Toronto Garrison Crossing (was Fort York Pedestrian and Cycle Bridge) | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | Pedelta

[Automation Gallery]

I know I'll be mad as hell. I'm buying a condo near Stanley Park counting on the park being connected to the waterfront via Fort York. I bet that a lot of the community around the park was looking forward to the bridge as well. Pantalone made a big deal out of it. People are expecting it to be built now.

I agree with you MM..but you cant forget about all the other just as important proposed pedestrian bridges up in the air, for example the Portland st. bridge to CityPlace, the Shaw st. bridge to Lliberty Village, the Sudbury street bridge to King West. These are also existing neighbourhoods waiting for the City and CN Rail to make up their mind.

 

[ElCentro]

A brief Walk from Garrison Commons to Cityplace....The pedestrian bridge here and at Cityplace will hopefully make this a well connected and used linear park right in the centre of the city. (There are 15 pics...I'm not sure if this is overkill, if it is I have them posted in an album on my profile, and can edit the post to take 'em out).

 

[catcher_of_cats]

The Fort York cannons look like they are lying on top of the snow.

 

[Tewder]

The Coupland monument irks me, just a little. Maybe in a different context I could appreciate it for what it is. Instead it reminds me how uptight/constipated a community we are that we cannot even honour a major watershed historic event without resorting to irony. It is the ultimate in nihilistic self-deprecation, culturally speaking. Not saying that we have to resort to monumentalism but doesn't Coupland's anti-monument only work when there is a monument (culturally speaking at least) to be anti to?

Hopefully a mise en valeur of the Fort and the approaching bicentennial will allow Torontonians to get over its discomfort with its own past/identity.

 

[raptor]

There's some heavy equipment north of the tracks. Is it related to the pedestrian bridge?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Tewder:

It's public art, not an official military "monument". In a different context one wouldn't be putting condos (much less a highway) right through the site in the first place. Besides it highlighted the "present" of the War of 1812 rather well, considering our one time enemy is now our closest ally, and the conflict have all the gravity (in a political, not historical/military perspective) of playing with toy soldiers. If you wanted something serious, putting it right beside a condo tower is quite possiblity the worst thing you can do.

AoD

 

[Tewder]

I suppose the monument in Victoria Memorial Square is more 'official' but I'm still irked by Coupland's approach. Why should we be timid/apologetic about our past, or about this particular part of our past at least? The Americans waged a revolution against England and yet somehow manage to continue to celebrate the birth of their nation as the seminal 'right over wrong' triumph they believe it to be, while managing to avoid jeopardizing modern-day relations with England. I mean, we all have borders for a reason, and most people are mature enough to understand that. A small thing to be sure, but it does make me reflect on the city's relationship to its history... so hey, maybe a good thing after all!

 

[UrbanFervour]

Tewder I greee with you... although I think the fort ITSELF is a monument to the war of 1812 and the Toronto's historical roots. I hope the visitors centre will help educate the public about the history of the site and the city. Meanwhile, Coupland's condo-art is just banal, unoriginal condo art. Coupland may be one of Canada's most high profile satirist but his public artworks are derivative and rather banal, in my opinion.

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

And that is nothing compared to his even more overrated writing.

 

[Tulse]

Is Coupland even capable of not doing something 'ironically'?

 

[Urban Shocker]

I rather like how the TSO will be celebrating the War - by appropriating the 1812 Overture, which has nothing to do with either Canada or the U.S. - in performance next year.

 

[adma]

And I don't mind banal, original condo art in measured doses. F'rinstance, I don't think all those Al Green sculptures are worse than benign for any but the most obsessive-compulsive elitist art snot. (Doesn't mean I'd donate them to the AGO--though maybe to the ROM on anthropological terms a la Timothy Eaton)

 

[Tewder]

I rather like how the TSO will be celebrating the War - by appropriating the 1812 Overture, which has nothing to do with either Canada or the U.S. - in performance next year.

As good an excuse as any , if not a little obvious. On that 'score', I don't think I've ever attended 4th of July celebrations where there hasn't been a band in a shell playing it.

I wonder if the bicentennial will inspire any new works in the arts, whether music or plastic or whatever?

 

[Lansdude]

Call my crazy, but I can't fathom why a pedestrian bridge would cost $15 million dollars. We're talking about a span of what, 75 feet? It even costs more than the Visitor's Centre. Cheap out on the bridge and make it something industrial era simple.

 

[CapitalSeven]

Not clear where you're getting 75 feet from - more like 750. The pedestrian bridge design described in the environmental assessment crosses both branches of the railway and has a total length of 232 metres.