was unable or unwilling to pay for the cladding. I agree, it's an eyesore.

 

[rdaner]

Brown and Storey included a canopy for shading purposes. It was designed so as to provide cover from the sun without creating a darkend, gloomy edge to the square. I think their reference were stoas found in Greek agoras. Though opinions vary on the finishes of this new public space, I personally feel that the underlying scheme was intelligently done.

 

[Darkstar416]

I'd agree with that assessment. Despite all the talk, Dundas Square itself is both thoughtful and tasteful.

 

[ratoronto]

Despite all the talk, Dundas Square itself is both thoughtful and tasteful.

I Agree... I absolutly love Dundas Square and can't wait for Metropolis to be completed. This is the right place for the ads, crowds, and excitement... you really feel like you are in a large cosmopolitan metropolis!

 

[EnviroTO]

Don't get me wrong, I like the overall design of the square but the end result of the canopy and flow around the event stage left me wanting something more. A more attractive canopy and a stage which knew which way it is facing would have let me a little more satisfied. The open space, fountains, and ground surface work great.

 

[building babel]

No expense was spared using the finest paving materials to simulate tarmac for that ground surface.