Toronto Toronto City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | Perkins&Will

I love the modernist Tomorrowland Disneylike supports, and how well integrated they seem with their surroundings, but from up close you can see that there is a lot of rust near the base (already!?)

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I just got back from there for Jack's memorial. What is it they are working on between the stage and the skate rental pavilion? Btw, what a mess down there, it all looks worse when walking around the square and from the elevated walkways. I understand the project is budgeted over several years but it still shouldn't have been done that way, the bulk of it should have all been done over one, possibly two years and budgeted that way.
 
Today I saw one lonely guy working on the stage, mostly just measuring things. (at 2pm) That is why it's taking 3 or 4 years. What a stupid way to do things.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
I just got back from there for Jack's memorial. What is it they are working on between the stage and the skate rental pavilion?
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It looks a lot more interesting than it really is. They're just building the pillars on which the concrete slab tiles will rest. Previously, there was a garden there so there were no supports for the slabs. When done, it will be an empty part of the square, indistinguishable from what's already covering most of the area. I like it that way, the people in the square should create the activity and fill, not permanent elements like a garden. Greenery should remain on the periphery.

Here's what it looked like before:

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The already built (or nearly finished) improvements are substantial. The green roof on the podium alone is a huge accomplishment for the usability and beauty of the square. Removing the Peace Garden and the garden next to the skate rental pavillion takes a step in the right direction by decluttering the square. The new stage will create an informal place for people to sit and people watch and becomes a grand gateway to the walkways, enormously improving the likelihood that they will be used as the balconies over the square that they were intended to be.

I agree that this is taking way too much time but it demonstrates progress, that something is being done. Some friends were here on vacation and I was a little embarassed that one of our post card vistas was a mess of a construction site, but they were nonetheless impressed that so much construction is going on in Toronto and that our main civic square is seeing the revitalization that it is, signifying a strong and expanding city.

Nonetheless, this is the messiest Nathan Phillips Square will get. Though it may appear to have been this chaotic for a long time, it has only been like this for a couple of months (since the reflecting pool closed for renovations). Work on the stage and new Peace and Sculpture Garden are off to the side in areas previously unused anyway and never really got in the way on their own. Work on removal of the old Peace Garden and building the disppearing fountains were done in a small isolated area. Both the stage and the renovated reflecting pool/skating rink will be done this fall meaning that this chaos of construction activity will have only lasted about 6 months.
 
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Thanks for the answer to that MetroMan, why don't I remember those trees there! In the end I do agree that at least the Square is getting the attention it deserves, even though it is taking a long time to complete.
It would be terrific if someone with access to the building that picture was taken from could get an "after" shot taken from the same or similar location to match the photo above in a year or two. What a dramatic difference it would be.
 
The above photo was taken from Bing Maps' Birds Eye View. Give it a year or so when the square is complete and Bing updates their map and we can compare the before and after.
 
Excellent, good to know. On a sort of related matter I saw the Google plane flying over back & forth over the city a dozen or so times a week or two ago, presumably to eventually update the city's aerial grid.
 
I see from your picture that we've neatly clustered all the good buildings around the west side of the square, and all the bad ones around the east side. (Simpsons, Thomson, Trump, and FCP - what a bad streak).
 
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