jozl
Active Member
Like the revamped Barbara Ann Scott park, next to Aura, there is a total lack of shelter to shield scorching sun, rain and snow. I think more seating with awnings or overhangs are needed. The design is... Meh.
Toronto Nathan Phillips Square + Spirit Garden | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto
MetroMan
Senior Member
You don't need awnings to incorporate shade in a park. That's what trees are for. Unfortunately, they left out the trees because the budget won't allow for enough reinforcement of the parking garage roof.
Write/tweet/call Joe Cressy, or better, since Joe won't reply to your calls or emails, try Kristyn Wong Tam who's been leading on this project and I believe is still involved even though it's no longer in her ward. Also tweet @ Adam Vaughan. He was very receptive to getting input about this project and is going to get federal funding and would most likely be able to get enough of a funding boost to reinforce the garage and add the trees.
jje1000
Senior Member
Feels like a failure in the design process. It's not impossible to have a more experienced architect work in conjunction with native groups to develop a design that works well with the rest of the square. Isn't this a process going on at OCAD, with Two Row Architecture and some native community groups working with Morphosis et. al?
Actually, why not invite Douglas Cardinal to design this garden? Even getting PLANT in as an architect of record could allow suggestions to be made, in integrating the designs better.
Regardless, it's not particularly surprising, as John Tory and this current city council has paid particularly little attention to the square- allowing elements like this to creep up through the middle. Meanwhile the rest of the square is rather worn-out, even the newly renovated parts. Really a shame, as this is the main civic space of the city.
It would honestly be better to literally represent the wampum belt as inlaid blue glass tiles following a pattern like this around the turtle:
Wampum display coming to Blockhouse Museum in Merrickville
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) historian and author Darren Bonaparte brings his display of wampum to the Merrickville Blockhouse Museum the weekend of June 9 and 10.
www.insideottawavalley.com
The current design does not particularily scream 'wampum belt' to me- and to the average layperson, they won't understand either.
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Tender call just posted:
| Summary Notice and Notice of Intended Procurement | 
| Call number: | Doc1878555097 | |
| Commodity: | Professional Services, Consulting Services | |||
| Description: | Nathan Phillips Square Indian Residential School Survivors Restoration of Identity Project Multi-Disciplined Professional Services for the Nathan Phillips Square Indian Residential School Survivors Restoration of Identity Project Doc1878555097 http://discovery.ariba.com/rfx/7091687 | |||
| Issue date: | August 1, 2019 |
| Closing date: | August 30, 2019 at 12:00 Noon |
| Notes: | Attachment
The addenda and/or other files listed above are included with the Call Document purchase price but must be downloaded as separate documents. To view the document, click on its filename. To save it to your workstation, right-click on the document's filename, then select "Save Target As..." (or "Save Link As..."). | |||
| Buyer: | Ebrahimi, Shakila |
| Phone number: | 392-6054 |
| Email: | Shakila.Ebrahimi@toronto.ca |
| Location: | City Hall, 19th Floor, West Tower |
| Client Division: | Real Estate Services |
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| Security deposit: | No | |||
| Non-refundable document fee: | $0.00 | |||
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Scope of work: Doc1878555097 http://discovery.ariba.com/rfx/7091687 (RFP 3727-19-7017) The purpose of this RFP is to select a qualified prime Proponent to provide and carry out multi-discipline engineering services including architectural, structural, landscaping, mechanical, electrical and civil for the implementation of the IRSS Restoration of Identity project in the south west quadrant of Nathan Phillips Square located at Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, Toronto as required by the City’s Corporate Real Estate Management |
DSC
Superstar
Member Bio
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| Request for Proposal |
| Call number: | DOC1896556774 |
| Commodity: | Professional Services, Special Events | ||
| Description: | REBUILDING AND MAINTENANCE OF A REPLICA TORONTO SIGN Bids Are Requested for: Professional Services for Rebuilding and Maintenance of a Replica Toronto Sign. |
| Issue date: | September 5, 2019 |
| Closing date: | October 8, 2019 at 12:00 Noon |
deerparker
Active Member
Any tender calls for the decrepit, grass-less welcome mat on Queen? When the basics cannot even be maintained, I'm wary of projects like the one above.
condovo
Senior Member
The decrepit, grass-less welcome mat on Queen wasn't supposed to be there anymore with the revitalization. Sigh.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
*** in the original, unwatered down version. Anyways, I don't see the failure of that being an rationale for not moving on the Toronto sign. I do regret that they are going to dilute the purity of the original design permanently however. Hopefully they could do better than the maple leaf in suspenders - which looks cheapo as hell.
AoD
deerparker
Active Member
Agreed. I was referring to the more ambitious new Identity Project for the south west part of the square.
raptor
Senior Member
I don't understand why we need the TORONTO sign. Do people not know which city they're in?!
If any of you respond with the word Instagram, I swear my head will explode.
If any of you respond with the word Instagram, I swear my head will explode.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
salsa
Senior Member
Snapchat
kotsy
Senior Member
It's a popular tourist attraction. Why is so hard to understand about wanting to keeping that momentum going?
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Don’t get me wrong, I do think that it is gimmicky and not entirely original - but it worked remarkably well and it does look great, so why not? We had hit the sweet spot in a way other previous marketing campaigns for the city couldn’t.
AoD