Toronto Liberty Market Tower | 99.97m | 28s | Lifetime | Wallman Architects

When it comes to "reivtalizing" historic industrial areas, I find it interesting to contrast the unmitigated, devloper free-for-all that is Liberty Village with the highly planned and regimented Distillery District. One has become a real cultural asset to the city, and will probably be seen in the future as a place people want to live because it has been designed to be a destination, retains its heritage feel and has been planned around having sufficient public space and amenities. The other one will probably be a dumping ground for people to live because you own a place fairly cheaply. Time will tell, but, to me, the difference between how the two were handled underscores the importance of planning.
 
Agreed a hundred percent, Hipster.

I was passing through Liberty Village on the weekend. I barely recognize the place. It's pretty stark and monotonous; much of what it was has simply been demolished or paved under. The area feels pretty synthetic now. However, I hold out hope that it's going to 'fill out' and come into its own over the next several years. It's an instant neighbourhood that needs to mature, partially by attracting a good mix of businesses and amenities. I think it stands an excellent chance of recovering from the wave of bland developer assaults.

But yeah, I think the Distillery is already coming out better.
 
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Man, what a fiasco. Building isn't too bad though - all things considered. But Liberty has become this over-densified zone with only 2 ways in or out (give-or-take). Shame no one's really been able to put some better regulations in place in terms of planning, design and accessibility. This, CityPlace and the Queen West Triangle are just a mess with poor planing and forethought - not to mention some really weak transit infrastructure. Hope Brazen sticks around though!
 
AlbertC said:
http://www.libertyvillagetoronto.com/new-condo-tower-proposed/

It's buildings like the one to the left, that have destroyed the character of Liberty Village's east side. If the city would have required new condos to use red brick and keep the industrial aesthetic, they could have created a much more distinctive district, which would have retained some of its charm. That tall, boxy condo to the left doesn't even fit the space well. It would have looked much nicer if it followed the curve, like a flatiron building. They basically took an interesting shaped plot of land and plopped an uninteresting glass box in it. I don't see any attempt to design a building that animates the street or uses its site creatively. This building should have been turned down by the city.

Someone was asleep at the wheel, when it comes to Liberty Village. It just seems like developers were allowed to design the district and no attempt was made to maintain the character it already had. Don't we have a design committee, to stop crappy buildings like this? It really makes me frustrated and lose faith in our politicians, when something as simple as this, gets so screwed up. Why the hell did it happen? (and will it just continue this way on the west side?) Red brick should be used on all the buildings here. How does something that so easily, could have been a great destination district, turn into an ordinary, placeless mess?

171 East Liberty needs to look more industrial, with a LOT more red brick (at least the first six floors) and it also needs to be lined with some serious retail. The city needs to think about animating the street and making it a more interesting place to walk in.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/roxxstarr/8134928556/
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Liberty Village makes CityPlace look more and more attractive.
There seems to be very little urban planning and the neighbourhood is one massive hot mess of buildings that have no relationship or respect to each other.
Getting in and out of LV is a nightmare and even if/when the new south road gets built, there will be so many new residents in the area when that happens that it will be too little too late.
 
We need a DRL station in LV, but that will come pretty late too.

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Hipster Duck said:
When it comes to "revitalizing" historic industrial areas, I find it interesting to contrast the unmitigated, devloper free-for-all that is Liberty Village with the highly planned and regimented Distillery District. One has become a real cultural asset to the city, and will probably be seen in the future as a place people want to live because it has been designed to be a destination, retains its heritage feel and has been planned around having sufficient public space and amenities. The other one will probably be a dumping ground for people to live because you own a place fairly cheaply. Time will tell, but, to me, the difference between how the two were handled underscores the importance of planning.
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Great answer, HD. I posed this question a few weeks back in the "Liberty Village" section in comparing the hood to Distillery District.

http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showthread.php/6188-Liberty-Village/page9
 
I personally like this building designed by Wallman, there's a lot of merit in terms of design of podium and attempt to create a pedestrian friendly grade level. But in all honesty, I think it may be too late for Liberty Village. As it stands today, LV is a fairly built out and dense area but architecturally/aesthetically unpleasing neighbourhood that lacks an identity. The urban and design incoherence has rendered it as a place of wasted potential. The buildings by Monarch, CanAlfa, & Plazacorp, etc. signify a community of density but the pedestrian experience leaves it as a sterile and stagnant space. I can tolerate mediocre architecture to some degree but horrendous attention to the pedestrian level leaves a lasting damaging effect.
 
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^Yes, there are other reasons why Liberty Village sucks, and it goes beyond just the subjectivity of bad architecture.

- The retail is housed in a strip mall with a large parking lot fronting the development. Maybe this is temporary, but I don't think it is. It is also all concentrated in one corner of the development.

- The entire development can only be accessed from the east via an unsignalized T-intersection with Strachan, itself a relatively minor road.

- There are only two parks in the entire neighbourhood, and both of them lack basic park amenities. They are too small and too featureless to be used by anybody for any kind of recreation except sitting on the grass.

- There are no public community centres or amenities for residents that are not privately-run for-profit businesses. There are no elementary schools or libraries within walking distance of the neighbourhood.

There is planning in the basic, subdivision sense of the word, but any gestures toward design, amenities, services, and even traffic management have been woefully ignored. I don't know what it was, but it's hard to believe that the planning department either neglected this in such a large, central project or was shut out of the process.
 
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All good points Hipster. I can add a little info though.

The strip mall will be replaced at least in part in the future with a more urban solution. There is no timetable for that yet though.

The development will get a new east-west road along its southern edge running from Strachan through to Dufferin, connected to LV by southerly extensions to a few of the north-south roads. It's needed already, but the first phase goes under construction in 2013 I believe.

Without a doubt, there is not enough park space.

I believe the heritage Williams Machinery building on site just to the east of the Metro store which currently functions as a sales centre, will become the community centre. I'm not sure what the facilities will be inside it.

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interchange42 said:
All good points Hipster. I can add a little info though.

The strip mall will be replaced at least in part in the future with a more urban solution. There is no timetable for that yet though.

The development will get a new east-west road along its southern edge running from Strachan through to Dufferin, connected to LV by southerly extensions to a few of the north-south roads. It's needed already, but the first phase goes under construction in 2013 I believe.

Without a doubt, there is not enough park space.

I believe the heritage Williams Machinery building on site just to the east of the Metro store which currently functions as a sales centre, will become the community centre. I'm not sure what the facilities will be inside it.

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The current strip of stores inside the laneway, will those be lost as part of this ?

Is the entire warehouse building being torn down ?
 
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