Toronto...best dodged bullet?

[AlvinofDiaspar]

babel:

I thought most of Metro Centre was built: the replacement of the rail yards with identical ( condo ) towers, a sterile convention centre, a stadium and a communications tower. Maybe not exactly as planned, but pretty

Oh the elements are there, but certainly not done upon the same planning principles. The original plan have a rather convoluted roadway structure, buildings on podiums with separated pedestrian pathways, a convention centre/stadium wrapped around a front lawn with *gasp* parking spaces on street level right against Front Street (as per the painting from Spacing). It could have been far, far worse.

AoD

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Perhaps one of the best dodged bullet was the pre-1974 Central Area Plan (which was overturned by the reformist council) - it had the potential to turn the entire core into a giant St. Jamestown, with segregated land uses, etc.

AoD

 

[scarberiankhatru]

In a sense, we didn't dodge the Spadina expressway bullet. The bullet entered just north of the 401 and penetrated as far as Eglinton. If it had gotten into the Cedarvale ravine, it would have travelled through lots of sensitive tissue and left a very ugly exit wound by the Gardiner.

 

[dan e 1980]

As would the Crosstown Expressway.

and even that 400 extension south to the lake.



i'm going to nominate the blue 22. but its fate is still not decided.

 

[Ed007Toronto]

If it had gotten into the Cedarvale ravine, it would have travelled through lots of sensitive tissue and left a very ugly exit wound by the Gardiner.

Actually the Spadina Exp. was only supposed to go as far south as Harbord Street.

 

[spmarshall]

A few years ago when I researched the expressways, I came across some interesting maps and sketches of what Spadina would have looked like. My article and skanned sketches are at Transit-Toronto:

Expressway History

There was another expressway that would have hit the Gardiner around Fort York - the Christie-Clinton leg of the 400 Extension.

 

[Antiloop33rpm]

Every meter of expressway not built in Toronto is a dodged bullet. In terms of its extraordinary ability to destroy the urban fabric of North American cities, nothing compares to the cancerous affects that freeways had during the latter part of the 20th century.

Even of the freeways that were built, the effect was no where near as devistating as in many other cities. The Gardiner was largely built through unused or industrial lands and recent opposition to it is has largely spung up because Toronto has developed towards the once ignored lands. And when the Garinder is levelled its legacy will not be that of having torn a city apart, but rather a successful city having grown up around it and rendering it unwanted and a relic of 20th century thinking. The Allen might not be great, but could have been worse. And the 401, well, it is a unique beast unto itself and I would say worthy of its own thread since its impacts, negative or positive, are numerous and rather fascinating.